Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon nor the characters. Well… If I did… If I did… er… Shinji will be less cold. He'll be the hottest guy ever created XD

5th chapter, someone dance with me!! Almost everything will be revealed here. Almost.

Chapter 5: Truth

Hikari did not turn up in school the next day. Nozomi had called on Hikari earlier and Ayako said she was down with a slight fever. On the exterior, Shinji did not seem to care, which was the appearance he was supposed to be giving others. On the inside, he was really worried. He thought that she would be happy finding information that was not usually obtainable.

"Ne, Nozomi," Haruka addressed the flame-haired tomboy to change the subject and break the strange silence. "Aren't you supposed to be going back to Yosuka City next week?" Nozomi gave a blank stare.

"Go to Yosuka? For what?" she asked.

Haruka looked slightly worried. "You go to Yosuka every year. You said that you were from Yosuka when you moved here."

Nozomi's eyes reflected panic. "I never said I was from Yosuka. I'm from Futaba."

Kengo and Satoshi were surprised as well. "But Nozomi, only Hikari and I are from Futaba. You said that you were from Yosuka. Haruka was from Touka in Hoenn, Ikari from Tobari and Satoshi from Masara, Kanto," Kengo said.

Nozomi shook her head. "Not possible!! I'm from Futaba!" she replied, her voice laced with a hysterical tone.

"You moved here when you were five. Across the road from Hikari," Satoshi pointed out.

"Wrong!! I was BORN in Futaba!!"

"Akada Nozomi, relax," Haruka said firmly but Nozomi was still panicking.

"I'm not Akada Nozomi! I'm Kido Nozomi!!"

All, except Shinji were stunned.

"But – but Nozomi," Haruka stuttered, "the only Kido Nozomi here… Is-is dead!!" Hearing that fact from Haruka, Shinji's interest in the matter shot up sky high.

"Kido Nozomi was hit by a swerving truck that skidded out of control when she was five. Around the mid winter," Satoshi continued for Haruka. Shinji suddenly stood up, shocking everyone.

"I'm going to Hikari's house," he merely stated and left. The four of them were stunned, especially Haruka and Nozomi.

"Did… Ikari-san... just called Hikari-chan as 'Hikari'?"asked Kengo.

"No suffix at the end? Not even a '-san', '-chan' or '-kun'?" inquired Haruka.

Nozomi shook her head. "Nope, no suffix. I heard it distinctly."

Satoshi scratched his head. "Strange, he always referred to Hikari as 'Berlitz'."

Hikari sat on her queen sized bed and stared out of the window from her bedroom on the second floor. Outside was the same scenery she had seen every year. Pure white snow on the sidewalks, flower pots and rooftops while the road remained a contrasting black. She turned her attention to the furball running happily across her bed. At least something's having fun, she thought as her mind wandered back to the diagrams in the book Shinji had shown her. It disturbed her that the picture was drawn like something right down to the exact detail. But resembling what? Hikari sure hated her memory at times like this. She watched Kawaii tumble down from the pillow it was attempting to scale subconsciously. Ayako had gone to work shortly after telling Nozomi that Hikari was sick, and it left Hikari in the house alone. The arrangement was perfectly fine by Hiakri who wanted to recollect her memories to find out what had been nagging her mind for so long.

The doorbell suddenly rang, cutting through the silence in the house like a knife, scaring both human and hamster. Kawaii squeaked in annoyance. Hikari quickly scooped up the hamster, put it back in the cage and ran to the door. She turned the knob and the person on the other side pushed the door open forcefully.

"What the…?" Hikari started to say but the hair colour visible just above the scarf told her another story; that a certain someone had skipped school. "Shinji?!"

The person addressed tugged away the scarf and took a deep breath. He nearly suffocated himself with the scarf in his hurry to get to Hikari's house. He scanned Hikari up and down. Nozomi was half right, Hikari's face was pale and her face slightly flushed. But she lacked the other symptoms a fever victim usually displayed.

"Hikari, I heard from Akada. Are you really alright? You seem… strange since yesterday," he said. Hikari closed the door quickly. The winter air was making her house chilly. "Er, yeah. More or less," she replied. "Erm, you can leave your jacket over there." She pointed to a clothes stand by the TV. But a moving clump of cream coloured fur caught her eye.

