Hello! Sooooo sorry that this chapter took a really long time to get out, but I developed three new hobbies. 1) Reading ridiculous amounts of Psyren (which is awesome, by the way. Y'all should read it) 2) Playing ridiculous amounts of Final Fantasy XIII (which is also awesome) And 3) Playing the piano! But through all the, the chapter is finally here, so quit your whining! Oh, and enjoy!
Guilt
Ash hobbled through the automatic doors of Viridian's Pokemon Center, Pikachu in his arms. The wind from the bike had mostly dried Ash's cloths, though they were still damp. Ash had intended to go to the police immediately, but his body had ached while his head and ankle throbbed in unison, and Pikachu was still unconscious, so the Pokemon Center had taken top priority. Besides, he still wasn't sure how to explain what he had seen, what he had been through that day, to the police. And nothing he said would bring Gary back.
Ash barely noticed his surroundings as he limped up to the front desk, fighting the urge to wince at every step. There was a busy lady with bright red hair behind the counter, sorting documents with her back to him.
"Um, excuse me," Ash said, trying to get her attention.
"One moment please." The lady said briskly to him, not turning her head. When she had finished sorting the papers she finally turned around, took one look at him, and dropped all the papers she had so meticulously organized.
"What happened to you?" She exclaimed.
"I-" he started to say, but the nurse, not waiting for an exclamation, rushed around her desk and grabbed Pikachu from his arms, barely noticing Ash.
"You poor dear! I'll fix you right up!" She trilled, walking away and leaving Ash dumbfounded. He was getting a little tired of girls worrying about his Pikachu and ignoring him completely.
Not sure of what else to do, and not wanting to stand on his ankle longer than he had to, Ash laboriously followed her through the double doors that were now swinging shut behind her. They brought him into a tiled hallway brightly lit by white lights, with doors lining either side. He glimpsed the nurse entering the third door on the right, and hurried to catch up. He wished she would wait for him.
Finally reaching the hurried nurse he found himself in a room almost identical to the hallway except for the equipment lying about it and its square shape. Pikachu was already lying on a small cot with a round, pink Pokemon standing with its short arms raised over it, soft light emitting from the tips of its fingers. Ash thought it was called a Chansey, but he wasn't sure. He had never been into pink Pokemon.
"I swear trainers these days push their Pokemon too far!" The nurse said aloud, gaining an affirmative "Chan-see!" from the Pokemon.
"I'm sorry." Ash mumbled, too tired to make excuses, even if they were good reasons. The nurse spun around so fast that Ash instinctively stepped back, but his injured foot made him trip.
"What are you doing here? This area is for the healers and injured only! Haven't you been to a Pokemon Center before? And whose Pokemon is this anyway? Don't you dare lie to me and say it's yours; you're too young to have a Magikarp!" She exclaimed in a flurry of fast-spoken words.
"I'm twelve! And that's my Pokemon!" Was all Ash managed to blurt out in reply, annoyed that yet another person had thought he was a little kid just because of his height. The nurse looked like she was about to reply, but their conversation had finally allowed her to get a good look at him. Seeing his sodden clothes, and the way she struggled to get up, she realized that he was injured too.
"Sheesh boy, what on earth have you been doing?" she asked, exasperated. Not waiting for a reply (this habit was starting to annoy Ash), she said, "Well, no matter. Your Pikachu's condition looked worse than it was, though it's still serious, mind you. But we had better get you fixed up as well. You'll need to be in good health for the scolding I'm going to give you. What's your mother's name? I want to make sure your grounded for a lifetime!" she threatened. The mention of his mother reminded him of their last meeting, of her tearful rejection of him. This did nothing to help Ash's already low spirits.
"Yeah." He muttered to the floor, not answering the Nurse's question. But the erratic Nurse's mind was already walking with her out the door. Ash followed as quickly as he could, which was still slow. She led him to a room on the opposite side of Pikachu's where a bed large enough for a human stood against the white wall. Ash sat down on it gratefully.
"You got yourself and your Pokemon quite bruised up." The Nurse said, fumbling around in some drawers. Ash didn't reply. She finally pulled out several bottles of fluid and some wads of cotton, holding them all precariously in her arms. Setting the bottles onto a small table, she dipped a wad of cotton into a clear liquid, and then dropped it hurriedly with an exclamation. Ash wondered what was wrong; hopefully she hadn't grabbed the wrong jar and dipped her hand in acid. He wouldn't put it past this air-headed nurse.
