Author's note: To Hapi's fans, I apologize if she is out of character. I have never played with the Ashen Wolves. I chose Nono as Hapi's traveling companion simply because I love Nono. Any resemblance between Yip or Aisha and any canon character is coincidental. With the exception of Audino, the battle system is Pokemon Emerald, so Wigglytuff is a purely normal-type Pokemon, and so forth.


What if there were a place where you could really be yourself, where you could give full vent to your emotions without hurting anyone?

Hapi mused about such a concept wistfully, narrowly avoiding sighing.

'For a person named Hapi, you don't look very happy,' commented a merchant of her acquaintance, or so she thought at first glance.

Hapi again resisted the urge to sigh, this time in vexation. She had heard puns on her name and its unsuitability to her demeanor time and again.

'For a small price, I'll send you through this portal to a place where you can sigh all you like. In fact, I bet the value of my store most people there will be happy when you do,' Anna pitched, 'Now, that's an offer you cannot refuse!'

Hapi reached into her waist pocket, when a stranger ran up to her, with a royal purple cape billowing behind her. She was a petite, slight girl of amethyst eyes, crowned with tresses of twin colors, sprouting from her head in a nigh-blonde green and flowing into forest green, arranged in a high ponytail, and adorned with a tiara. Her auricles, each of which tapered to a point, hinted she was not the preteen age nor the human race she otherwise appeared.

'Hi!' she greeted Hapi in a bright, cheery, pleasant voice. Indicating herself, the newcomer offered, 'Name's Nono. It is dangerous to go alone. Nono will gladly accompany you and help you any time you need.'

Hapi paused to consider the offer. She was unsure whether to trust Nono. Nono was bubbly, which could be a pleasant contrast to herself. Hapi approved of Nono's fashion: a midriff-baring outfit akin to her own. Ribbons kind of made anyone non-threatening.

'All right,' Hapi decided. She withdrew her hand from her pocket, handing a fistful of gold coins to Anna, whose face lit up.

'A pleasure doing business with you,' the merchant chirped, tossing her red hair and opening the portal.

Hapi and Nono joined hands and entered the gate to another world, Hapi walking resolutely and Nono virtually skipping.

Not particularly caring where they were, Hapi was grateful to be where she could finally let it all out, and sigh as she liked, without troubling or endangering anyone. She sighed almost at once, a dusty wheeze sounding as if it had been pent up for years.

A wild Pikachu appeared!

'What is that?' Nono queried curiously, 'Aww, it's so cute!' she exclaimed, looking it over.

'Pika,' the Pikachu said happily, enjoying the compliment.

The curious girl touched the mouse Pokemon, which appeared to like being petted, although it made a face when she tried to rub its tummy, and it reflexively released a Thundershock when her dainty digits gloved in violet touched its circular, red cheeks. 'Hey!' she protested, 'What was that for?'

'Pikachu,' the Pikachu answered, as if stating the fact that touching a Pikachu's voltage sacks would naturally prompt it to emit an electric shock.

Hapi sighed in melancholy.

A wild Ninjask appeared!

It screeched as it flew past, almost faster than the girls' eyes could follow.

'Is something wrong, Hapi?' Nono asked.

'We arrived here a moment ago and I'm already causing you trouble,' Hapi replied.

'Oh, it is no trouble at all. This cute critter merely surprised Nono; Nono is unhurt,' the girl of lime tresses replied. She spoke truly, for she had not even lost two HP. 'What would you like to do, while we're here?' the bubbly girl inquired of her companion.

Before Hapi could reply, the Pikachu interjected a fervent, 'Chu!' since it wanted to be the center of attention.

'Wow, no way, a Pikachu! I've been looking everywhere for one,' a lad's voice exclaimed, while he ran into view. As he reached for a twin-hued orb at his belt, a second boy caught up to him, huffing and puffing.

'We haven't even visited the Safari Zone yet,' the second boy informed the first. 'So you can't say you've searched everywhere for a Pikachu. What if Pikachu are common Pokemon in the Safari Zone?'

'You and your literal speech. What are you, a text parser? Go! Sandshrew!' Another mouse Pokemon, this one resembling an echidna, burst out of the sphere which the lad threw, in a shower of crimson sparks.

The Pikachu took one look at the other Pokemon and the Pikachu's eyes doubled in size. The electric mouse took off like a shot.

'Dude!' the Sandshrew's trainer exclaimed. 'This Pikachu knows the types chart. I have to catch it. It'll be a blast to train one this smart.' Before he had finished speaking, he and his ground-type mouse Pokemon broke into a run, chasing the Pikachu off into the distance. The other boy smiled, shook his head, and departed in their direction.

