Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon or the shippings. I own the universe which I created around them.

CHAPTAH 2!!

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Tengan Zan – Mount Coronet
Shinou – Sinnoh
Kissaki City – Snowpoint City

Chapter 2: Alternate Life

The snowstorm passed when Hikari woke up next morning. Her mother shouted up the stairs that it was time for school and that school holidays were over. Not that Hikari hated school, she liked it. In fact, she liked going to school so much that her natural ability to learn while procrastinating kicked in full force when class started. She walked to her closet half asleep and pulled out her uniform and walked unsteadily to the bathroom.

Ayako was slicing sashimi when Hikari skipped in. She looked up to see Hikari flitting in and out of the kitchen looking for something.

"Mom, have you seen my hairclip? The golden triangle one?" she asked as she quickly opened each drawer and flipped the items in there quickly before proceeding to the next drawer.

"No, don't you think it's better to just tie your hair?" Ayako asked. Hikari apparently gave up searching in the kitchen and grabbed a sandwich sitting on the table and started munching on it.

"But I think I look weird in a ponytail or pigtails," she replied. The doorbell sounded and Hikari leapt up to answer the door.

A girl with short red hair that was brushed sideways wearing the standard winter school uniform was standing outside the door. "Nozomi! You're early. Where's Kengo?" Hikari asked. Nozomi pointed at the house down the road where a boy with brown hair wearing a white shirt with royal blue pants, also known as the boy's school uniform was visibly walking slowly down the street. Hikari sighed. Kengo had a reputation for being slow but his punctuality made up for his speed.

"Alright. Let me go get my bag and we can go," said Hikari and dashed inside. She found her bag on the sofa where she had dumped it earlier. "Mom, I'm going now. Bye!" she called as she dashed out of the house. Together with Nozomi, they caught up with Kengo who had a head start earlier and forced him to quicken his pace so as to be slightly earlier on time.

"Oh, Hikari, what happened to your clips?" Nozomi asked, noticing that the usual three sparkling golden hair clips were missing from Hikari's hair. Hikari hand subconsciously reached up to touch her hair where the clips usually were.

"Lost one of them," was her reply and she continued pushing Kengo forward despite Kengo's protests that they were in no hurry. Nozomi, on the other hand, was slightly shocked.

"Lost? LOST?? Even though I don't know who gave it you, but I do recall that you treasure them a LOT!" Nozomi exclaimed. Hikari brushed off her remark casually. "Relax, it's just one clip. It's not like my life is tied to them," Hikari replied in a casual tone, "Have you studied for the history test? I heard that they were going to test us from the feudal era, from the Muromachi period until the Meiji period. That's a lot to remember because the Edo period is already covering at least a hundred years. And who gives a test the moment we get back from a public holiday?" Nozomi sighed. Typical Hikari, who never paid the least bit attention in class and came out in the top five in all tests.

Finally they reached the school gates. There were only two lone people standing there as it was still early. The two people looked up and waved at them. One was a guy with messy black hair and wearing a slightly crumpled version on the school uniform with a green bag slinging from a shoulder. The other was a girl with brown hair that curved gracefully down the sides of her face. Her bright sapphire eyes matched the colour of her school skirt and her white blouse blended with the snow in the background. She was not holding on to any bag, all she had was a small pouch around her waist containing her daily necessities.

"Satoshi! Haruka! I thought we were the first people here," Hikari greeted both of them. Haruka just smiled and nodded. "I know," she said, her voice almost cracking with the urge to laugh, "Who in this city doesn't know Kengo's walking speed?" This caused the whole group except Kengo to stifle their laughter but were failing badly to do so. Kengo merely sighed. Hikari was laughing so hard that she failed to notice someone else walked up behind her.

"Eh? What's so funny that you guys almost failed to stand up properly?" asked a bored male voice behind her. They stopped laughing and glanced up for a moment. A slightly taller boy with violet hair and donning the same outfit for all boys was standing behind Hikari, his cold questioning glare looking for answers from them.

"Ohayou Ikari," said Hikari happily. He merely replied, "Ohayou" before turning to Satoshi.

"Were you revising last night instead of hanging out with Haruka?" he asked. Satoshi was stunned for a moment. "Oh crap! That Heisei era test!" he exclaimed while mentally kicking himself. The entire group, Shinji excluded, sweatdropped. Satoshi pulled out a pocket sized book and started flipping through it while cursing the teacher under his breath.

