Episode 40: At the End of the Day.
[Extra: A conversation]
All things considered, they may not have been winning, but they were certainly not losing.
"I apologize sir. Zekrom recognized the essence flowing out of the boy the moment I shot him. We couldn't allow Zekrom to destroy the body and potentially let the seed escape."
"I understand Inquisitor. Our target has been strangely elusive and resourceful. We might have to try a different approach in catching him." Sied sat behind his mahogany desk, looking at the side of that desk where all the papers from the police reports, the money lost on their front object, the issues of legally opening into the ruins, and it being now destroyed from a terrorist attack. There was so much paper work to be done, but it wasn't all that bad.
"Man, we have our Move Gauntlets don't we? What's stopping us from just using Teleport, to grab the kid in surprise, and teleport right back out and into HQ? That would have saved us so much trouble from the beginning." Warden complained as he sat in a very expensive looking couch.
"First of all, we never knew were Subject Five was specifically to perform such a thing. Second of all, we all know that there is at least five second delay between repeating the same move twice. We can use other moves in succession, but can't use it more than twice in a row within those five seconds. It's been something our scientists have been working on. You know this." Inquisitor explained.
"What we gonna do now, Boss?" Majus asked.
"For now, I need help with all this stupid paper work. The Media is eating this newest debacle up like a starving Snorlax in the biggest all you can eat buffet ever. There's press, there's insurance, there's police demands on what happened—and I haven't touched on the expenses part. Since we scared Subject 5 away from the tower, we could all use this moment to catch a breather." He put his hands together and thought deeply.
"But we still have to get him Boss. Even if we prevented him from entering, there's the alarming fact that none of the previous Subjects have even tried to make contact with Subject 5! They're supposed to be obsessed over the Seed, but it's painfully obvious they're planning something!" Inquisitor yelled passionately.
There was a sudden beep coming from a phone nearby Sied on his desk.
"I believe that our answer has come." Sied calmly spoke as he pushed a button, closing all windows, deactivating his cameras, lowering the lights, and locking the doors to his office in Unova.
The phone shot out a holographic projector of a giant screen with a woman on it.
"Apologies for the delay, Mr. Dimension, I had to finish up with another client." Hunter J answered from the other line.
"I suppose that is fair. But does this mean that you accept the terms of this job?" Sied asked professionally.
"I do. I will hunt down the boy as long as you pay me." And she did want to try out those new toys of hers…
[…]
Anto needed some alone time. That much was certain, as he walked along the Moor with Lily, he kept deep into his thoughts.
The shiny Pokémon was actually a bit worried for her trainer. He seemed so distant now, but how exactly could she help? She wanted to give him his space, but she hated seeing him like this. To be honest, she even knew why out of all his Pokémon, she was the one out on guard for him.
She was the least vivid of his Pokémon. Compared to all the others, she was normal, and she didn't mind that. It's just that this little back of her mind thought that Anto let her out because he knew that she couldn't try to talk him out of his stupor not because she didn't want to, but because she couldn't. She wasn't as wise and experienced as Takezo, as openhearted or lovingly head strong like Ohko, not as simple minded and loyal as Sentinel, not as passionate and excited as Kryx, and definitely not as heroic or continually bettering herself like Super Nut would be.
She was just someone who lived at the expense of another's death. To herself, she was actually the most flawed out of all Anto's Pokémon and she loathed it.
"Hmm?" Anto caught Lily's attention as the evolved grass type looked towards her trainer.
Then the grass type followed where her trainer was looking to see a large boulder that looked to be cut in half right down the middle.
"What do you think caused that?"
It was then the mute noticed how smooth the inside of the boulder was when it was split down the middle. "It reminds me about Takezo, it looks so cleanly cut."
"So what? A swordsman did this?" The grass type offered.
It was at this point, Anto and Lily started to notice a strange noise coming from behind the split boulder. Their brains had recognized that sound in the distance since Ohko had been doing that almost every night when he slept so soundly.
Someone was snoring.
Walking past the chilly air and cut boulder, Anto and his Lilligant spotted a blue and red, four legged Pokémon sleeping in the grass and inhaling loudly as his hooves twitched every other time.
"I've never seen a Pokémon like that before." Lily noted.
