EPILOGUE

As the new heads of the Niwa Estate, Musashi and Kojiro took on the duty of greeting the guests as they came in. For a time they would do this, and then the butler would take over. Neither Musashi nor Kojiro minded much and in fact took an odd liking to it.

Musashi dressed in a festive dress in red, green and blue and hints of snowy white and looking rather like a Christmas present. It shone and sparkled like gift wrap and ribbon. Although a tad on the eccentric side it appeared tasteful, except perhaps for her wild hat that looked something like a Christmas volcano and the coiling tinsel ribbons in her hair that looked something like the spurts of smoke amidst her raspberry lava hair, but she somehow pull it all off with a playful grace. Kojiro was not quite as flamboyant in dress, for his suit in design proved rather like any of the other visitors, but it was colored much the same as Musashi's and the four-in-hand necktie glistened silvery like the tinsel in Musashi's hair.

Their intent was to change the stiff formality of the Niwa Christmas parties so that the décor showed signs of their eccentricities. Although not intending to cause too much of a stir and wanting everyone to enjoy themselves, the fact that most of the usual guests his parents invited year after year and Kojiro's new guests (mostly relations and friends on his aunt and uncle's side and a couple friends he had made in Hoenn) there seemed to be at least a bit of a clash, for one half of the guests remained around his parents and the other mingled about on the opposite side. There did not seem to be much of an actual conflict, but it did make the party a tad more awkward than Kojiro would have liked. Not to mention than unlike most parties that used to be set up in the Niwa Estate the children were more than welcome and encouraged to come. His daughter Bara he had been in charge of the children's activities.

What would be said about the party afterward time would simply have to tell, but it would be the talk, for better or for ill, of the next couple months in the aristocratic realm of the Kanto Region and beyond.

Kojiro took no thought of that now however and greeted every person as cordially as the other whether his parents' guests or his own, and Musashi followed the example, though she did weary of it faster than he did.

The time for greeting guests drew to a close, and Musashi who kept an eye out for the clock whenever it did not look too out of place, finally turned to Kojiro and pulled him to her to whisper, "Aren't you getting hungry yet?"

Glancing up at the clock for the first time since they had been stationed here, Kojiro shrugged, "Just a couple more minutes."

Musashi rolled her eyes.

"Just a couple more minutes," she muttered and sighed as another guest entered the manor at the opening of the door by a servant's hand.

The guest along with his wife and two nearly grown children entered, and Kojiro and Musashi as with all the other guests, greeted them with all cordial grace. After the guests were directed into the main hall and the ballroom beyond, the main doors yet again opened.

Musashi holding in a squint turned back to the door, unsure how much longer she could stand there, when both she and Kojiro started in surprise to see who the servant led inside.

Dressed in clothes Kojiro had given him back when Kojiro first offered friendship (though the suit itself most likely was rented) he stood. Not since the Team Rocket days had he been so clean shaven. His hair, he had cut short and appeared to be slightly gelled and completely managed, nothing like the crazed, caveman hair he had possessed for so long a time that it was if he had been hiding under a bush all and had suddenly emerged, a little pale, a little worn, older but more than welcome. With some timidity and looking about like a dog who had found himself in a party of cats, he approached Kojiro and Musashi. He smiled, a tad sickly, but his face had not seen the light of a genuine smile for quite some time. He had a present in a small neatly wrapped package which he handed to the lord and lady of the house still trying to recover from their surprise.

"Sorry if it's too late to accept the invitation," Kosaburo asked.

With the package in his hand, Kojiro broke out of the stupor before Musashi, and a broad smile spread out across his face as he stepped forward toward his guest.

"No, it's not too late," said Kojiro. "In fact, you're just in time." He paused looking down at the present in his hands, and then looking back to Kosaburo he said, "Arigatou," with a polite bow.

Kosaburo rolled his eyes. "It's not much really, it's just a thank you," he said with a very humble bow of his own, "and an apology even though it's hardly enough to make up for how I acted."

Frowning, Musashi just caught herself from saying something along the lines of, "You bet this isn't enough to gain forgiveness for how you treated Kojiro." With a heavy sigh, she smiled instead, a very honest smile, for as she glanced at Kojiro, she knew that just his being here was enough of a thank you and an apology for him.

Before Kosaburo was led completely out of sight, Musashi left Kojiro's side a moment, and running up to Kosaburo, she caught him by the sleeve. Kosaburo turned quite alarmed, but Musashi put things right soon enough.

"Thank you, Kosaburo," she said. "Thank you so much for coming. You don't know how happy you just made Kojiro."

Kosaburo shook his head. "Doushite desuka?"

