PokeContestIkariStory: I Don't Want A Fighter

Chapter 8 – Finally…A Familiar Face

Shinji wasn't far behind his distraught spouse. He took one stride, and grabbed her shoulder, violently turning her to face him. However, when he did so, she spit a wad of mucus in the middle of his face, and continued making her way to the door. Wiping it away, he continued after her, an indecipherable passion fueling him to do so.

In reality, Hikari was afraid for her life. Sure, she had to say this to Shinji sooner or later, but now didn't exactly seem appropriate. In the end, she knew she'd be glad she said it, but hopefully the end of this turmoil was near, because she certainly wasn't sated with his reaction.

It was just another person to add to the list of Hikari Haters, as they labeled themselves.

"Kid, wait—"

"I'M NOT A FUCKING KID!" She yelled at him, her eyes wild with adrenaline. "I'm your FUCKING. WIFE, SHINJI."

As she expected, he didn't respond.

"I don't think you realize just how much turmoil I go through every day, Shinji. I mean, here I am STUCK with you after you totally annihilate my reputation in the contest world, AND the world in general. Every time I go somewhere, there is something muttering under their breath, 'there's that bitch', or 'there's the crazy lady; I'm surprised she's alive'. I can't take it anymore! I'm only seventeen!"

"And yet, you decide to marry me; big, scary, twenty-one year old me." He responded in an icy tone, walking closer to her.

She involuntarily backed up. "I had no choice."

"Like hell you didn't have a choice." He clenched his fists.

"You think I did, but I DIDN'T! My mom was MURDERED that day! And you…"

"I what?"

There was a bit of silence as she looked down at the ground.

The realization hit him. "You STILL think I did that?"

She remained silent.

"Look princess, I—"

She slapped him again. "Don't 'princess' me. I'm not your princess! I'm not ANYTHING of yours!"

He snapped his head back into place, and shoved her hard onto the ground.

"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" He peered down at her.

She sobbed twice and looked up at him. When he squinted to look at her face, he saw a bruise on each side of her face

He tried his best to ignore them.

"You say you aren't associated with me, yet here you are, married to me, and fighting with me. Now, if that's not a connection, then I don't know what is."

"STOP BEING SUCH A CYNICAL ASSHOLE AND LISTEN TO ME!" She started to cry again.

He glared down at her, waiting for her to speak.

"You promised me you'd make me happy. You also promised that we would get through this together. And what do I get? SQUAT! Actually no, let me rephrase…" She slowly rose to her feet. "I got unending sadness, and loneliness. You're never here to support me through this mess, and that's why we're still in it! What makes you think FIGHTING is going to help? It doesn't prove anything either. It doesn't prove you're strong, and it certainly doesn't prove you love me."

Again, there was silence. In his head, Shinji was deliberating on whether or not to tell her. It'd be risking a lot to tell her, but he couldn't let this whole ordeal continue; it had gone on too long. He knew he wouldn't be able to keep it up for long, and he was reaching his breaking point.

He shrugged his shoulders and sighed.

"PLEASE Shinji. I just need to know why you're doing this. So I can know before I leave." She said with a sigh.

His head snapped up. "NO!" He involuntarily spoke.

She looked up at him, the tears staining her face. "I have to. You're not helping me, you're holding me back!"

"From what?"

"FROM REGAINING A LIFE! Haven't you been listening to me?"

He didn't respond.

"SHINJI, I—Look, I'm just…I'm just sick of this! I can't do this anymore, all right? I need to start working on making my reputation tolerable again, okay? And being with you isn't going to help."

"You are not leaving." He said, or commanded, rather.

"Oh yeah? How're you going to stop me?"

Hikari turned around and started walking towards the door, and the fervid feeling of whateveritwas began to boil inside him. Not seeming to care whether or not he was hurting her, he grabbed her arm, dragged her to "their" room, and pushed her in, closing and locking the door behind them.

He couldn't take it anymore. Seeing her on the ground like that, sobbing her heart out…it was just like the night after the Grande Festival that one year. When he turned around to look at her, he saw she was sitting on the bed, crying, and lightly touching the bruises that had developed on her face. He decided to stay by the door, in case she was going to make a run for it.

"Shinji…please let me leave." She spoke in a low tone, looking at the ground. "I don't want to do this anymore…I just…I wanna go home…"

"Hikari, you don't have a home…this is the closest place to a home you've got."

"Yeah, well, I want another one." She said, rubbing her cheeks, the saddest expression in the world on her face.