"It's Keldeo, he's actually a Legendary Pokémon and the fourth member of The Swords of Justice." The mute responded quickly. Once more, his mind seemed to know more than it let on. This made him wonder what exactly Dimension Enterprise did that allowed him to recognize even legendary and rare Pokémon as if he had seen them every day.
However, Lily's pink orbs widened at the familiar title, The Swords of Justice. If this one really was one of them, wouldn't that mean the others were close by?
Lily looked around, making her trainer raise his brow at the odd action until he recalled a rather important memory not too long ago.
("I never got to tell her that she was wrong!")
Lily was always searching for the Swords because of something in her past. She had lost someone and wanted to speak to them for killing her friend.
He didn't know what to say, it looked like Lily actually looked… angry… her leaf fists were coiled up and her eyes were sharp and didn't have that trademark sarcasm and annoyance she usually held.
"Waaahhh…" The two turned back as they saw Keldeo waking up and smacking his lips. He gave a great big yawn and trailed his lazy eyes towards Anto and Lily. "Oh, hello!" He smiled in a friendly voice.
"Uhh hey?" The mute smiled back easily while Lily just scowled. The boy didn't want to ruin the mood of the young Sword of Justice so he quickly continued on. "Y-You're Keldeo right?"
The young colt Pokémon stood up quickly from the ground with a jump. "Whoa! How do you know my name!?"
"I… heard of it." The mute figured that wasn't exactly a lie. "I just don't quite recall where though. But it's only fair that I give you my name since I know you: I'm Anto and this here is Lily."
"Oh hey! Anto? That sounds a lot like Ash! Do you know Ash!?" Keldeo bounced around and had his tail wagging despite being a colt.
"I haven't met him, but I'm a friend of a friend of his, and I have heard of him." Anto explained.
"Aww man that's so cool! I haven't seen him in a while! He helped me achieve the power of Secret Sword! Oh that reminds me!" the excited water and fighting type made himself stand still and did his best to try and look dignified. "I am Keldeo, a Sword of Justice! How can I help you today?!"
The black haired boy chuckled. "You sound like a telemarketer."
Keldeo visibly deflated from that. "Wait what!? But I've been practicing my epic Sword of Justice Debut Speech for a week now! I'm supposed to sound cool!"
Anto then laughed. "Well, if it makes you feel better, you already did help me a bit." Talking to the energetic Pokémon had lifted up his spirits especially from awhile ago.
However, Lily became increasingly more annoyed as the conversation went along. She especially didn't like how easily Anto was getting friendly with. "… Hey, where are the other Swords anyway?"
"They had some business to do, but they said they would come pick me up later! I just recently became a proper Sword of Justice, you know!"
Lily folded her arms and looked away, rolling her eyes as she did. Anto sensed the tone of her air, but it looked like Keldeo didn't.
Quickly he took out Takezo's Poké Ball. "Do you mind if I bring a friend out? He's a different type of swordsman, but I think he would benefit on how you do your sword play."
The young colt sounded excited at the idea of meeting another swordsman, so Anto brought out Takezo and introduced the two.
"Huh? Aren't you a Patrat? Are you really a swordsman?" Keldeo asked as he tilted his head.
"That was rude you know?" Lily told the water type in a scolding tone.
The water type straightened up. "Oh whoops! My bad."
Takezo just let it go with a simple wave. "To be honest, many have questioned if I really was a swordsman. In reality, I am just someone who studies the way of a human martial arts."
Keldeo's head titled even further. "Wha?"
"Yes, yes I am one," Takezo said before looking at the split boulder. "Though I am not one capable of something like this in one move."
Keldeo smiled and huffed his chest up. "Yep! I totally did that with my new Secret Sword move! Though I still am working on this whole using the power to help rather than fight. I mean I can do it, but it was more of a life and death situation…"
Takezo patted one of Keldeo's legs. "How about you show me? We'll go to a different spot and you can show me about your sword play."
"I know just the place!" Keldeo ran excitedly ahead as Takezo walked on to follow, leaving Anto and Lily alone.
… Anto sat down on the slightly wet grass and looked over to Lily, who turned away from him.
"Wow this grass is wetter than I thought it would be. Figures Keldeo could sleep fine on it—he's a water Pokémon."
Lily stayed silent.
"I still remember what you told me," The boy started. "I am really sorry for what happened to you."
Shiny Pokémon turned to the boy sitting. "Aren't you supposed to be asking what's wrong and telling me off for acting so mean?"