He did not receive his answer. Musashi only smiled and began to explain to him the events of the evening. Leading him into the ballroom she distracted him with the many different dances and things to eat and the music and the games. Everything she could think of. She introduced Kosaburo to her three oldest children Bara, Fuuyuki, and Ichiro who were considered old enough to be on the adult side of the party at least for a while.

Although not forgetting his question, he did find himself rather lost in a fog as Musashi helped him get a dance partner and helped him find the choicest food to eat. Kojiro eventually took over leading him around, and catching him in between dances he said, "Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Well," Kosaburo admitted. "Except for the fact that I feel like I'm trouncing around with the royal court of King Louis the something or other I guess I can't complain."

He smiled wryly to show he was only joking, and Kojiro smiled back though a tad apologetically.

"Eh," said Kosaburo waving a hand aside. "Don't worry about it. Go entertain your other guests. I got a partner to dance with and a full plate to come back to. I'm not the only guest here. Get outa here."

Kojiro nodded with energy and did as bidden; though not without saying, "I think your partner's waiting by the way." He motioned behind him.

On the other side of the ballroom as Kojiro went to hunt down Musashi, he quite out of nowhere felt a lump on his head.

"Nyaasu?" he asked.

"That was different," Nyaasu laughed. "You actually telling some poor guy to dance with a painted up woman, nya."

"Oh, knock it off, Nyaasu," said Kojiro lifting a glass of Bailey's to his lips.

"Ny-o hontou!" Nyaasu went on. He paused a moment to ask, "Bailey's! Nya! I want some of that," as he snatched the glass away with a cry of protest from Kojiro. "After all that fuss about girls in the past and ny-ow your married to one," He took a few gulps "you talk to your girly cousins, "He took a few more. "And ny-ow you're playing matchmaker, nya."

He sniggered and was about to drink some more when Kojiro snatched the glass away.

"Remember what Musashi said about you getting drunk?" Kojiro demanded.

Nyaasu snatched the glass back.

"Oh, c'mon, nya," said Nyaasu patting Kojiro's head. "You can't get drunk on Bailey's."

"How many of those glasses have you had?" Kojiro pressed as he once more took hold of the glass only to find that it had been emptied.

With a sigh and roll of his eyes, he set the glass where a servant would have it removed.

"I'm n-yot drunk, nya," protested Nyaasu. "I'm just enjoying myself at your expense."

"Yeah well if you're gunna be that way about it than it's undignified for a pokémon to be on the lord of the manor's head," grumbled Kojiro.

"Ny-e, ny-e, ny-e! I'm joking, I'm joking," said Nyaasu patting his head again and snatching up another glass of Bailey's he handed it Kojiro.

Kojiro smiled, rolled his eyes and took his sip.

"Thank you," he said.

"My debt is repaid, nya," laughed Nyaasu. "But seriously, I bet the Cook that he wouldn't show up and ny-ow I owe him three days worth of cooking after Ny-ew Years, nya."

"That's your problem then," sighed Kojiro. "I don't feel a bit sorry for you."

"Cruel, Kojiro, cruel, nya." The cat thought about taking the glass back at such a comment as that, but he changed his mind as he asked, "So, Kojiro, why did you ask him to come an-yee-way? What made you think he'd come?"

"I didn't," admitted Kojiro. "I just wanted to give him another chance, and why invite him to the Christmas party? I dunno. I guess, it just sounded good at the time."

"This doesn't necessarily mean he's changed, Koji boy," Nyaasu told him in all seriousness.

"Of course it doesn't," retorted Kojiro, and he paused looking thoughtfully as he drank from his glass before he spoke again, "but then, if you think about it. It would have to take a lot of courage to come here and to ask for my forgiveness. You know, my forgiveness. Me, when all he usually thinks of me as is …"

"He actually asked for your forgiveny-ess?" interrupted Nyaasu, quite impressed.

"He did," said Kojiro.

Nyaasu shrugged. "Then maybe there's hope for him yet, nya."

#

Mr. and Mrs. Niwa, Kojiro and Musashi, somehow convinced me to spend the night. After most of the other guests had gone, they told me that it was far too late for me to go back home. There was no arguing with them. Before I could say anything against them, I found myself in a guest room with something to change into for sleep (and a pair of slippers to scuffle in). I was too tired to think about it all much, and aside from noticing with distaste the antique frill of the night shirt I went to sleep without further thought.

In the morning, clearer of mind and feeling that I should leave before they pressed me to stay after breakfast as I had already been snagged to eat with the Niwa family, I hurried out with a fairly quick good bye. No one seemed to stop me so, satisfied, I started on my way. I should have gone faster though, for I had just passed the fountain in the middle of the courtyard when I heard someone running after me.

