Chapter 5: Birthday Poison. (Former Title: The Birthday Curse.)
Hikari opened her eyes in the next morning and found herself lying under a large tree. She pinched herself to check if she was having another dream or not. Concluding that she isn't dreaming, she got up and silently wished herself a happy birthday. Again, she tried to straighten out her clothes but found no avail. She then tried to fix her hair (which has been messed up severely) with her fingers but couldn't do much. After some thinking, she poured herself a cup full of water, and she used it to fix her hair. Seeing how there were no berries left, she shuddered at the thought of having to eat Satoshi's cooking.
'Crap. I'm going to have to eat whatever Satoshi cooks...Unless...if I make him this breakfast, I won't have to suffer!' Having thought this, she put the pot full of water over the fire and began to make breakfast.
Satoshi opened his eyes and looked around. He smacked himself to see if he was dreaming. Having concluded that he wasn't dreaming, he began to wonder how much more he and Hikari were going to have to walk. He stood up and began climbing another tall tree. He looked South, where the lake was. He was glad to see that he and Hikari only had to travel through a small forest, a thick and long river, then a large open field before they arrive at the lake. Excitedly, he climbed back down and ran towards where Hikari was to tell her the news.
"Really? We can go home soon?" she asked him once he told her his findings. "Wow...home at last...Well, that's then. For now, try the food I just made. There weren't much ingredients left, so I had to use all of the remaining ones." she said, giving Satoshi a dish with some food on it. Without thinking, Satoshi stuffed all the food in his mouth, chewed a bit, then swallowed. Just then, his face had a look of horror for a brief moment, which Hikari noticed. "Why? What's wrong?" she asked.
"Oh crap! That had to be the worse thing I have ever eaten! What the Hell did you do to it? Aww.. I can't get the horrible flavor out of my mouth!" he exclaimed, much to Hikari's disappointment. He got up, ran to a near by tree and hurled up some of the things he just ate.
Hikari's face turned red from anger. 'How rude! At least I didn't say anything bad about his cooking. And I certainly didn't throw up after I ate his horrible food.' she thought to herself. She stood up and argued back. "How could you say such a thing? Your cooking is not any better than mine! At least I didn't say that your cooking was horrible! And at least I didn't throw up right after!"
"That's your problem! For me, whenever something sucks, I say that it does. If it doesn't I don't say anything! Damn it, are you stupid, calling this food?" he yelled back. Hikari couldn't reply; she was so angry that she couldn't think of a way to argue back. She just crossed her arms and turned her back on him. Hikari tried desperately not to cry, but couldn't help trembling as tears formed in her eyes and started to fall. Satoshi looked at her, first angrily; then sadly, as he started to remember what he said and what day it was. It was her birthday and already he managed to make her cry by insulting her in ways that she really hates. It was obvious that she was seriously hurt. He wanted to apologize, but was afraid of Hikari's unstable condition. Before he could make his mind, Hikari started to walk South, first at a slow pace, but gradually getting faster. Satoshi soon followed (after packing up), but walked at a pace so that he walked behind her.
They walked for hours and Satoshi still couldn't apologize. Hikari stopped crying by then, but still appeared to be very angry. Making up his mind, Satoshi ran until he caught up to her.
"Hey Hikari? Listen, I'm..."he started to say, when Hikari quickly interrupted. "Sure. You're sorry. That's what you always do. Insult me then right back to apologizing. You do it so much that your apologies lost all meaning!" she argued, still in a quivering voice. Her tone seemed to say that she can never forgive Satoshi for what he did. She avoided all eye contact, as if she was afraid to let his brown eyes see her sapphire blue eyes as tears began to form again. "Everything I've done was for you..." she sobbed, as she continued walking South with Satoshi following.
Several hours passed again, and still no words have been said between Hikari and Satoshi. They had skipped lunch (for obvious reasons) and apparently, they were going to skip dinner as well (the sun was beginning to set). All of a sudden, Hikari stopped walking and sat down by a large tree. Satoshi did too, but sat down by a different tree, afraid of her reaction if he tried to sit by her. He sat down and accidentally bumped his head on a Weedle that was climbing the tree. He didn't seem to notice it though, so he sat there, sadly looking at Hikari as she buried her head into her arms. Suddenly, he heard some buzzing noises from above his head and looked up.
"Oh crap! A Beedrill!" he shouted out of surprise. He got up and started to run South as fast as could. The Beedrill (not a very big one, thankfully) started to chase him. He kept on running until he saw a small rock come flying and hit the Beedrill on the head (that happened when Satoshi was looking back, over his shoulder). The bug Pokemon turned around and began chasing whoever threw that rock. Satoshi turned around and saw Hikari luring the Beedrill into a small forest. 'Damn it, what is she doing? She'll be seriously hurt if that Beedrill catches up!' he thought as he helplessly watched the chase.
He slowly started to chase after the Beedrill, staying out of sight. The Beedrill's two stingers (on each forearm) started to glow as it continued its chase. Satoshi looked in horror as he saw the Beedrill use Pin Missile. The large needles flew, all missing Hikari. The Beedrill kept firing the Pin Missiles at its moving target. But then, some of the large pins that were randomly fired flew towards her, piercing the flesh of her left thigh while disintegrating. Hikari gasped in pain as 7 pins struck the back of her left thigh, causing her to fall down while running.
It was beginning to rain. The Beedrill flew towards Hikari, who was still kneeling on the ground, unable to get up. Her left leg was in a bad condition; it was bleeding, for one thing, and she couldn't move her left leg at all. The Beedrill flew past her, so that it could see her face, and she could see its face. She could see one of its stingers glow purple; it was about to use Poison Jab. It thrust its stinger towards Hikari's heart, but she moved her body to avoid the attack. Unfortunately, the attack was at a point-blank range, the stinger hit Hikari in the right arm, right below her shoulder. She gasped and screamed in pain as the sharp stinger penetrated her skin. The Beedrill then backed away, then came charging at her again, this time, trying to use Twinneedle. Suddenly, a large bolt of electricity came down near it, scaring it away. Hikari was still conscious, so she dragged her body towards a tree to use it to help her stand up. However, her left leg was wounded and so was her right arm, making it impossible. She gave up on trying to stand so she just sat there, leaning on the tree. But then, Satoshi came out of a near by bush and ran towards her.
He had lost the Beedrill that was chasing Hikari, due to the sudden rainfall (he was distracted), and only managed to find her thanks to her screaming. But by the time he reached her, the Beedrill had already stung her and was fleeing due to the lightening. He ran to her to check her; she seemed to be okay, but her left leg was in no condition to walk or crawl with, and her right arm was bleeding badly. He quickly took off Takeshi's bag and searched through it. After about 2 minutes of searching, he eventually found the medical equipment and pulled out the antiseptic. Hikari twisted and hissed in pain as the antiseptic was applied to her arm. Satoshi hesitated for a moment, as if seeing her in pain was preventing him from continuing. He eventually finished bandaging her arm, so he rolled her over face first, so that he could bandage the wound on the back of her left thigh. While doing so, he accidentally hit Hikari's newly bandaged arm, causing her to groan in pain.
Satoshi looked at the wound hesitantly; it was right below her skirt. He quickly shook off the thoughts and applied antiseptic on it, then quickly bandaged it. Satoshi carried Hikari on his arms again and he ran until he found a patch of grass under a large tree which appeared to be dry. He lay her down carefully, not wanting to irritate her injuries. He took off his vest and placed in on top of Hikari, who passed out by then from exhaustion, and lay near her, slowly falling asleep.