"I'm like what? 14 years old and you're expecting me to somehow act like an adult? Besides, I don't think forcing you to face your problems is something I can do. Heck, look at me! Until just a while ago, I was brooding over the fact that I'm now immortal and a monstrous abomination of nature with secrets even I don't know after potentially being stolen from my normal life! But now I'm here, sitting on wet grass, and trying to cheer up my grass type Pokémon?"
Lily looked down. "I didn't like it when you were brooding…"
Anto paused for a second. "And I don't like it when you're brooding either."
…
…
"Ha…haha… hahahahaha…" The amnesiac started to laugh suddenly after a few seconds of quiet time. His grass type asked him what the laughter was for and he, after calming down a bit, answered, "Well I just realized something. Here we are, trying to brood against the world for being stupid to us, and we can't even do that because a person we care about is also feeling bad about their own troubles and we don't want that other person to feel bad!"
The grass type raised a brow at that wording.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's hard really hard for me to hate and complain about my life, when I see someone else suffering as well. They make me want to help them instead of care about myself. And I really, really want to complain."
"Look on the bright side at least you're not haunted by guilt and shame." Lily scoffed before sitting down next to black haired boy with brown eyes. "The grass is wet."
"It's called the wetlands for a reason."
They paused for another second.
"I just… I just… it's just not fair," Lily turned to Anto. "Why can life be so cruel when you know you haven't done something worth such misfortune?"
Now the boy raised his brow, he could probably relate to that, but he was missing some context to why Lily was saying.
The grass type then explained her past. Back when she was still a Petilil, Lily was a rather adventurous girl when she was young. She dreamed of being like the stories her friends told her where there were these beings called the Swords of Justice who traveled across the land and helped others.
Being inspired by one of their epic tales, she once climbed the very top of a giant tree, but eventually lost footing and fell down, hurting one of her tiny legs. A young girl and her father was there and the girl had nursed her back to help, with the dad slightly messing up and being somewhat of a clutz. For a time, she lived with the girl and her family, always avoiding the dad because of his clumsy nature, even if the man was rather kind. However, the girl was still too young to even be a trainer, let alone take care of a Pokémon, so her mother and father decided to return Lily to the woods where they had found her, and if she was lucky, they would meet again. (At least that was what she thought they were saying with how she read their faces.)
… Lily paused somberly for a second right after saying that.
The dad was the one bringing her back and he brought his car with him to drop her off. This father was also a smoker, but he never did so in the forest or at home, usually outside his house or in his office. Lily did not know what a smoker was, but she always saw these 'white smoking sticks that smelled really bad' on the man's mouth from time to time.
When they got back into the forest, the man's car had engine trouble so he left his door open and walked out.
Lily then noticed something strange near a white box in the driver's seat: something right next to a box of those white sticks. Anto called it a lighter, but Lily said she didn't know what it was, but it looked really pretty.
Since the man left the door open, Lily 'borrowed' the lighter as she hoped out and started playing with it. She didn't notice the man behind her opening up his car and checking out some greasy liquid—Anto knew that was gasoline. The man was checking his oil levels.
"Why do I have the feeling that you already know?" The grass type smiled sadly towards her trainer with widened eyes.
Lily continued her story and she was actually playing with the lighter until it lit up. The fire, and her being a grass type, scared her and she threw it away without checking—yes, she wasn't aware where she threw it.
It didn't take a genius to realize where the lit fire went, and it didn't help that the father went towards the back of the car at that moment to get a bottle of new oil while he left the hood up.
The man did spot the light mid air, but his only his eyes reacted as he saw the lighter head towards the open oil lid.
The man ran, scooping up Lily and running far away as he could before the fire ignited and exploded the car while it was near a forest, setting it ablaze.
Lily didn't know what was happening, it was all just fine a minute ago, but then the man carrying her suddenly gasped and fell down.
It was now catching up with what Lily said. The Sword of Justice, people she once looked up to, had killed an innocent man they thought was evil.
But then Lily surprised Anto, saying that her story wasn't done.
Afterward, she had learned that the other Pokémon were cursing that 'evil' human for ruining their home. Lily tried to defend him, but no one listened to her. They said he had to be evil, because the 'great' Sword of Justice stopped him and they're 'never wrong'.
