Disclaimer: I shall officially hate disclaimers for the rest of my life. I don't own Pokemon and how many more times do I have to type this in?
Chapter 4 now. This story was starting to get on my nerves coz of its original inability to complete. But that's solved now. I'll upload the other one on Friday. Will have to rush chapter 9 tonight and start on chapter 10 or I'll really be FAR behind.
Chapter 4: Mystery Book
After lunch saw something new. Hikari noticed a violet card on almost every girl's desk, except hers and Nozomi's. There was some writing on the inside that was too small for her to see clearly. Nozomi noticed them as well. She turned to the group of girls gossiping at the back of the class.
"Shingo-san!" Nozomi called. The girl being addressed turned back to face Nozomi. Nozomi held up the violet card and asked, "What this?" The girl called Shingo walked up to Nozomi.
"Oh. You didn't one?" Shingo said as she took the card from Nozomi, "I think that's because you are friends with him so…"
Hikari was puzzled. "Friends with whom? Kengo? Satoshi? Ikari?" she asked. Shingo opened the card.
"It's calling all girls to join something called 'The Ikari Fanclub'. But personally, I was wondering myself whether such a club can be allowed to exist," Shingo shrugged. She threw the card into the trash can. "I feel sorry for Ikari. He's attracting more attention from that discovery in the ruins," said Shingo and she went back to her group of friends, leaving Hikari and Nozomi's mind a blank. Ikari Fanclub?! Hikari mouthed the words to Nozomi. The red haired girl was puzzled as well. After thinking for a while, she told Hikari, "Just ask Ikari after school."
End of school. Hikari never felt more depressed. Although Nozomi shared the same class with her, Kengo wanted to go somewhere with Nozomi, leaving Hikari to walk home solo. Satoshi, Haruka and Shinji were all in the same grade but Satoshi and Haruka had to study together or nothing will go into Satoshi's head. That left Shinji who was free. Hikari did not quite like the idea of being murdered by the new members of that strange fanclub, so she left on her own. When she opened her shoe locker, the first thing she noticed was not her shoes, but a piece of ripped paper from a notebook. It read, 'I want to ask you something else. Go to my house after school. Shinji'. Hikari quickly tore in up in case someone behind her saw it. She quickly changed shoes and left, scattering the bits of paper in the snow.
"Oka-san! Tadaima!" Hikari called as she opened the door. Nobody answered her. Oka-san must have gone to work then, Hikari thought to herself as she ran into her room. She dumped her schoolbag and went to the bathroom to change out of her school uniform. Something caught her eye when she came out. It was a small cage set in a corner of her room. It was set so carefully that it was almost unnoticeable. Hikari changed into casual clothes and went to inspect it.
In the cage was a small hamster. It was curled up in a fur ball, obviously asleep. A food bowl heaped with food was in the middle of the cage and a drinking bottle hung from the side. An exercise wheel was on the other side of the door. A note was taped on the cage.
'Hikari, you always wanted a pet to care for. So I got this hamster. It will be better than a fish you originally wanted. It will be your responsibility to keep the cage clean and feed the hamster with water daily. Mum'
Hikari wanted to jump in joy. A hamster was definitely WAY better than a fish. The hamster sensed the presence of another person and woke up, its whiskers twitching and the ears flattened against its head. Hikari took it out gingerly. The hamster seemed to be slightly frightened but stayed quite still. Hikari smiled at it and put it back. It went straight back to its corner and fell asleep.
Her cell phone rang, breaking the silence of the house and nearly scaring Hikari. The caller identity on the phone showed that it was Shinji. "H-hello?" Hikari asked shakily.
"Hikari, did you get my message?" Shinji said on the other side.
"Yeah. I was going to leave now really," replied Hikari.
"Penalty for lateness is to get snowballed," said Shinji seriously and hung up. Hikari wanted to laugh. Shinji sure gets serious about such trivial things. She put on a winter jacket and ran to Shinji's house at the end of the street.
The house loomed over Hikari when she arrived, blocking the sun from shining into her face. Technically, it should be a mansion instead. She stopped in front of the gates and saw a medium sized dog with golden fur pounce joyfully over to her.
"Hi Sun," she greeted as the dog barked. She petted in on the head as Reiji ran over.
"Sun! I told you not to run anywhere you liked," Reiji said sternly. He noticed Hikari standing outside the gate as Sun's ears drooped.
"Hi, Hikari-kun. Did Shinji call you over?"
Hikari nodded. "Can you let me in? It's freezing," she said. Reiji nodded and gave her a signal to wait for a moment. The gate swung open and Sun literally tackled Hikari to the ground and nuzzled her face affectionately.
"Ok, Sun," she laughed, "Can I get up now?" The dog walked away as Hikari stood up, brushing snow from her body. She went in and Sun followed happily. Reiji opened the door for Hikari but stopped Sun from going in.