He watched her for a long while. He observed whenever she'd shake with sobs, or just sit there, twiddling with a strand of her beautiful blue hair. She was just a kid after all, and not knowing what was going on with his life, or her own life had to be hard at such an immature state. He didn't want to bring that up though, because he was sure she was sick of hearing that.

"Shinji…please let me leave…I'll never bother you again. I'll live with Kasumi, and we can totally forget about this whole…marriage or whatever it is. You don't ever have to help me again…please, just let me go. It'll be good for both of us."

With circumspect, he walked over, and stood in front of her. It took awhile for her to make eye contact, and when she did, he almost broke down himself. Her face glowed with tears, and her eyes shone with heartbreak. Her hands were shaking slightly, and her lips quivered endlessly. The bruises became darker and darker with every passing second, and he began regretting ever having touched her like that.

Then, he took her hand in his.

She gasped, and swallowed a sob as she looked into his eyes, and no longer saw cold, black orbs. There was that familiar glint, the same one she saw after the whole fiasco at the Grande Festival. It was the same glint when he had told her that they were going to get through this predicament together. Only she could feel that in this moment, he was generally concerned for her. Her mouth went slightly agape when he began to stroke the back of her hand with his thumb.

"You know I can take a lot of things, kid. I can take punches to the face, slaps, even spit…but I can't bear the thought of you thinking I don't want to help you."

He took her other hand, and raised her to her feet. Now her eyes shown with pleasant confusion as his eyes returned to his normal apathetic state.

"Kid, I love you."

Her jaw dropped. "Did he just…he just said he…" she hastily thought to herself.

"And I told you I'm not giving up on you." Even though these words were rare for him to say, they were still in that deep, monotonous tone.

Hikari didn't care though. It meant the world to her that he would say this to her.

"You know I'm a man of my word, princess."

"…Shin—"

Without any warning, he started pulling her into the bathroom.

"Shinji…I…"

He didn't respond as he flipped on the light, and sat himself down on the side of the bathtub, and sat her next to him. Grabbing a washcloth, he turned on the hot bathwater, and soaked it for a couple seconds, wrung it out a little, and held it against one side of her face. She lightly gasped at the heat at first, but eventually melted into it, closing her eyes. He wrapped his arm around her dainty waist, and pulled her closer. She involuntarily rested her head against the junction between his shoulder and chest. He rested the side of his face against the top of her head, continuing to hold the washcloth against her bruise.

"I uh…kid?" He spoke up.

"Yes…" she uttered under her breath.

"I'm uh…I'm sorry for the bruises…something just came over me…"

She didn't respond.

"You know kid…this whole time, well…" He quietly began.

She opened her eyes, and looked up at him. The look in her eyes told him that she wanted to know what was going on. This was the first time he'd seen her at such peace since he brought her into all of this, so explaining now would be difficult.

"…I'll explain later. I need to do this first."

After about five minutes of silence, he switched sides, and rubbed his fingers against the first side.

"How do you know what to do…?" She whispered, not opening her eyes.

"When you fight, you tend to get bruises a lot, princess."

She tried to shrug that off, not wanting to think about that.

For the longest time, this was the Shinji she wanted to bring to the surface. She knew about this side of him for the longest time, and no one else did, which she thought was a shame. It came out at the most sporadic of times, true, but they were the times when someone could see Shinji had a heart. He did, in fact, have a heart, and this was a great resemblance of that fact.

He threw the washcloth back into the tub, turned the bathwater off, and proceeded to pick her up into his arms. She was suddenly overcome with fatigue, and went limp in his hold. She could see that the sky was still a malicious dark gray, and rain still pummeled down onto the ground. There was no thunder and lightning though, to her relief.

Pulling back the covers, he gently placed her on the bed, and pulled the sheets back over her frame. He could still feel her shake from the emotional undergoing they previously went through. After her head delicately fell onto the pillow, he grabbed a chair, and placed it right next to her. Sitting himself in it again, he crouched over, and folded his hands together.

"If you're too tired, I can wait until tomorrow to explain—"

"No, I've waited long enough. Just tell me."

He covered his face with his hands for a brief second, sighed, and looked at her.

"Believe it or not, I've been protecting you this whole time." He began. "It all started at the Grande Festival, right before that final match…"

One year ago…

Tall, dark and handsome stood at the top entrance of the contest hall, his arms crossed, watching Hikari battle her little heart out. He smirked as he heard her command in that little scratchy voice of hers. It was adorable yes, but today was an important day. He was finally going to help her get out of this God-forsaken contest world, and into a better living. It didn't matter if it was with him or not, just so long as she was happy with her life.

