Chapter XV: A Different Kind of "Stage on!" (Part 2 of 3)
A/N: Yes, I know Team Rocket's appearance is kind of uncalled for, unnecessary, and idiotic (if I may say so). That's why I'm putting them here.
Posters of the upcoming play were all over the campus. It featured the actors and the actresses in full costumes and complete with gradient effects and other Photoshop effects. It had the catch phrase: "Love conquers all…even death". A sea of students, teachers, and even non-academic staff were pushing their way inside the auditorium as they killed the last remaining minutes before show time through chatting, chatting, and more chatting. Haruka peeked through a small opening between the curtains and saw a huge sea of people waiting to be entertained. Just by looking at them already gave her stage fright.
"T-T-T-There's a lot of them, kamo!" She said; her feet trembling. "This is just nerve-racking, kamo. I can't keep my cool at all."
"Didn't I tell you to expect a full house today?" Kanata sighed.
"I know what you mean. But I've never seen a…a…full 'full house' before."
"If you give them everything you've got; then it will be worth it. Now go make those people proud."
"I hope so, kamo."
"Ten minutes, people! Let's move!"
As minute after minute passed by, the anxiety that was building up inside of her after seeing a full "full house" was getting worse. This could greatly affect the play itself and her performance as well. Ten minutes faded away like ten seconds. The auditorium bell rang; marking the start of the play. The once noisy audience fell into complete silence as lights were switched on and the curtains moved aside for the performance worth what they paid for.
The first scene went incredibly well—no interruptions whatsoever. Backstage, Haruka and Satoshi waited for their next respective scenes as the extras and side characters fight on stage with their Pokemon. After all, what is a bloody hundred-year war without fighting?
"Nice work, you two." Kanata handed over a bottle of water for each of the two stars. "Keep this up and our worrying will have been for nothing."
"I guess everything turned out well, kamo." Haruka said; twisting the bottle cap off and helping herself to some nice refreshment.
"Okay guys, the fighting should stop in around six to seven minutes. The next scene will be after the lights fade. This is the meeting part and it's very essential."
"You got it. Leave it to us."
Satoshi suddenly looked at Haruka. He felt like he got captivated by her or something. It must be her determination to win no matter what.
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For the next few minutes, the play went better than the director had expected. The crowd was so captivated by the performance; they didn't even give a single moment to look elsewhere but the stage. The play was now in the middle of the meeting part.
"The spring sure is beautiful, isn't it?" The well-dressed prince said.
"Ah, you startled me." The princess moved back a little bit; making her lose balance and fall into the shallow spring.
The prince caught her by his arms before she was drenched in cold water on a cold night. "Watch yourself, my fair lady. You'll catch a cold like that."
Even with the fact that he was holding her, Haruka continued with the play.
"Oh, thank you. My name's Haruka."
"It's a pleasure. You can call me Satoshi."
"So…I haven't seen you in these parts yet. Are you from somewhere?"
All the lights were turned off except for one: a spotlight that was focused on the prince.
"She can't know I'm from the Empire. What will she think of me if I said that? I'll have to compromise." He thought.
The other spotlights went back on; focusing on the scene.
"I am but a humble gentleman from the southern islands." He came up with a lie very quickly.
Backstage, Kanata watched the entire thing with high hopes that the reputation of the theater club has been saved. Unfortunately, she accidentally pulled a loose knot which was connected to a sandbag on top. Satoshi was so busy with his princely role; he didn't realize five kilograms of sand that pummeled his head and grounded him completely. Smoke enveloped the scene but eventually cleared after a few seconds.
"Uh…oops, my bad…" Kanata whispered.
Even with the sudden interruption, the brunette girl continued with the play as planned.
"S-Satoshi, are you okay?" The worried princess demanded a response from the fine gentleman. "Why is the sky falling all of a sudden?"
"Wow, everything spinning and spinning and spinning…" That was what she got from him.
"Come with me, I'll go treat your injuries."
The lights fade out and the curtains closed. A ten-minute break was issued for the stars and the stage crew to rest up and prepare for the next set of scenes. Backstage, Haruka tended to Satoshi's head injury after being attacked by two things: sheer mass and high velocity.
"Was the sandbag attack really part of the play?" Satoshi asked.
"Sorry Satoshi, I accidentally let loose the juice." Kanata giggled lightly. "It's a good thing Haruka was there to break the play's fall."
"Seriously, watch where you're touching. Owowowowowow…! That stings!"
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"This foolish war must end now! We even have no quarrel with the Hoenn Kingdom!" The young prince attested to his father the emperor.
"This is not a foolish war, my naïve son. We have been destined to rule the Pokemon world." The emperor said in reply; smirking.
"Your so-called destiny is nothing more but an insane fantasy! You're enslaving Pokemon as tools of war!"
"SILENCE…! I will not be denied—not even by my own son!"
"I don't have an insane father."
"Guards, seize this traitor!"
Prince Satoshi fought his way outside the castle and out of the Imperial capital of Mt. Shirogane (Mt. Silver); vowing never to return to that forsaken place for eternity. With only Pikachu has his buddy and companion, he set out for the southern islands where Princess Haruka is currently residing—battling the harsh elements of nature and the Imperial guards who were on his tail. During his journey he peeled off the emblem of the Johto Empire on his cape and set it ablaze. He was no longer one of them.