"Never meet your heroes, Anto. They suck in real life." Lily then explained that was actually years ago. She once snuck back to the girl's house to find out that the girl and her mother were gone. An old Pidove living nearby explained that the two left towards another place and they really looked sad and heartbroken for some reason.
So for years, Lily had been living among other who cursed someone kind, when she was the one who had caused the flames.
"You're the first one I told this to, you know? I never even told anyone else the truth after. I wanted them to stop insulting him, but… I was afraid… afraid that they would hate me—that I would be the one killed or scorned. So I thought, finding the Sword that killed my friend, I would tell her off, and maybe, maybe get some of this guilt off my chest." Lily sadly finished.
…
…
Anto sighed and fell down into the wet grass, ignoring how soaked his clothes were getting. At least it wasn't his blood this time and just water.
"How am I supposed to brood after hearing all of that?" Anto whined.
"You're supposed to comfort me and make me feel better with some sappy speech." Lily rolled her eyes and fell into the grass to lie down as well.
"I'm fourteen, I'm supposed to be like really angsty and selfish around this period in a human life and apparently I fail at even that!"
Lily rolled her eyes as she looked up to the sky. "Humans are so stupidly complicated."
"At least my head won't wilt…"
"What was that?"
"Just that life sucks. It really sucks." The mute answered quickly despite laying on the ground.
"It does… doesn't it?"
Anto laughed. "Look on the bright side: you'll find a lot of people who agree with you on that front."
Lily tilted her head towards her trainer. "Aren't other people the reason why we're so angsty and brooding in the first place?"
The boy's eyes widened at the thought. "Ah, right. That completely slipped my mind."
Lily glanced back to the beautiful blue sky as a cloud started flying over them. "… So basically this entire conversation was pointless crap that just proves that life sucks universally?"
"Dear lord that sounds horribly depressing." Anto replied in a somewhat lazy manner.
Lily giggled. "So why do I actually feel better about myself despite the fact I just technically badmouthed some nice kid a while ago and brought out my frustrations out on him?"
"Don't know. You must be crazier than all the others in our party."
"And who's the one who brought us all together?" She replied with a smirk towards him. "But thanks, I do feel better now."
"I didn't even do anything but just get my favorite clothes wet." The boy looked to his favorite jacket. Maybe he could get Takezo to do his dry cleaning for him.
Still it was nice just talking and having someone to listen. Maybe that was why the world wasn't screwed over yet. There were still people out there who actually bothered to care and listen to others, and Lily just so happened to find a group full of them.
Strange how they were mixed out to find them among such circumstances huh?
"I wonder how Takezo's doing?"
"Probably learning about sword techniques from legendary heroes; at least one of us is having a good time. I'm kind of wondering how Flow is doing. I haven't seen her in a while."
Anto sighed. "Kinda makes you wonder what goes in the world when you're in the middle of your pity party."
[Elsewhere…]
"There you are!"
Jamie yelped as she turned over to see someone hiding in the shadows. "Y-You!"
"Be quiet! Do you want your friends to hear you!? You're lucky I can even pull this off! Without anyone noticing!"
Jamie gulped as she saw the person walk out of the shadows. She thought she was alone and wanted to clear her head a bit, but how did she…
"I-I brought Anto to the tower like you said… B-But I didn't see anyone there!" Jamie stammered. "A-And w-what happened to him?!"
"Oh right, we never told you, did we? Well, for one, good job I guess for bringing the host to the tower." The girl said nonchalantly. "Some last minute things came up, Dimension Enterprise set up a lot more security measures than we expected, so there was a change of plans. But as for the Host, there's no reason to explain something complicated to you."
"H-He's my friend! Of course I worry! What did they do to him!? And what do you want with him!?" Jamie yelled out and stomped her foot.
The other girl froze and turned stiffly and quickly. "You insignificant—"
A Gardevoir stepped in and put a caring arm on the other girl's shoulder. "Calm down, my lady. Be calm." Then the psychic and fairy type looked over to Jamie and raised her hand—
Before slamming it down hard in a throwing motion with a look of angry hysteria in her eyes. "YOU WRETCHED SCUM! HOW DARE YOU TALK TO MY LADY LIKE THAT!?"
She had used Psychic to throw and force Jamie into the ground with telekinetic force, pinning her down and feeling like a bus was crushing on top of her and crushing her.