He realized awhile ago that he was in love with her, for he'd never go to such limits for one person, even for his own personal benefit. The only thing he knew about love was that if she's happy, then you're happy.

He hasn't been happy in awhile, and he felt it when she was happy the slightest moment last night.

Overcome with boredom, he began to look out at the crowd, and became disgusted at how interested and into it they were. They obviously couldn't see that the Pokemon were struggling to compete in outfits like that. The desire for artificial aesthetic had gone awry, and he knew just what to do.

His eyes soon caught sight of someone. Except, what made this someone so sketchy was that they were wearing a hockey mask, all black, and in his right hand was a revolver. Shinji's eyes widened; he immediately began thinking of Hikari's safety on that open field. There was no security nearby, and he knew she wouldn't have time to run away. It looked like a 6-shot. That guy would get her in no time.

Not unless he could stop it.

"I didn't know who he was going after...but all I could think about was whether or not you were safe…so…that's why I went down there."

Hikari turned the other way, the thought of her mother's death bringing tears back into her eyes.

"I…soon saw the guy behind your mother…and well, all I could think about was you, princess."

She brought her fists up to her face, shutting her eyes closed. He postulated from her body language that she was trying to hold back tears, and he wouldn't expect any less. Bringing this up wasn't exactly what he wanted to do, but he had to. It was for her own good, after all.

"I didn't want to endanger anybody else by releasing his location, so I just kept quiet, and tried to get you as far away from him as possible, while keeping the people entranced…but when you were giving your Pokeball to your mother, I…I saw him raise the gun and I panicked. Soon, I lost track of you, and didn't give a rat's ass if I got shot, I just needed to find you…I hadn't realized your mother was shot until after I got you out of the arena…it…it was just pure coincidence the people started yelling at you…"

"So what does this have to with the fighting…" Hikari quietly asked, still not looking at him.

Shinji looked over at her, then back down at the ground.

"Kid…it's real risky for me to be telling you this."

She didn't respond. Sighing, he rose to his feet, and took off his shoes, not taking his eyes off of her for a second. He lifted the covers and slid next to her, hoping to gain her attention.

"I'm protecting you, princess." He said right next to her ear, making her turn around to make eye contact with the man she felt for the first time was her husband.

"How are you protecting me? You're leaving me here all by myself…" She spoke in a choked voice.

"No, no…" he rubbed the bruise again; she flinched.

"Shinji…how could you possibly be protecting me?" Her voice rose.

He brought one of his fingers to her lips to shush her.

"I could tell by the way that guy was eying the stage, he was aiming for you. Hikari, I knew from that point that I had to get you away from the contest world because he'd be able to track you easier. That's why I was being so…I don't know…dictator-like with my 'speech', if I may."

She stared at him in absolute shock. "He wanted me…not my mother…"

"Getting you away from the contest world wasn't enough…I had to make sure you were fully protected…"

Shinji ventured into a police station, looking for someone to talk to. He sought after the first guy he saw, and stopped him in his tracks.

"Hello, may I help you?" The man asked.

"Yes. I need protection."

"Well, sir…I think you'd best find that at the drug store."

A couple of men listening in chuckled at the joke as Shinji mentally rolled his eyes.

"No, I'm being serious. My wife and I need protection from someone."

"…Yes, well follow me sir."

Shinji quickly followed the man into a cubicle, and sat himself down in the chair opposing the desk.

"Name please."

"Shinji Honkuro."

"Your wife's name?"

"Hikari Honkuro."

"Address?"

"52 Friendship Lane."

"Situation?"

Shinji hesitated a little, not knowing this man's perception on the event. Of course, they were far away from where it occurred, but it was nothing short of a national tragedy.

"Well, I'd rather not go into details, but my wife was in a situation where a gunman was aiming for her, but accidently got her mother…so…"

The man stopped writing and eyed Shinji for a second. There was a mysterious glint in his eyes as he continued to look at the plum-haired man.

"It's you!" The man finally yelled out.

'Fantastic.' Shinji thought to himself.

"You're the Sinnoh League champion who went off with the contest girl prodigy!"

"Yes, now if you don't mind sir—"

"GET OUT!"

"I had no other choice but to offer any type of service to get you protection since the police were so prejudiced…" Shinji continued.

Hikari had moved closer to him, becoming more and more intrigued, and weirdly satisfied with the story.