"KAWAII!!" she cried, scooting over to pick up the little rodent. Kawaii turned around on her hand, looking for a safe spot to jump from. Shinji looked at the hamster. "New pet?" he asked. Hikari stood up. "Yeah," she answered, "Wonder how it got out. I'll put it back so give me a minute ok?" She ran up to her room, leaving Shinji alone in the living room. Her house was much smaller than his own. An electric heater stood in a corner of the living room. The brand of the heater was spelled out in big letters, so big that the word Heatran was readable from where Shinji was standing. A large blue sofa stood between two other smaller lighter blue sofas. A glass table was standing in front of the large TV. Hikari appeared from the stairs.

"Ahaha, sorry Shinji," she apologized. "I didn't realize that I forgot to lock the cage." She looked at the clock. "So what brings you here when school is not yet out?" Shinji sat down on a sofa while Hikari took the one beside him.

"Didn't you have something to tell yesterday morning?" he asked. Hikari tried to recall what she had wanted to say. Then it hit her hard. The diagrams in the book were exactly the same as the one she saw in her dream, the same white crystal a certain dead soul had been talking about, and what the conquering army were after. "My god…" she said quietly to herself.

"What?" Shinji asked. "Hikari, you really have to speak louder."

Hikari looked up. "Oh, sorry, I was talking to myself," she said. "So what did your uncle and Reiji-san say about that bit of Unown phrase?"

"They said that there might be some chance that the six hundred year old crystal existed. If it still exists, they want to find it and study it," he replied, then saw Hikari looking at the ground. "Why do you ask?"

Hikari did not look up. "Shinji, what if I said that I know where the crystal is?" she said softly. Shinji looked at her incredulously. "Really?" he asked in astonishment. Hikari picked up the TV remote and switched on the TV. She turned to Shinji and nodded. "Well, then where is it?" he demanded. The TV's bright lights flashed across the room as Hikari had drawn the curtains to prevent the blinding light from infiltrating the room.

"Need a TV? Rotom sets are the answer for all your entertainment needs," the advertisement announced happily. The silence resumed after Hikari switched to an AV channel and the screen turned pure blue.

Hikari sighed. "Ok, you probably won't believe me but your part time job as an archaeologist forces you to read into superstition, but all current logic defies what I have to tell you. But still, seeing your kind of character it might not look convincing as-"

Shinji raised his hand, motioning her to stop. "Ok ok, stop going around in circles. Where is it?" he asked. Hikari looked at the TV screen. "Maybe she could give you a better explanation," she answered while pointing at the screen. Shinji looked at the screen. To his shock, instead of seeing the usual blue screen, he saw a woman's face. Her hairstyle was akin to those from the Feudal era. She bore striking resemblance to Hikari, Shinji noted. From the hair colour to the facial outlines.

"I'm sorry. Did I startle your friend?" asked the woman in the TV. Hikari giggled. "Well, who would have expected to see a person on screen without the aid of a DVD player?"

Shinji looked back and forth between his girlfriend and the woman in the TV. "You KNOW each other?" he said incredulously. Hikari smiled and got up. "Shinji," she said gently, "Meet the person I was in my past: queen of the Yuki state, Hikari Yuuda." It took five full minutes for Shinji to process that bit of information. "REINCARNATION??" he exclaimed much later. "He took it better than I thought," Hikari told the Hikari in the TV. "You better give me a proper explanation for this," Shinji mumbled. TV Hikari shrugged, "Well, if that's what you want… But I think it would be better if she had the honour of explaining it."

Flashback

Shortly after she returned from Shinji's house, Hikari developed a massive headache and nearly collapsed. Ayako noticed that Hikari was straining herself to stay wary.

"Hikari!! You should go to bed right now," Ayako said firmly. Hikari tried to protest, saying that she had homework but Ayako was having none of it."If you are still feeling unwell in the morning, I'll inform Akada when she comes around tomorrow morning." With that, Ayako gave Hikari some aspirin and made her sleep.

What Hikari saw in her dream was exactly the same as what she saw in the previous night. The burning castle, someone saving a treasure but sustained a fatal injury in the process. But after that, Hikari found herself floating in some kind of space. Someone was standing in front of her. A woman who looked exactly the same as the one who had died.

"That was what happened when I tried to save the precious rock," she said, looking at a screen where the fight was being replayed. Hikari was still speechless.

"YOU were the one they shot??" she asked. More of a shout than a question, she noted mentally. The woman looked at her, her features finally visible. Hikari nearly screamed, the woman had looked exactly like her, only older.