"Gardevoir, stop. They will notice you." The dual type quickly turned to her mistress with a soft and gentle tone and quickly bowed for forgiveness. "Listen Jamie. We've already told you that The Host is the key to saving your little dying friend. You've already agreed to help us, and you already know who-what he really is. So why are you asking us again?"
"You just told me… that he was key to stopping an endless cycle." Jamie grunted.
The other girl sighed. "Dear lord, you fragments never listen well. Just keep watch for now and make sure he doesn't fall into Dimension Enterprise's hands. Let's go, Dea."
With that she and her Pokémon left in an instant, leaving Jamie all alone in the ground. She clenched the grass beneath her and started to tear up.
"Mom, Dad, Big bro… I'm so so sorry… I'm sorry, Anto."
"Anto? Where are you going?" A voice suddenly called out that sounded like it was coming towards Jamie.
Her heart stopped for a second as she recognized that voice. It was Lily, Anto's Lilligant, and she had just called out his name. That meant…!
"I thought I heard—Jamie!? Whoa Hey! Are you alright!?" The boy walked out of some trees and quickly ran to his down friend.
She quickly wiped her face and squashed all of her feelings. "I-I'm fine! I just fell down and wet my face a little…"
"Here, let me help you up."
Jamie slapped Anto's hand away while she was still on the ground. "I'm fine, Anto!" She screamed.
It took her a second to realize who she just did that too.
So wrought with guilt, Jamie couldn't say anything, she just stayed there, her body sitting on the wet grass.
Anto moved a hand at the back of his head and rubbed it. "Guess, I'm not the only one who's feeling bad huh? I kind of forgot with what everything happening, but I'm really sorry, Jamie."
The girl just blankly stared at the boy she lied and still was lying to. He was the one apologizing to her?
"W-What? No, I'm sorry for hitting your hand away. I-I was just…" The words died in her mouth. How could she say it? That she was using him for her own goals? "I'm sorry."
The boy looked down to the grown, sighed and sat on the grass. "I'm sorry I scared you when I woke up after being shot. I didn't even know I was immortal."
She wasn't expecting that. They had never told her anything but to make sure a boy with a necklace was protected. They had kept so many things from her…
"No, I wasn't scared about that…"
"Then I'm sorry for dragging you into this. You probably had other things to do before all of this?"
Jamie stared incredulously at the boy in front of her, trying his best to make her feel good despite everything happening to him, and what was she doing to this person- her friend? At this point, she then started laughing. She laughed and she laughed… until she started to cry.
From confused to panicked, Anto, waved his hands frantically while Lily stood to the side rolling her eyes.
"W-Whoa! I'm so—" The mute became lost for words when Jamie suddenly tackled him and hugged him very tightly.
Lily's eyes were no longer rolling, but widening.
"I lost my family… I lost my dad, who won't be there ruffling my hair and telling me to keep my chin up whenever things get rough! I lost my mom, who won't be there every Saturday making my favorite seafood dish that tasted like the best in the world, telling me that I can do anything I want in the wolrd because she will always be there to support me…" She wailed and she sobbed as she hugged Anto harder, leaving the startled mute to only hug her back kindly at what she was pouring out.
She then raised her tear stained, light green eyes at him. "And I miss my brother, my best friend and someone who I looked up to and who—" She gasped as she buried her face into Anto's shoulder and continued sobbing, saying things like how she really missed them and that she was sorry for some reason.
Still taken back, but now trying his best to soothe her, Anto continued to hug Jamie and looked to Lily on what he should do.
"Don't worry, Keldeo, Sword Of Justice is here to save—oh it's just you Anto." The water type jumped out, now in a completely different form he was from awhile ago.
Takezo's head popped out of the bush Keldeo jumped out of and then looked at Anto holding Jamie in his arms.
"Anto, I respect you, but you seem to be threading down a path of one who plays with maiden hearts as if they were toys." In Takezo speak: he was worried Anto was now becoming a play boy.
"This isn't what it looks like?" Anto spoke out as Jamie quickly broke off the embrace and wiped her eyes.
"…" Takezo looked hard at how flushed Jamie was and now seeing her wipe tears. He looked towards Lily who shrugged.
"Don't look at me. I'm just as confused as you are." The grass type spoke up.
