Golden Rivals, Silver Friends
Chapter Eleven:
Aftermath, Part II: Journey
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Believe it or not, my Pokémon journey wasn't nearly as exciting as I had thought it might be. True, I loved finding new Pokémon and raising them, but I always had Grandpa's guidelines stuck in the back of my head...
"Rotate them, so that they'll grow up evenly"... "A balanced team will do the best job"...
I soon caught dozens and dozens of Pokémon. Training them all evenly turned out to be harder than I thought, though, and I never really forged a strong bond with any of them. But that didn't matter. I knew that I was ahead of Satoshi, and that was reason enough for me to be happy.
In a little over a year, I had collected ten badges, two more than the number required to enter the Seikei Tournament. Even so, I decided to head to Tokiwa on my return trip to see if that gym was open, and who should I run into but Satoshi? By then, I knew about his friends, Kasumi and Takeshi, and how he had barely registered twenty Pokémon. Partly to get a new badge, and partly to spite Satoshi, I entered the Tokiwa Gym...
... and was faced with a monster. The battle was quick and painful, and the monster Pokémon not only went so far as to knock out both my Nidoking and Arcanine together, but me as well. But the most surprising thing to happen that day was when I woke up...
"Shigeru...?"
That same little voice... I opened my eyes, and found Satoshi there, holding me, doing his best to support me until I could get up...
After so long apart, and after so long as rivals... he still cared...?
Not long after, we both went to the Seikei Tournament... where we both failed. I took a break from gym battles, and started training my Pokémon, perhaps for the next tournament. I received a new Pokémon, Eevee... the first Pokémon since meeting Satoshi again... and just like when I had first gotten Squirtle, I felt like this little Pokémon needed to be raised and protected...
A few months later, Satoshi returned from the Orange Islands, where he'd won the place of Orange League Champion. I almost regretted not going there myself, but I remembered how hard I had been training. I challenged him to a battle, to which he immediately agreed... and lost.
Smiling over my victory, and knowing that Satoshi still had room to grow, I soon started off up Route 1 again. I had heard news of a tournament in Jouto, and so I was off. This time, I didn't have Nanami's friends with me, and I didn't taunt Satoshi upon leaving.
While in Jouto, I found myself training more and more at night. Without anyone around, I felt more at peace with myself... more happy. I guess I had gotten used to the isolation, being a loner for so long. As I trained in the darkness, Eevee grew up and evolved into Umbreon. Instantly, I found myself liking it even more than I had before. Its glowing rings against its black fur reminded me so much of the moon that I had stared at the night before my Pokémon journey began...
In the meantime, my other Pokémon grew stronger and more powerful, most of all Blastoise. I marveled at the way that tiny little Squirtle had grown into such a fighter...!
In a way, it reminded me of Satoshi...
Before I knew it, the time had come to enter the Jouto Tournament. The prelims were easy enough... I made it through. Then came the shocker. My first round match-up was against... Satoshi. As I looked at him, I saw a fire burning in him, something that I had almost never seen before. Unfortunately, because of that "rest" day, the two of us had more time in each other's presence than was comfortable.
Between us, a wall was building... no, it had been building, for how many years...
Needless to say, my experience at the tournament was even more short-lived than Satoshi's. But I will never forget his face, only a few seconds after his victory was announced...
"Blastoise is unable to battle! Satoshi of Masara Town is the winner!"
Even though the crowd's cheering was deafening, I saw Satoshi staring at me, seeing only me, and not hearing anything. And when he moved his mouth to speak, I could hear what he said perfectly...
"Shigeru... I beat... Shigeru...?" Almost as if he was questioning this, like it was some sort of dream that just couldn't be real...
I smiled. Even though I had lost, it had been an intense, satisfying battle. So I smiled at him...
... and the wall between us started to crumble. I walked away... and it wasn't until I was off the battlefield did I finally start to hear him shouting his heart out with his friends.
I hung around for his next battle, against Hazuki-san. Satoshi's Charizard lost in a battle that rivaled ours. Nodding slowly to myself, knowing that this was not his time yet, I was able to leave the tournament.
Satoshi had beaten me. And in doing so, I felt like he had liberated me from something, though I wasn't quite sure what yet. And I was free to pursue what I had finally found my passion in; Pokémon research.
Hazuki offered to take me along on his trip around Mt. Silver before heading home. I accepted...
... and that was when I began wondering what had happened between me and Satoshi, so many years before...
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Opening my eyes, I found myself back in the Tokiwa Pokémon Center, at nearly twelve o'clock midnight, with my hands and face soaked with tears. Getting up and walking to the bathroom, I washed off as best I could.
When I flipped the light off and went back to bed, I noticed my Poké Balls, sitting where I had left them on the table. I was suddenly struck with a thought...
Satoshi and I had vastly different Pokémon. Even though the ones he had used in the tournament battle were the biggest and strongest he had, the majority of his creatures were small and not yet evolved. However, they were still so strong in their own ways...
Somehow, they reflected himself. The little one whose powers hid deep within him.
I had heard before that Trainers and their Pokémon come to resemble each other. If Satoshi's Pokémon were like him, then what were mine like...?
I thought about them. I had so many, though... Of course, my main Pokémon would always be Blastoise... some of my others were Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Magmar, Golem, Scizor...
Armor. I sat up in wonder.
All of my tournament Pokémon were strong, but that was only half the battle. They also had strong defenses... rock-hard skin, impenetrable shells...
... just like...
... me...
The only Pokémon who I regularly battled with, who didn't have a defense like that, was Umbreon. And Umbreon reflected me in the way that it resembled the darkness...
This was how I had changed... no wonder Satoshi acted so differently around me now.
Suddenly, I thought of something else.
Did Satoshi remember...?
I understood now why I had begun wondering about the end of our friendship now. Satoshi had proved himself to me. He wasn't that little kid who followed me blindly anymore. He could make it by himself now...
And more importantly, he knew that I wanted to go into Pokémon researching. And he wasn't following me.
It was safe for me to know now why we weren't friends. And it was also safe for him to know, too...
... I wondered if he remembered that day as vividly as I did.
If he did... and even if he didn't...
... he deserved to know.
He deserved to know why I had acted like that to him. Satoshi definitely wasn't the kind of person to pick up hints, subtle or obvious, and I was positive that he would still be in the dark about why I had suddenly started acting so mean to him...
Not quite over my breakdown, only a few minutes before, I felt the hotness come up through my throat and behind my eyes again. I looked outside through my blurred vision... the moon was high in the sky, and no one would be stirring at this hour...
Unexpectedly, I felt myself hit with a wave of sleepiness. Well, it wouldn't do me any good to get out on the road and promptly fall asleep outside, so I quickly jumped into the bed and fell fast asleep, wiping my eyes on the sheets.
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Tomorrow...
Satoshi...