"Forgot my gloves!" she exclaimed cheerily, reaching into the cupboard once more and retrieving a pair of rubber gloves. Once the gloves were on, she threw away the sodden cotton ball and dipped a new one into the liquid.
"Your right ankle is injured, right? Could you please take off your shoe and lift up your jeans?" Ash silently complied, tenaciously removing his show and pulling the damp, blue fabric up to his knee, wincing as his hand bumped the swollen flesh. The nurse walked over to him and began rubbing his ankle with the cotton swab. At first even the gentlest touch sent pain shooting up his leg, but that pain soon faded to a dull throb, and then was extinguished completely. Ash stared at his swollen ankle which he could no longer feel, along with his foot and lower leg.
"This liquid is a powerful anesthetic which can be absorbed through the skin; that's why I needed these gloves." She said, holding up one gloved hand in demonstration and smiling at him. It was the first time Ash had gotten a good look at her face, his vision previously clouded by pain. The first thing he saw was her eyes. They were blue, not the blue-green or blue-gray you see in most people's eyes, but a deep, solid blue that put a summer's sky to shame. For reasons Ash didn't know, they unnerved him. His train of thought was broken, however, by more words from the nurse.
"This liquid is called genezen. It targets injured tissues and reconstructs them into working order." Said the nurse, holding up a bottle of a sickly-looking brown fluid capped with a spray nozzle.
"Yeah." Was all Ash said, careful to avoid her too-bright eyes. But the Nurse didn't seem to notice his reticence, or simply didn't care, because she continued.
"If you had injured the bone you would have had to gone through an hour long process to fix it, but this will only take a minute." She said, spraying the genezen on Ash's ankle. Immediately the angry red color went away as the swollen areas deflated.
"And this will counter the anesthetic." Said the nurse, dabbing him with another cotton swab of some unknown liquid. Almost immediately the numb feeling went away as the anesthetic wore off. Ash rotated his ankle experimentally, but there was no pain. It was like he never got injured. His ankle was in perfect condition, not a bruise or a scar to show he was ever hurt.
A scar… Ash thought, suddenly remembering a time as a child.
"Tag, you're it!" Young Ash yelled.
"No, you're it!" came the reply, as Gary immediately tagged him back.
"No fair! There's no tag-backs!"
"Says who?" laughed Gary, running off along grass. Ash laughed and ran barefoot after him, forgetting their quarrel. Then suddenly his foot caught on a rock.
"Uwaaah!" he cried, his chin scraping the dirt as tears welled in his eyes. But what hurt more than his chin and elbows was the foot that had tripped over the stone. Gary stopped running and came back tentatively, not sure if this was a ruse or if Ash had really tripped.
"Ash! Ash! Are you okay?" Came his mother's voice from inside the house. Ash didn't reply, he just kept crying.
"Gary, I think it's time for you to go." She said, now standing over Ash.
"O-Okay Mrs. Ketchum." Gary said, nervous he was going to be blamed somehow. "See ya' later, Ash!" But Ash didn't see him leave because his vision was obscured by tears.
"There, there." his mother soothed. "Now, what happened?"
"I- hic- fell!" Ash managed to blurt out through his sobs.
"I see. Well, you're not scraped up to badly, so let's get you inside." His mother said, helping him up. But for some reason Ash could only stand on one foot, his other one just crumpled painfully when he put pressure on it.
"My foot," Ash complained to no one in particular.
"Huh?" his mother asked, looking back at him. Then she gasped and immediately scooped Ash up in her arms.
"Thomas!" she called, hurrying Ash into the house.
"What is it?" he said, jogging down the stairs.
"Ash, he tripped and cut his foot pretty bad."
"Let me see." Said Ash's dad. Ash peered out of his blurry eyes too, curious despite the pain. A stream of red was running down his upper foot, dripping onto the hardwood floor.
"Should we take him to a center?" said his mom.
"No!" Came his dad's quick and firm reply.
"Thomas, I know you don't like them but this is our son and if he needs-"
"No," he said again, but softer this time. "It really isn't necessary, the cuts not very deep. Looks worse than it is. Just wrap it up and give him some ice cream. I'm going to go out and see if I can find what he tripped on." Said his dad, standing up and exiting through the back door. His mom sat him down in a chair, saying soothing things to him. Soon after his foot had been cleaned and wrapped and his tears had started to abate his father came back inside.
"Here," he said, showing Ash a stone. One of its edges was rounded while the other ended in a sharp point, which was stained a suspicious brown color despite attempts to wash it off. "It's the stone you tripped over." It was slightly bigger than his fist and slate gray, with speckles of white sediment here and there. Ash reached out his hand for it.