"I'll take Sun to the back of the house. You can drop by to play with him later," Reiji told Hikari and shut the door.
Hikari walked up to the third floor where Shinji's room occupied the entire level. She knocked on the only door there. The door immediately opened but there was nobody behind it. The room was shrouded in darkness, even the windows were tightly sealed from the blinding light reflected by the snow outside. Hikari walked in cautiously. The door squeaked as it seemed to shut on its own. The only light in the room was the flickering screen of the computer on the other side of the room.
"S-Shinji?" Hikari called tentatively. Her steps were nervous as she made her way to the computer. The information there was interesting enough to capture her attention until…
"Hikari? What are you doing?" Shinji asked suddenly behind her. Hikari's life force was nearly scared out of her. After some processing that the voice was Shinji's, she tried to calm down her racing heartbeat.
"What the HECK are you doing behind me?!" she demanded, her actions ready to kill him.
"Whoa, relax Berlitz," Shinji replied quickly his hands half raised in surrender, "I went to the kitchen and knew that you reached my room just as I found some snacks so I opened the door via a remote. I just got back and here you are demanding to know what I was doing." He left and the lights came on. She took a quick glance around the room. It had not changed much since she was here last spring to prepare for a surprise birthday present for Haruka. The modern design of the room gave it a rather cold atmosphere. Most of the furniture were made of either metal or glass. A large television stood at the far right side of the level, partly covered by a movable partition. A low platform was in front of the television with a bed hollowed out from the center. The bathroom was situated just outside the partition and covered a rather large area by itself.
Hikari's heartbeat slowed to its usual pace and turned to face Shinji angrily who was looking past the curtains covering the windows. "Ok Shinji, what did you ask me here for?" she asked. Shinji deliberately avoided the question and walked innocently to the side of his bed with Hikari following angrily in tow. She sat down Japanese style in front of the Shinji who was flipping through a book that looked rather old.
"So, Ikari, have you any purpose you called me over?" asked Hikari who was a little aware that she may be talking to a wall. A living, moving wall. "Or you can't wait until tomorrow?"
Shinji looked up briefly. "Wait until tomorrow for what?" he asked. Hikari wanted to kick his head. Sometimes she thought that Shinji had been annoying Satoshi for too long until he got Satoshi's denseness virus. His eyes flickered back to the book he was browsing through and handed it to Hikari.
"I just thought that it may help you with your end of year history project," was the brief sentence she got. The book had no title but the content was interesting. Hikari waned to dance; it was the extra information of the Yamato conquers she wanted but there were no other records on other books of it.
"OH MY GOD!! Thanks Shinji!! You really are the best!!" Hikari nearly shrieked and kissed him quickly on his cheek before flipping through the pages. She completely failed to notice that red blood was rushing up to Shinji's face.
Hikari stared at the page. It was a picture that consisted of five diagrams that stretched from right to left. The diagrams were in color and she vaguely wondered where it came from. The five pictures were all the same and it varied from color to color until it became a rainbow. It was the shape of the picture that caught her attention. Could it be…?
"Shinji. Where did you get this?" she asked, her eyes never leaving the drawings of the crystal. Shinji who had been daydreaming while staring blankly at the ceiling looked at her.
"From a random stranger. Where else did you think I can get it from?" he replied in a sarcastic manner. Then he noticed that Hikari under her seemingly cool exterior. Something was up. Hikari never got panicked over a bit of history discrepancy.
"Actually… There was something I wanted to tell you in the morning, but there wasn't time. Then when you showed the ruin photos to the others and I decoded the Unown prophecy, I didn't think there was a link…" Hikari mumbled, mostly to herself. Shinji's ears were not that sensitive though.
"Huh? Speak louder Hikari," he said. Hikari seemed to be oblivious to everything from the outside world. Now Shinji was starting to worry.
"Hikari??" he asked again. This time it had the desired effect. Hikari's attention tore away from the book and looked at him. "Yes?" she replied in a monotone voice. Her face was paler than usual. Now I really wanna know what was causing her to panic, Shinji thought to himself. Hikari, on the other hand, was really starting to lose her mind. Shinji sighed and took the book away. Hikari did not resist and allowed the book to slip through her hands. Shinji placed his hands on her shoulders and shook her gently.
"Hikari, are you realy ok?" he asked. "Maybe you should go home and rest. I'll take you home. Come on." Hikari's mind was still in a state of shock, confusion and let Shinji to help her up and lead her home. Even the sudden change in temperature and the chilling wind had no effect on her. She felt like her world had gone numb.
When Shinji somehow got her keys and opened the door, Hikari went inside out of instinct. "Are you really fine?" asked Shinji just as he was about to leave. Hikari nodded, although barely noticeable. "Yeah, thanks," she murmured and shut the door, leaving Shinji outside deeply concerned although he did not show it. Checking the time o his watch, he turned around and set off down the street.
4th chapter dooooooooooooone...!! Now to finish up 9.