"Are you also a friend of Ash?" Keldeo, slightly oblivious to the whole tone of the air. "Oh hey! Are you crying? Are you alright?"
"I-I'm better." Jamie spoke out as she rubbed her eyes. "I-I'm sorry, I just… had something I needed to get off my chest."
Anto didn't ask why she was crying though there was obviously something bothering her. Man, how can he brood and feel bad about himself when there are so many other people who are much worse off than him? That so wasn't fair.
"Keldeo? Is that you?" To everyone's surprise, Takezo and Keldeo weren't the only one attracted to Jamie's crying.
Out came a much more majestic and noble four legged Pokémon—Anto recognized the Pokémon as Cobalion, the presumed leader of the Swords of Justice and he was followed by two other members, Terrakion, and Virizion.
Anto, Takezo, and Lily all locked eyes with Virizion.
"Ah, it has been a while, hasn't it? Little Sword Acolyte?" Virizion spoke out to Takezo before looking to Anto. "And you seem… different now, human who can speak to others."
"Why does Takezo get the cool nickname?" Anto quickly mentioned to himself before standing up and dusting himself off and helping Jamie up. It was a little intimidating, but these must be the other Swords of Justice—hey wait. What was Lily doing?
Lily was walking up to the Swords of Justice while the other two conversed.
"So they are the strange pair you met some time ago, Virizion?" Cobalion spoke out.
"At first I didn't believe ya, but now? I can see it in the way he carries himself, the small one has got quite the presence!" Terrakion gave an excited smile towards Takezo.
"You should have seen it, Terrakion! Mr. Takezo here had some of the most skill full swordplay I've ever seen! It was so different from all of you taught me!" Keldeo mentioned from the side.
"Oh? That sounds… may I help you miss?" The fighting and rock type paused as Lily stood right in front of all three of them.
Her eyes went over to Virizion. "Ms.? By any chance do you recall a fire around 12 years ago in Pinwheel Forrest?"
Everyone turned to the grass type Sword Of Justice. "I must admit that there have been a lot of fires over the course of a hundred years, I do not know which one you could be referring to."
Lily clenched one of her fists hard, but she exhaled. "The one with a single man with a shiny Petilil? Ring any bells?" She folded her arms.
The legendary thought hard. "That careless man? He destroyed the homes of hundreds of Pokémon for his mistake."
"It wasn't him. The reason that fire started, the reason hundreds of Pokémon lost their homes that day… it was my fault." Lily exhaled before stepping forward. "That 'careless' man you put, dove in to save my life from an exploding car that 'I' caused. You misunderstood him and killed him on the spot. I was so horrified at your hatred that I froze solid and couldn't say anything. But it doesn't end there, oh no. Did you even know that he had a family? He had a sweet little girl and a wife, and guess what? Now that little girl grew up without a father in her life, not even knowing that Pokémon at the time were blaming him for that fire."
"Virizion? The youngest Swords of Justice stared at the shocked grass type as everyone but Anto looked on with surprise.
"I… I…"
"Let me finish," Lily quickly interrupted. "I never forgave you for that, for hurting him, for hurting his family, but I now realize that it was my fault as well. If only I had taken responsibility for my actions, if only I wasn't so… curious at what his lighter was… I'm here to say to you that you killed my friend. I may be at fault for that; I understand your thoughts at the time; and I harbor no more ill will against you; but I want you to know that I will never forgive you for that." With that, the grass type walked back towards Anto.
Everyone remained silent.
Surprisingly, it was Cobalion who broke the silence.
"Keldeo, despite the fact we do our best to keep the peace, there will be times were we do fail. The world is a vast place," The leader spoke before looking towards Anto. "And failures are bound to lie in the future. Sometimes, there will be times where we simply weren't good enough. All we can ever do, is apologize, move on, and try to be better."
There was a noticeable frown on Keldeo's face as he looked at Lily. Who simply just folded her arms.
The Four swords started to leave slowly, but Cobalion stayed behind and looked towards Takezo.
"If I may have a word? I must ask that you be careful, there is a chance that you may meet a Pokémon who thrives on battling sword trained Pokémon. He is an ancient being, who has scattered the blood of many good bladesmen before even my time…" Cobalion shook his head, as if trying to forget a repressed memory. "That is all… also I'm sure Virizion is truly repentant. " He spoke before leaving.