"I renounce myself as an Imperial soldier. The likes of me cannot be working for such barbarians."
Kanata watched Satoshi perform from the sidelines. "Wow, you're really getting into this aren't you Satoshi?"
Unexpectedly, one of the stage crew approached her while carrying terrible news. "Kanata, the stage floor is about to give way!"
"What?"
The prince and the princess met each other in the forest outside Kanazumi City (Rustboro City).
"Satoshi…!"
"Haruka…!"
As soon as they were on center stage, they both fell down to the storage room below the stage floor. Smoke once again enveloped the entire stage, this time thicker. Normally, something as sturdy as the floor wouldn't give way so they thought that somebody must have tampered with the floor itself. But who could do such a thing? More importantly, who would want to sabotage the play?
"Ow…why did the floor crash, kamo?" Haruka said.
"Allow us to answer that question!" A voice out of nowhere answered in reply.
"Huh? Whose voice is that?"
If you ask us "why did the floor crash?"
Our answer is the world's compassion!
To prevent the destruction of the world
To protect the peace of the world
We carry out the evils of truth and love!
The lovely, charming villains…!
Musashi (Jessie)…!
Kojiro (James)…!
Flying across the galaxy is the pair of Rocket Dan (Team Rocket)!
A white hole, white tomorrow awaits us!
What they said!
Sonansu!
Chiriin!
When the smoke had cleared, two hoodlums appeared before the audience; standing near the hole where Satoshi and Haruka fell. They were accompanied by a Chiriin (Chimecho), a very rare and very unique talking Nyarth (Meowth) and a true, blue Sonansu (Wobbuffet). One had lavender hair and the other had a very long and peculiar scarlet hair like a tail of a comet. They had the "R" letter printed in front of their shirts and tops.
Satoshi crawled out of the hole and confronted the hoodlums. "Rocket Dan…!"
"Satoshi, you know them?" Haruka replied; surprised.
"These hoodlums are wanted all over the Pokemon world for stealing. They're after Pikachu."
"I've never heard of them. But if what you say is true, I'll fight alongside you."
Satoshi and Haruka quickly took off their costumes (their usual outfits underneath those costumes of theirs). Kanata had no choice but to join them since the play was totally ruined anyway.
"Pikachu, let's go!" The mouse Pokemon jumped off its trainer's shoulder and stood on its four limbs.
"Agehanto, stage on…!" Haruka sent out her Pokemon of choice.
"Jeez, thanks to these hoodlums the play's ruined! Yarukimono (Vigoroth), come on out!" Kanata joined in the battle.
"Kanata, since when did you—"
"—get a Yarukimono?"
"Well, it's complicated. Let's just get this over with, shall we?"
Strangely enough the lovely, charming villains weren't panicking at all. In fact, they were wearing a grin on their faces from the very beginning as if they had a trick up their sleeve. Sadly, they did—a net launcher.
"How nice of you to send all of your Pokemon out…" Kojiro said; mounting his trusty bazooka on top of his shoulder and pressing the trigger. "We'll be taking them and be on our merry way!"
A missile was launched from the tube and immediately split up in four to form a huge catching net. Pikachu and Yarukimono were caught in the net while Agehanto took flight and pulled up as high as it could to avoid being netted.
"Darn, there's still one left." The red-haired Musashi muttered; taking her monster ball out. "Arbok (Arbok), let's go!"
"Matadogas (Weezing), come out!" Kojiro joined in as well.
"Alright, it's time for a beating nya!" The talking Nyarth popped its claws out.
The netted Pokemon were struggling to break free but the net was too much for them. The thieves even bragged that it's a reinforced and electric-proof net; not even Pikachu's Thunderbolt or Yarukimono's Slash attack can do the escape job.
"Yarukimono, keep on cutting!" Kanata cried. "I know you can do it!"
"Yeah, tire yourself out nya." Nyarth said. "It'll make stealing for us even easier."
"Darn it!"
Arbok and Matadogas were about to go in for the kill while Haruka stood helplessly; not knowing what to do next. Arbok launched a Poison Sting attack directly at the brunette girl. The hit was right on and there was no time to get out of the way. Kanata and Satoshi turned around and began running in between her friend and the impending attack. However, Satoshi managed to reach the breaking point on time and received the lethal hit.
"SATOSHI…!" Haruka cried out loud.
TO BE CONTINUED
Kamo! Trivial Trivia #10: In a typical Japanese conversation, a person makes use of words that depict respect to a person or to honor them. These are called "honorifics". In Konomi's case, she addresses her good friends with the honorific "-san" meaning "mister" or "miss" depending on the gender of who she is talking to. Haruka also addresses Kasumi as "Arisawa-senpai" in which the word "-senpai" is used to address somebody who is on a higher year than the one speaking. The honorific "-sensei", which we can all relate, means "teacher" and is used when addressing teachers at school and "-hakase" when addressing professors like Professor Ookido and Professor Odamaki. There are other honorifics in use so you'll have to find them out for yourself.
Kamo! Trivial Trivia #11: The set of italicized words that are centered in this chapter is the Japanese version of Team Rocket's motto. This motto on this chapter, however, has been slightly altered in terms of word use but the meaning stays the same. "Rocket Dan" is how Satoshi and his friends address Team Rocket in Japanese.