'That was an amusing show. Pity it's over,' remarked Hapi with a sigh.

A wild Salamence appeared!

'Another one's about to start,' Nono chirped.

Salamence let out a great dragon's cry, beat its wings, and took flight.

'Don't mind Nono,' Nono said eagerly, gripping a glistening rock. Hapi sighed in response.

A wild Latios appeared!

'Entei's star!' gasped a passerby. 'An actual Latios.'

The Latios fled before anyone uttered another word. 'Typical,' said Hapi, with a sigh.

A wild Vulpix appeared!

'Kon kon kon,' it uttered a six-tailed fox's bark happily.

Meanwhile, Nono had transformed into her evident dragon form, or so she thought. 'Gao!' the empowered mamkute roared, playfully chasing the Salamence through the sky. She returned in time to hear Hapi's comment on the Latios' rapid appearance and disappearance, and to view her own reflection in a pond. 'This isn't typical at all!' Nono exclaimed.

'I'll say,' Hapi agreed, giggling since the first time she met Nono. 'My traveling companion just turned into a dragon and played air tag with a local dragon. What's more, every time I sigh, a cute monster appears. What a great change from the lethal beasts I used to summon inadvertently at home,' she sighed contentedly.

A wild Skitty appeared!

'Nyaa!' cried the Skitty, pouncing on the fire fox Pokemon, and playfully wrestling it.

'That is splendid,' a mollified Nono agreed with Hapi. 'Nono means Nono looks completely different in this world. In Nono's world, Nono looks like a magnificent flying dragon. Here,' but Nono's opinion of her altered appearance when using her Dragonstone was cut off by another person's exclamation.

'Shiny Mew's tail! Is that a Latias? Really-o-truly-o little pet dragon?' a newcomer on the scene uttered incredulously.

'Aha, so that's what you are. I thought you looked like a red version of the monster one of the locals called Latios,' Hapi noted.

'Excuse me!' a girl of about Hapi's age called, once she had gotten over the shock of seeing the legendary Pokemon. 'I overheard you talking with her, so are you that Latias' trainer?'

'I'm not training her to do anything in particular,' Hapi answered.

'Have fun with that,' scoffed a young man, 'I'm going to catch the Pokemon that don't have catch rates lower than 190. Latias' rate is three and "Latias flees," is something of a regional joke.'

'I wouldn't worry,' the girl who inquired about the Latias replied with a smirk, taking out a Master Ball from her purse and enjoying the dude's gasp when he saw it.

'Ready, aim, fire!' she exulted, winding up and pitching the Master Ball at Nono. The finest of Poke Balls, known to catch any Pokemon, simply bounced off the mamkute and landed with a hearty smack on the ground, an irredeemable wreck.

The young man had just caught the Vulpix and the Skitty, with the help of his Wigglytuff's Sing and Doubleslap, a Great Ball, and a standard issue Poke Ball. 'Don't need anything pricier for Skitty's catch rate of 255,' he said, flashing a victory sign.

'Nono is terribly sorry to disappoint you,' Nono apologized to the girl who attempted to catch the Latias. Nono hurriedly supported her so she would not faint from the twin shocks of losing her Master Ball and seeing a Pokemon transform into a person.

'This Pokemon can't be caught!' the fellow quoted, recuperating from another sort of shock. He recognized Nono to be exceedingly cute, with a touch of radiance. 'Here, I go by the moniker Yip, and she is Aisha.'

'It's not your fault. I just had no idea,' Aisha said weakly.

'Nono understands,' the mamkute assured her.

Hapi sighed, 'As you may guess, she's Nono, and I'm Hapi. Nice to meet you, I suppose.' No sooner had Hapi finished her introduction, than a wild Audino appeared!

'There's something about that Pokemon,' Yip stated. 'My trainer instincts tell me not to catch it.'

'What do you see in that Pokemon, aside from how cute it is?' Aisha asked, feeling better, and standing on her own.

'I don't know,' Yip began.

'Exactly!' exclaimed an excited voice. 'It's an Audino!'

Nono giggled, her cuteness drawing a look of admiration from Yip.

'Despite appearing to be a decadent dandy, Gym Leader Juan is no pushover. My Pokemon need plenty of experience points and there's no Pokemon like Audino for the job,' an enthusiastic trainer explained, sending out his Lanturn. The Lanturn made a cry oddly similar to a Swinub. Almost all of them do.

'Shall we stick around and watch the Pokemon match?' Yip considered.

'Nono thinks so. You may learn something,' the dragon girl agreed.

Hapi sighed in slight boredom.

A wild Kirlia appeared!