"OK, cut the crap. Who are you? Why are you here? What do you want?" Hikari shot question after question. The woman touched the screen briefly before answering, "I am, or what I used to be, the queen of the Yuki state. As you can see already, I took the crystal to safety but ended up being another head for the death toll."

Hikari nodded, following the story well. "But you said to burn the crystal so that you can take it to you to afterlife," Hikari noted. The queen nodded. "Yes, I was reincarnated twice before becoming you, Hikari Berlitz."

Hikari really wanted out of this nightmare. "WHAT!! I had two more lives?!" she shouted. Luckily, she was in the dream world, her mother would not be able to hear her. Two more screens appeared. One containing the remains of a bombed building with a girl with visible blue hair was bring crushed by a large piece of the wall, and another where a similar girl was on a tall building, looking down at an enormous flood.

"Twice I was reborn as human, twice I have met with weather disasters. In those days there were no such things as the Absol Phenomenon Institute to send instant information about any strange weather patterns. There were also no direct TV broadcasting from the Castform Weather Report about any weather occurence," the woman continued to explain. Hikari stifled a laugh; the Absol Phenomenon Institute was a fairly new organization which succeeded beyond anyone's imagination. The Castform Weather Report was the side organization that worked for Jubilife TV Station, broadcasting weather after the news every morning and night

"The first reincarnation, the country was at war with other countries. Worse, there was a drought as well. The Hikari then, happened to be under a large piece of falling wall that crumbled from a bomb blast." The first screen showed a huge explosion then a girl crushed under a wall. Hikari tried to forget the disturbing bit of video.

"The second reincarnation was in a country potential to weather hazards. Endless rain plagued the city, resulting in a huge flood. But it was lucky the Hikari of that time escaped harm. Somehow, she managed to tap into the crystal's power to save herself." The girl in the second screen was looking sorrowfully down at the underwater city.

Hikari thought of something. "But where is the crystal?" The woman made all three screens vanish. "The crystal was inside them all along, tied to their soul. Should they, the vessel themselves perish, the crystal bound to the soul will bring the soul to a new body to reside. The new body becomes the vessel. Their destiny is very simple. All they have to do is to keep the crystal safe until it turned into a Rainbow crystal." The woman pointed at Hikari. There was a reddish orange glow coming from her. "What the-!!" she exclaimed. From her, out came a crystal. The red colour from the left side blended beautifully with the yellow from the left side, creating a deep sunset orange. "So, I'm the new vessel?" she asked. The woman nodded happily. "Yup, you are my latest reincarnation. Also the last vessel to ever hold the crystal in custody. However, there is something I should really tell you."

Hikari looked up, surprised at the sudden serious tone. "What?" she asked.

"Apparently, if you happen to perish, the crystal, after it has turned into a rainbow crystal, is easily available to anyone who wants it, whether for a good or evil purpose. I myself have not uncovered the mysterious powers of the crystal. To obtain the crystal in any way, you will have to die," said the woman, her face showing zero signs of joking. She looked away for a moment. "That boyfriend of yours, Shinji Ikari, someone close to him is wanting the crystal desperately. I will advise you to be more wary of people around you. If you ever want to find me, just switch on your TV to the AV channel. And now, the time has come for you to return to reality."

Hikari woke up with a jolt. She could hear her mother talking to Nozomi downstairs. She waited until much later when she was certain her mother had left, she went downstairs to draw the curtains. Outside people may think she was slightly on the lunatic side if she was found talking to a TV. After confirming that the Hikari of the Feudal era will talk to Shinji if he ever came asking about the cargo she was holding onto, Hikari finally allowed her restless hamster out for a run. What she did not expect was to see Shinji outside her doorstep during school hours.

End of flashback

Shinji was deep in thought. "You were saying, that all the carriers of the crystal can tap into the crystal's power somehow?" he asked. Hikari Yuuda nodded. "That is possible only through an emotional surge. Like the pure terror of dying r something equally devastating," she confirmed. Shinji looked at Hikari. "What?" she asked irritably. "Nothing," he answered, "Thanks Yuuda-san." TV Hikari smiled and slowly vanished.

"You heard her," Hikari said nonchalantly, "I'll have to die if you wanna study that crystal." Shinji kept quiet. "Shinji? Hello?" Hikari asked with concern. Finally, after some time, Shinji decided to ask Hikari that one thing that had been troubling him.

"Hikari, do you know of a dead person by the name of Kido Nozomi?"

Eh... Chapter 9 is longer than I expected... But I'll manage. The little button on the bottom left hand corner is begging to be hit. So please fulfil its request