"That's when I met Hikaru…"

Shinji had grown tired of posting offers online, outside stores, on telephone poles, etc.,. It was almost at the point where he'd have to protect Hikari himself. He knew he couldn't do that though, for she'd become suspicious…he just had to keep on looking.

Then, he felt a tap on his shoulder. "Good afternoon sir!"

Shinji spun around to face a small man in a business suit and dark sunglasses. He had a toothy white grin implanted on his face, and looked a little too pleased to see Shinji.

"Can I…help you?" Shinji incredulously asked.

"Why yes you can!"

The man started to eye Shinji's upper body a little too closely. The man was thankful that Shinji was wearing a tank top and cargo shorts, for he could get a better look at him.

"Ah yes…very lean, very muscular…great legs too!"

The level of awkwardness was unbearable for Shinji, so he had to speak up. "Sir…may I ask what you're doing?"

"What am I doing?" The grin came back on his face. "I'm looking at my next great fighter!"

Shinji was instantly confused. He looked down at himself, then back at the small man.

"Hikaru Suyo, nice to meet you, and you must be?"

"Extremely confused." Shinji replied.

"Well, sir, I saw your ad, and I must say you seemed a little desperate for protection, no?"

Shinji stopped for a second, but quickly put his guard up. "How did you know what I looked like…?"

"You're the great Shinji Honkuro, no? The Sinnoh League champion!"

'Oh yeah. That could prove helpful to finding me.' Shinji thought to himself. "Yes…well…I don't know if fighting was part of my abilities…"

"My boy, you certainly have the physique for it, and we can most definitely hook you up with a trainer. Before you know it, you'll be slaughtering!"

"Look, I appreciate the offer, but I'm going to have to—"

"You want protection, don't you?"

Time stood still for a few seconds.

Hikari; that little, innocent girl back at the house, waiting for him to come back. He had forgotten about her in the past few minutes.

"You…offer protection?" Shinji carefully asked.

"The best in the world." The man freely said.

"I don't believe you." Shinji retorted.

"Go ahead, don't believe me. But whoever you're protecting will regret you did!" Shinji did not like the look in this man's eyes.

"…Could you show me?" Shinji asked.

"I thought you'd never ask." The man motioned forward. "Follow me…Shinji."

"It was the only offer I got…I had to take it."

Shinji touched his hand to her cheek, and she covered his with hers. The story she was hearing was absolutely incredible, and almost unbelievable. The amazing part was that it wasn't even over yet.

"He took me back to his office…and that's when I met them…"

"Shinji, meet Hakura and Kasumi."

A brunette and redhead stepped out with inviting smiles on their faces. They shook hands with Shinji, and while they seemed trustworthy, he still kept his guard up.

"This is all of your protection? Just two measly girls?" Shinji asked Hikaru.

"Measly?" Haruka retorted.

"It won't just be them. These two are here simply to keep Hikari mentally stable. They've been specifically trained for this. They're professionals, my boy."

Shinji turned back to the two girls. "Professionals, eh?"

"The very best." Kasumi replied.

"Hmph." Shinji grunted. "So is there anything else in terms of protection?"

"Ah, yes." Hikaru worked his way over to his desk, and gesticulated for Shinji to come over. "Every night, Hikari's house will be guarded by incognito men. In exchange…we ask for you to fight for us."

"As in combat?" Shinji confirmed.

Hikaru simply nodded, seeing that Shinji was going to seal the deal then and there.

Shinji did not like the stink of this man's offer. He had two pretty, nice girls to back him up, as well as a seemingly innocent deal, yet, he still felt that Hikari was in some sort of danger. His head was about to explode, all because he wanted to keep his Hikari safe.

Rising to his feet, he turned back to the girls, and glared.

"If you ever let her get hurt, lost, or get in any type of dangerous predicament, I will make sure to have you terminated." He said.

"Yeah, yeah, we got it." Haruka said. "We'll take good care of her."

Shinji turned back to a grinning Hikaru, and stuck out his hand.

"Deal."

MORE CLIFFY! :P

Oh, you all probably hate me so much right now.

Anyways, yay new chapter. I kinda wanted a bit more sentiment since the last was kinda violent, so...I hope it fit! And I hope you like it!

I'm seeing maybe one or two more chapters of this...then I'm totally focusing on S is for Slaughter, then I'll get back on track with Light and Dark, and maybe a couple oneshots here and there.

We'll just see how lazy I get. ;P

~Im-A-Horror-Freak