"You know, you can revise in the comfort of the school building's heater instead of freezing your butt off in this weather," Shinji stated. The snow was piled rather high and the temperature that morning was minus eight.

"Ikari's got a point," Kengo agreed and started to walk into the school at snail's pace. Satoshi dashed through the school gates, dragging Haruka with him while Nozomi tried to get Kengo to get into the building at a faster pace while making up all kinds of excuses. Shinji and Hikari were the only ones left standing by the gate.

"Well? Shouldn't you get going as well Berlitz?" asked Shinji. Hikari checked out her surroundings before dragging Shinji into the school premises. Finally they reached a deserted part of the school. Shinji's arm was nearly dying from the force Hikari was using. When Hikari let him go, the first thing he did was to demand a reason for over exerting her strength on his poor arm.

"What was that for Hikari?" Shinji grumbled as he tried to get the blood moving in his arm. "Oh sorry. I didn't think I was this strong," Hikari replied apologetically. "Now you know," was the incoherent reply she got from the near-victim of gangrene.

"So how was the archaeology site your uncle's working on?" she asked, deciding that a sudden change of subject was necessary. "Did the team find anything interesting? Did a loose rock overhead hit Reiji-san again?" She asked question after question until Shinji finally decided to answer her.

"No, my brother took extra precautions this time. The site's coming on fine, but there're still lots of things we were unable to figure out. We found a wall full of ancient writings in the Unown language but we had no idea what were they talking about," Shinji replied, not in the order they were asked though. He noticed that the usual golden sparkles were missing from her hair, but given Hikari's absentminded personality, he decided not to ask.

"Really?" Hikari's eyes shone with interest, "What were the writings talking about?"

"We're not too sure about it, basically it was talking about a century old rock with the ability to change into a rare rock with a weather phenomenon every 200 years. Maybe you can help decipher what it really meant. The last time I brought back the stone carved with the Unown language you were a big help," explained Shinji. Hikari thought hard. "A rock that can change according to the weather phenomenon, huh," she asked herself. "Maybe, it's what the Yamato army were after during the siege of the Yuki castle!" Shinji's blank look was obvious that he had completely forgotten about the historical event. Hikari wanted to strangle him.

"The siege of Yuki castle in the current Tengan Zan area. The Yamato clan were controlling a large area of the land then. The only state in the way was the Yuki state. Yuki basically means snow as it used to be somewhere near Kissaki City. The Yuki clan who controlled the area found a large crystal rock that possessed supernatural qualities. And it attracted the interest of the Yamato who wanted it under the claim that they were conquering more land for themselves. The shogun there was killed by the general of the army and the heir escaped. The crystal was never found though. Some say that the shogun's wife took it with to her grave," Hikari recited word for word from the textbook.

"But that doesn't explain why the Yamato clan wanted it," protested Shinji. Hikari's patience went past the limit.

"I'm not going to further explain this anymore Shinji. Go look up the online articles!" she growled. Her anger subsided when Shinji wrapped his arms around her.

"Geez, relax Hikari. I totally fail at stuff like that ok? What matters I'm still standing here instead of ending up like aniki last holiday," Shinji told Hikari. Hikari thought back of her vivid dream last night. It sounded like what she had just recited. Was that, perhaps, the fall of the Yuki state? If so, where is the crystal rock now? That woman was seriously injured and died. She said something about the crystal before she died. Damn, why does my brain tend to stop working when crucial details are required?? Hikari mentally kicked herself. She vaguely heard Shinji call her back from reality.

"I heard you Shinji," she told the older boy nonchalantly when he kept repeating her name.

"Well… I thought you went back to those days when you were prone to fainting," was the smart rebut she got. Hikari recalled what she had been thinking of before Shinji decided to interfere with his cold cut remarks.

"Ne, Shinji, last night – " she started to say but the bell was heard ringing faintly away. She mentally cursed the bell to one day break down beyond repair.

"Tell me about it later. Don't forget to not use first name basis when there are other people around," Shinji reminded her. "I know. I'll get killed by your fangirls if I did. I mean, you ARE the most untypical popular guy ever," Hikari said and ran to her class where Nozomi was already seated.

"Hurry up Hikari, the teacher's going to arrive anytime," Nozomi told Hikari who was just getting out her stationery. Hikari's mind subconsciously went back to her dream. Maybe it would be better if she looked up the section of the fall of the Yuki state again.

Didn't think that I'll do my homework right? The war I made it up, but the rest was taken from a history article.