"Matte!"

I should have also known who it would be before I heard him.

"Kojiro," I grumbled.

"Here, you forgot this," he said handing me a box.

I glanced.

"Cookies," I muttered.

"Well, they'll go to waste otherwise," laughed Kojiro. "There was so many made, and even though Nyaasu and the children wanted to claim them, they don't need all that anyway, and uh, … sayonara."

With a wide grin he turned to leave, but I was not about to let him leave like that just yet.

"Hey," I said.

Kojiro spun around.

"Hai?" he asked with warranted uncertainty.

"Do you mind me asking," I said now that we had the privacy of the courtyard. "What exactly happened to you?"

"What do you mean?" Kojiro asked now very confused.

"You know exactly what I mean," I grunted. "You didn't get like this after some slow progression of maturity even if that's part of it."

A look of uneasiness overcame Kojiro now.

"Musashi said that you were different all the way back when," I said. "She said you saved all four of us from being shadow agents. She said she wouldn't have married you if things had been like they had been before."

"She said all that?" asked Kojiro timidly.

Crossing my arms and leaning back against the fountain so that I had to turn my head to the side to talk to him, I ignored his question and went on. "I thought she was just being an idiot, but I'm starting to see that something came over you a long time ago that made you stop being an agent and whatever else you were doing at the time. You're not how you were when I saw you before. What happened?"

Kojiro paused, fidgeting, and looking down at the frozen, shoveled, stone ground he nodded.

"Yes, I, uh … guess that does deserve some kind of explanation, doesn't it."

"Yeah."

Taking a deep breath he said, "It's kind of complicated. It might take a long time to explain. It might better if we —"

I interrupted with a shrug and said, "Shorten it. I just want the drift. I'm not sure I want to know every detail anyway."

Again Kojiro nodded though looking hesitant. "Okay, okay, just a minute, let me think how to start."

He tapped his chin a moment, twiddled his fingers, and paced a few times with arms wrapped around his back. At last when I felt my patience wearing thin he stopped and said, "I was bad."

"Yeah, I know that," I grumbled.

"No, but that's part of it," said Kojiro. "Before the real serious stuff happened, just a few weeks before, actually, well, I visited my summer home."

"No wonder you guys didn't get any work done running all over the place like that," I said with a shrug.

Kojiro laughed, but not totally with humor as he stared out at the stony walk, and his mind slowly drifted back to some past realm.

"It wasn't for vacation," he told me. "It was for, well, my chimecho was sick. There were no Pokémon Centers around, and I remembered that the servants who took care of the summer home nearby knew all about curing pokémon. I brought him there, but I didn't want them to know I was a Team Rocket Agent."

"Understandable."

"But they knew it all along," said Kojiro, still not looking at me; perhaps he dared not to. "They told me that deep down inside I was a good person, but that wasn't true. I was a terrible person. They still didn't understand. I didn't even myself. I was just as evil as you were if not more. I just sucked at it. I tried to kill little kids. I blackmailed little kids. I was awful. Not to mention the fact that I was just an overall creep to the point where some people thought I was gay."

"Well …" I decided against finishing what passed through my mind, and that is just as well.

"But I wasn't! Not ever!" he snapped suddenly before he fell again into that hypnotic trance in his memories yet again. "That old couple still thought of me as that little boy that came there when he was freed from a school year of a million tutors."

"So that's what changed you?" I asked.

Kojiro shook his head. "No."

"Then what that got to do with anything?" I demanded.

"That I didn't change," he said. "I felt guilty, I protected the greenhouse from burglary, but I couldn't stay. I did not want to change. I didn't change. That's the point."

I sighed and thought with some annoyance that if I wanted to know what happened to Kojiro, I would have to be patient and let him do it his own way, despite how much I told him to skip the details.

"Alright, go on," I pressed.

"Well," Kojiro said. "It was a few weeks afterward, maybe a month or so, I don't know. I didn't really keep track of time then, especially by then. I, well … you're gunna probably think I'm crazy if I tell you."

"Go on," I said again with only the slightest hesitation.

With a small gulp, he glanced at me only briefly. Although he straightened himself, he ended in diverting his gaze again.

"I … uh … we … uh … I got separated from Musashi and Nyaasu was already lost," he finally said. "A big sea monster tried to kill me. I wandered around for … I don't know how long. Long. I guess. There was no human being around, and I got more and more lost. I tried to find Musashi in the desert. I thought I'd find her out there. She wasn't there. I ended up being a prisoner. These creatures like talking pokémon were everywhere."