"You're not afraid of it?" his father said as Ash's hand closed around the rounded edge. "That's good. You shouldn't be afraid of things that may have hurt you once, instead you just need to conquer them. Because you weren't afraid of this stone, now it's your lucky stone." His dad said.
"How is it lucky? He tripped over it!" Said his mom incredulously. "Stop teaching him you're twisted philosophy. Next thing I know he'll be running around trying to touch hot stoves without getting burned."
"I'm not teaching him to touch hot stoves, I'm teaching him to be a man!" his dad said defensively. "Besides, there's a difference between being a man and being an idiot."
"Really? I don't see it." His mom said playfully.
"There, all better!" the Nurse's cheery voice interrupted his thoughts. Ash looked down at his foot again.
"I had a scar there…" Ash said to himself, touching the area where it should have been.
"Oh? Well now you don't!" Said the nurse in that same cheery voice. Ash was beginning to get sick of that voice.
"You're Pikachu should be about healed by now. Once he's done you can get on home; I'm sure your family's worried." But home seemed far away now, down a long and dangerous path. Ash could have tried to explain his situation to the nurse, could have tried to make her see why he couldn't go home right now, but suddenly a wave of weariness washed over him. Ash didn't think he had the strength to recount last night's events to her, deal with her questioning and then the police and then Oaks sad face. Not tonight. So Ash lied.
"Um, actually, I'm having… family troubles. That's why I ran away." Ash said, saying the first thing that came to mind. It wasn't that far from the truth.
"Oh? Like what?" The nurse asked.
"I'd rather not explain, but could I stay here for the night?"
"Of course, if you need to. I can get you something to eat but I'm afraid I can't help much with your clothes." She said, gesturing to damp attire.
"That's fine." Ash said, suddenly ravenous at the mention of food. It had just occurred to him that he hadn't eaten in over a day.
"Okay, I'll be right back with food. You can sleep in this room for the night."
"Thanks." Ash said, but the Nurse was already gone. Ash laid back, but some cumbrous and uncomfortable thing was under him. His backpack! He had worn it for so long that he forgot it was there. Ash sat up and took the wet thing off, hoping that the contents weren't completely ruined from the river and the rain. Rifling through the bag he pulled out wet and sodden clothes, more soaked than his own. He laid them on the floor and continued rifling through the bag.
His Pokedex was in another pocket, its screen dark. Ash pressed the on button, not sure if he wished the screen to flare bright colors or it to be water-logged and broken. But it was apparently water-proof, because, as always, the Pokedex opened up and the selection menu appeared, categorizing different aspects of Pokemon information. It looked like a normal Pokedex, no secret message button or 101 Tips to Not Getting Killed. Ash switched it off and the screen went dark once more, and then he put it back in his backpack.
There was nothing much left except for some food, which (thankfully) was zip-locked. Though Ash's stomach growled longingly, he didn't eat it. The nurse was bringing him food already and he might need some later. Then Ash remembered the shi reza. He needed to hide it somewhere safe or the only place he'd be staying overnight is jail. But the shi reza was nowhere to be found. No panicking, Ash desperately searched his pockets for the smooth, metallic gun. Had he dropped it? The last time he had it was when… that man who was chasing him had kicked it out of his hand. Ash was now weaponless.
Yet Ash didn't feel fear. In fact, he felt… relief. It was through that thing that Ash had killed a man. Though he had only seen the man's face for a split second, he still remembered every detail; every line contorted in terror as the man looked at death and death looked back at him in the form of a gun. His hands began to shake. The shi reza was the solid, corporeal proof of his actions, but now it was lying deep in the forest, nothing more than another stone to passing Pokemon who saw neither violence nor death in its metallic sheen. The weapon was gone, and with it the deed.
So Ash pushed the image of that man's face deep into the recesses of his mind, never to be remembered again and never to be forgotten. He swallowed the bile that was rising in his throat and steadied his shaking hands with a deep breath. Then suddenly sleep seemed a much more urgent need than sustenance, for though his body was rested his mind was tried. So Ash walked back to the bed and lay his head down, letting the quiet, empty blackness of sleep steal his troubled thoughts away.
Fun stuff, right? I was meaning to end the chapter with a cliff-hanger, but I realized this chapter was already too long and that you all had waited long enough. So instead I'm just going to start the next chapter with a cliff-hanger! But then it wouldn't really be a cliff-hanger, would it? Hmmm... A cliff-beginner? Nah, doesn't sound right. But whatever. As always, please leave your reviews telling me whether it's happy or crappy! That's all, ciao'