…
…
"I don't want to forgive her." Lily softly spoke out after a while. "I know it's the right thing to do, but I just can't find myself doing it. … Does that make me a bad person?" She looked up to Anto with wide pink eyes.
"No, it just means we're just as flawed as everyone else. I guess we could take Cobalion's lesson to heart. All we can do is learn and move on…" The boy shrugged his shoulders.
The boy and his Pokémon started to go back, leaving Jamie back behind. The girl slowly reached for her arm and clutched it hard. She stared sadly at the boy with a heavy future.
…
The duo of Anto and Jamie walked back, with Anto already recalling his Lilligant and Patrat back into their spheres.
As they came to camp, they were surprised to hear Benga singing along to the Pichu strumming his ukulele poorly while Ben had his own wooden guitar.
"Yo mute!" Wes greeted with a smile as he was seen eating some marshmallows. "We're roasting some s'mores and listening to Benga's poor attempt at singing. It's like dinner and a show."
"Like you can do better?" Summer taunted before grabbing the bag of marshmallows away from the Orre teen.
"Heck no, but you don't see me making a fool of myself up there." Wes countered.
Benga simply laughed. "Are you kidding me? I've never been out camping with other before, let alone be allowed to roast marshmallows without burning something to the ground!"
"Aaaannnndddd consider yourself banned from roasting yours." White said as she fried two of the nummy treats over the fire.
"What? Oh come on!" Benga shouted out but then quickly shrugged his shoulders. "Oh wait, Anto? Don't you know music?"
The mute seemed surprised. "You should totally play something! It might be actually better than these two."
"Hey!/Hey!" Ben and his Pichu screamed out together.
"Ben, you have to admit that Pichu only uses that to amp his attacks, he doesn't actually know how to play and neither do you. Honestly, why did you buy that?" Summer spoke out as Ben handed the thing to Benga.
"I thought me and Pichu could play a few tunes together."
~Ping!~
Everyone stopped as the turned to Anto, who was strumming the guitar almost by instinct and the more he set it up, the more the strings sounded much more vivid and echoing.
"Ha! An amensiac is better a guitar than you two combine!" Wes smirked.
Ben flushed and grunted. "What!? Hey! I don't see you playing!"
"Like I said, why make a fool of myself in public?"
Anto started playing a few tunes in quick tandem, they sounded like a really good song. The amnesiac himself didn't even know he knew how to play the guitar, but here he was. Just like his harmonica, this felt very familiar.
He stopped for a second and brought all of his Pokémon out.
"Oh good idea, let's all bring everyone out." White agreed as she took out all of her Pokémon as well, followed by everyone else.
To everyone's surprise, Summer also had one, and described that she had to get one for her Staraptor now that she had more than one partner. Flow had her own Poké Ball now too.
With everyone present, Anto started to play. Surprisngly, it was an upbeat song and Benga and Ferland started to dance—poorly mind you. It was so bad Lily actually stepped in and offered him how to dance.
She actually started giving lessons as Anto played and soon White and Summer, and some other Pokémon started to join in because it looked like fun, soon a alrage group of people were taught how to dance by their instructor Lily. Ben sat near Anto in asking question how to make the guitar work. While Wes offered a few already prepared smores to Jamie, who took them with a soft smile.
After explaining a few things to Ben about the tuning, the black haired mute realized something.
It was strange if you thought about it: in the grand scheme of things, you find out how insignificant, how powerless, and how unfair everything is in life as he learned a bit from earlier today.
But we all still are there. We all still move on.
So as Anto played the guitar and how everyone sang along the campfire like a group camping trip, he couldn't help but wonder as he saw Lily helping Benga, White, and Summer dance along with the tune of the music…
Despite everything that happened, here he was, still smiling, laughing, and being at peace.
So then? Was angst, despair, danger, doubts, and fears really worth a night of being silly fools of music and poorly made smores under a cold and windy night?
You would be surprised at what Anto's answer to that would be.
{Author Notes}
A somewhat somber chapter again. Lily finally gets to say her piece of mind she's been holding out for years, but then it doesn't come out as well as she thinks. Still, they all learn that life isn't perfect, but they move on regaurdless. This one had some inspiration from Avatar: the Last Airbender. I'm describing the part where Katara finds her mother's killer, but doesn't kill him in vengeance. Even though, she doesn't forgive him for that.