"Phantom pokémon?" I offered.

Again he glanced at me, his face rather blank for a moment.

"You know," I said. "Phantom pokémon."

"I know what phantom pokémon are," he muttered. "Unfortunately." But he did not say if my guess was correct.

"Okay, so they captured you and …?"

"They were going to auction me off, but I escaped with another … creature, but he just led me to an even worse … creature. The worst creature I've ever seen in my entire life! He whispered horrible things to me, and I don't remember them, but I remember how sick I felt. I remember almost wishing I could die, but I didn't want to die, and they didn't want me to die either. They wanted me to … to … to … be their puppet to control the creatures that lived there or something. They tried to destroy me, more than I already was destroyed, and I thought Musashi and Nyaasu were dead, and I thought I would never escape that rotten, old tower. They wanted to … well, destroy my heart, the little that was left of it, and they almost succeeded, and …"

I raised a brow but otherwise remained unmoved as I said, "They did …?"

Swallowing hard, Kojiro nodded.

"And why didn't they?"

He turned to me very strangely then, very mysteriously and said in the simplest way a person could, "I was rescued." A small smile appeared on his face before it fell again. "I was given a second chance. Iya, a last chance." He paused. "I took it. It was really slow after that, but I took it, and by the time we were back in Hoenn I went back home, and Musashi and Nyaasu chased after me because we were a team, and they didn't want to go back to Team Rocket without me if they could 'snap me out of' what came over me. I never snapped out of it entirely, and I hope I never do."

I did not ask that day who had rescued him that had left such an impression on him. If I had I probably would have indeed called him crazy. Then as it was, I felt on the verge of calling him that, but I could think of no better explanation for his change unless he truly was insane and had been most of his life. Honestly, I would not have put it past him, but I had done enough calling him names. Besides, I knew that there had to be some ring of truth in what he said. The world was a mysterious place, and Musashi and Kojiro wandering around as they had with no contact or direction except following some boisterous, carefree boy trouncing the whole Nation and beyond. It would not surprise me in the least if somewhere along the way the pair and their talking pokémon got separated. Beside, speaking of crazy, if he was crazy, I suppose I was too, thinking back on my own life and how I happened to live it.

We parted shortly after he ended his account. I did not look back that day, but I often returned after that. I calmed down, my anger slowly dissipated. Believe it or not within a year's time I found myself in love and engaged to one of Kojiro's cousins' friends. I had got my final chance too apparently, and I took it, and it is one of the finest decisions I have ever made, my happy and optimistic Miki.

As a wedding present Kojiro tried to offer me one of his summer homes, but I would not allow that. I would not have been able to afford to keep it anyway, and I wanted to live independently. Miki and I ended up on the far side of the property of the Niwa Estate, however. Kojiro sold this land to us at a bargain price. Oh, what can I say? It is hard to say 'no' to him, but I will have it known that I have managed to snag myself a good paying job in Vermillion City, and we built our own house on our new property.

I also have Hajime, a strong and smart boy. I did not think I could handle more than one even if Musashi and Kojiro got away with having seven in all. I am not sure how they do it. No, I take it back. Only now I am beginning to understand, but I am a slow learner these days.

So one son, one cat, and a supportive wife, a decent job and wealthy friends, I suppose a man could do worse in life even if almost too late to enjoy it.

My mind would on occasion stray to Yamato, and I would at those times wonder where she was and if she was happy. It is almost ten years ago now that I have last seen her, but lately I have heard rumors. These are just rumors, of course, but I have heard that there is a woman who has since last January come visiting the Niwa Estate mysteriously now and again. I suppose it could be some other person that Kojiro and Musashi are helping, I don't know, but I like to imagine that first January night and Yamato approaching the door. I can see her hesitantly knocking for the first time. That weird little head of the estate there at the door, with his wife standing beside him and a child not far behind, invite her inside and lift her weary spirits as she lifts her head.

Kojiro said he was given a last chance, but I know perfectly well that that chance was not for him alone. When he took that chance, he took the chance for all four of us back when not any three of us thought much of him. Musashi who ended up being his wife maybe liked him at the time but would have never dreamed of him being at all important or able to handle importance. I suppose it is like that famous quote, "The last will be first and the first will be last." Kojiro had his chance first, and we just had to take it then ourselves after him. Why any of us was given this chance, I still do not pretend to understand, but I am thankful, more thankful, and happier than I have ever been in my whole life.

OWARI

THE END

JAPANESE PHRASES:

Arigatou: Thank you

Doushite desuka: Why (formal)

Hontou: Really

Ne: Hey

Sayonara: Good bye