'Never mind; let's catch that,' Aisha suggested.

'Go! Willard!' Yip summoned his balloon Pokemon from its storage capsule.

'Tuff!' answered the Wigglytuff, emerging in a shower of sparkles.

'I saw it first,' said Aisha in a slightly pouting tone, calling one of her favorite Pokemon.

'Then why the Makuhita? Surely you know Kirlia's type,' Yip reminded her.

'To defeat your Wigglytuff, for the right to catch the Kirlia,' Aisha declared she had outsmarted him.

Only a hidden blue Mew was watching the match between the trained Lanturn and the wild Audino, which happened to this effect:

Lanturn used Thunder Wave!

Wild Audino was paralyzed! It may be unable to move!

Wild Audino is paralyzed! It can't move!

Lanturn used Waterfall!

Wild Audino used Simple Beam!

It changed Lanturn's ability to Simple!

Lanturn used Thunder!

Lanturn's attack missed!

Wild Audino used Entrainment!

But it failed!

Lanturn used Waterfall!

Wild Audino is paralyzed! It can't move!

'No wonder Audino yields so much experience!' exclaimed the zealous trainer. 'It's a tough cookie. Here, my dear fish.'

Brendan used X Accuracy!

Lanturn's accuracy sharply rose!

Wild Audino used Take Down!

Wild Audino's attack missed!

Brendan used X Special!

Lanturn's special attack sharply rose!

Wild Audino is paralyzed! It can't move!

Lanturn used Thunder!

Whereupon, the wild Audino finally fainted!

'Oh yeah! That's the way we like it, eh, Lanturn?' Brendan said gleefully, restraining himself from doing a victory dance. Lanturn exuded a fishy sound of agreement, having leveled up twice.

When Lanturn's match versus Audino had begun, Aisha and her Makuhita were about to start one of their own against Yip and his Wigglytuff. At the same time, Hapi called, 'Nono!'

'What's up, Hapi?' the mamkute answered her companion cheerily.

'Quickly and silently, help me find a sphere or two, like those we've seen the locals chuck at the monsters,' Hapi instructed. Nono beamed at her and complied, finding a unused Ultra Ball within a moment. The ordinary Poke Ball Hapi threw at the wild Kirlia failed to catch it, but the Ultra Ball did the trick. 'So, you're my starter,' Hapi stated with contented sigh.

A wild Audino appeared!

'Yahoo! Another one!' Brendan cheered. Unlike the first, this high-experience yielding Pokemon did not wait around for him. It ran off at top speed, the eager trainer and his Lanturn in hot pursuit. 'Don't underestimate my fish!' was the last thing Hapi and company heard Brendan say while he dashed off, aiming to overtake and defeat the Audino.

Aisha and Yip paid him no mind, instead focusing on Hapi's statement. 'Eh?' they exclaimed at the same time.

Hapi alleviated their potential confusion, 'Kirlia's my starter. Isn't that the word for my first monster?'

'Yes, indeed,' quoth Aisha, and her Pokemon match versus Yip ceased instantly, much to the relief of Willard, for that Wigglytuff had nearly fainted from the super effective moves of Aisha's Makuhita.

Hapi threw the full Ultra Ball high with a gentle backspin and its occupant made her debut in a circle of verdant photons. The Kirlia danced before her new trainer, evidently pleased.

'She's a cutie,' Nono commented.

'Not as cute as you,' Yip said softly, however Nono caught his words.

Nono giggled in delight and cheered, 'Yay! Thank you!' Yip grinned at the pretty girl, his cheeks coloring a bit.

Aisha focused on Hapi's starter, asking, 'What's her name?' Aisha clarified, 'I mean, trainers often nickname our Pokemon companions. For example, this is Punchpet,' she petted the Makuhita at her side, who smiled widely, 'and the singing balloon Pokemon which Punchpet nearly decked is nicknamed Willard.'

Hapi paused, hearing a voice in her head, and for the first time since Nono met her, laughed aloud. In contrast to Hapi's often pessimistic temperament, her laugh was musical.

'Eh?' Aisha inquired curiously. 'What is it, Hapi?'

Nono and Yip, who had hearts in their eyes and rosy cheeks, turned from their lovebirds' conversation to Hapi, sharing Aisha's curiosity.

'No nickname required,' Hapi explained once she could talk through her fluted giggles. 'My Kirlia partner thought-spoke to me. Her name is Constance, the same as an old friend back home. If only she were here to see this, ahahahaha!' Hapi burst into melodious laughter afresh.


Author's note: Is this the end of the story? You can decide. If you have ideas for chapter two, send me a private message or a review.

Soli Deo Gloria