Chapter 4
Disclaimer: We do not own Pokemon. Pokemon is owned by Game Freak, Satoshi Tajiri, and Nintendo. This is a fanfic with game characters of the main pokemon games. Their personalities are loosely based off of the games. The plot and original characters belong to us. We also don't own the Super Sentai series. Super Sentai belongs to Toei Co. Ltd, Toei Agency, and Bandai. This fanfic is written only for entertainment and self enjoyment. We do not and cannot make a living out of writing fanfics. The cover picture also does not belong to us and is drawn by Nintendo's Ken Sugimori.
"Ah, are you finally awake?" an old voice spoke clearly and slowly.
Green opened his eyes to see a wooden ceiling and a ceiling fan spinning round... Like his head. The gym leader slowly dragged himself up into a sitting position when the dull pain in his head spiked and throbbed. He instinctively reached for his head.
"One of the village's children found you and your friend at the edge of our forest," an elderly man answered his silent question. "I'm afraid the ghost pokemon and Zoroark decided to play a nasty trick on you two. Quite a few years ago, one of the girls from this village used to play with them all the time. And thus the pranks began, troublesome little fellas if you ask me."
"Eh..?" Green asked groggily. He was in a relatively small bed, with Luvdiscs patterning the blanket. The nightstand beside the bed was made of the same wood as the bed with Spindas engraved into them. The carvings were surprisingly detailed where one would see each of the rabbit like pokemon having different spot patterns.
"The Zoroark traps unknown people within an illusion, and then the Gengar goes and uses Nightmare," he continued without skipping a beat. "To make certain things worse, they don't hold back. People don't travel here or out of here without a guide anymore, although they always did use those tricks to trap people for the last hundred years."
"Guides?" Nothing made sense to the gym leader. Green looked at the elderly man, who was bald and had a short figure. He wore a white polo shirt adorned with the blue mouse pokemon, Marill and a pair of brown trousers. The gym leader stared at the red and white hat the senior citizen wore on his head. The hat had a green letter 'L' at the center.
"Our guides were born here in this forest, and we all oddly have some sort of immunity to Zoroark's illusions and are not as susceptible to Hypnosis, Dream Eater, or Nightmare as are most." The elderly man explained. "I suppose it's good for us, but I do feel for those people who accidentally wander into our section of the forest. We now have people patrolling around in case those pokemon trap innocent trainers who just happened to get really lost."
What kind of place was this? Green thought. The forest was protected by pokemon. Ghost pokemon. I should have listened to the locals, he mentally groaned. Wasn't it an obvious warning sign when the Azalea townspeople had that look of fear in their eyes at the mention of that part of Ilex Forest? Red told him to avoid the unknown path too...
"Red!" Green realized that Red wasn't in the same room as him. His head snapped up when he remembered the fog where he and Red were separated because of the ghost pokemon. He nearly jumped up and looked around as he asked in a not so nice voice, "Wait, where is Red?"
"Your friend?" the old man asked. "He's still asleep in the other room. You two were hit pretty hard, I was told that you two were found completely out cold."
With Green's awareness back, he noticed the bald short man was sitting on a wooden stool, fanning himself and a raccoon dog like pokemon on his lap. The Zigzagoon was curled up on his lap with a small smile from whatever it was dreaming of, a much better dream than what he had last night. Green found himself partially jealous of the raccoon dog.
"Most people are still somewhat conscious, which tells us that their nightmares were not all that bad." He continued, "The last time I've heard of a case with really terrible nightmares, she-"
He paused for a moment, making Green perk up and curious. He gave a sigh and continued on, avoiding the details of this other 'terrible nightmare', "Forgive me, she disappeared about five years ago, and no one has seen her since."
"Disappeared?"
"I'm sorry, but that is a touchy topic in this village," he replied with a tired and aged face, much unlike just seconds before. "We are still trying to figure out what had possibly happened to her... But anyways, that nightmare must have been pretty nasty."
"I guess it was," Green said without emotion, too tired to deny it. There was still wariness from last night's emotional episode. He felt like someone kicked him a few times. Well, he technically did, but it was a nightmare. He forgot how hard Blue could slap or kick. Ever since he mellowed out as a gym leader, the young man had not been beaten by his childhood friend in years, not something he missed.
"Sometimes, the nightmare and illusions are so powerful within the mind that the victim can actually feel or see what is in their nightmares." As if nothing happened, Green witnessed the man's worried look transform into a forced smile, an attempt to comfort the gym leader. "It's usually the typical embarrassing memories of the person, but occasionally, the victim would hallucinate or feel everything that happened in the memory!"
"I guess you get visitors all the time because of this?" Green stared outside the window to see several small wooden houses scattered down the path. The street was worn down and twisted. Each of the houses had a unique built with different colors of paint used to distinguish itself. It had a cozy feeling to it. A small harmless village in the middle of a giant forest.
"Hardly," he chuckled. Again, Green noticed that the laugh was rather forced. "Not many trainers are audacious enough to walk into this part of Ilex Forest with all those warnings. You would have to be deaf to ignore such warnings, especially from the locals. Interesting stuff I hear from the Azalea locals." He shook his head, "No, the last time we had visitors, she-" The short man paused, realizing that he was walking into the subject again. "Well, we never saw the visitor again."
The end of his sentence sounded suspicious enough. Again with 'she'. Visitors have come before, but the mention of the last visitor made the wizened man hesitate in continuing further. The gym leader wondered if this man knew anything of the legendaries. The village was in the middle of Ilex Forest; surely the elderly man had observed a few odd occurrences in the forest, especially when the village attracted ghost pokemon and Zoroark. Weren't Zoroark from Unova? What were they doing here?
"The Zoroark," Green said. "Why do they live in Ilex Forest? Aren't they from Unova?"
"The villagers once believed that they were descendents of the Zoroark," the elderly man answered. "A bit silly now, especially with science and technology advancing all the time, but that myth was once the vital part of our lives. That was a long time ago, of course. The Zoroark are from Unova, but some of them were left in this forest by..." He reluctantly looked at Green. There was an odd look in his eyes. "Isn't that odd?" He abruptly changed the topic, "That one can feel pain from the memory?" The bald man gave the gym leader an amused grin, "That must have hurt."
"Well," Green was going to say that he deserved it, recalling his own nightmare, but before the green eyed trainer would say anything further, the old man interrupted him.
"When I was a child, I knocked those pokemon right off their rocker. They were so angry with me, they all ganged up on me one day that I went into the forest to play. I had to relive the most embarrassing moment fifteen times over!" He still fanned himself with the Cherubi patterned paper fan. The cherry pokemon was adorned with cherry blossom designs in the background. The house's air conditioner was on, but it was still humid.
"I tried to confess to my middle school crush, and instead, I accidentally humiliated her," he rambled on. "So she roundhouse kicked me in my arse and pummeled me to the ground! Hah, I couldn't show my face to the school for the rest of the week." The man still wore that poorly disguised smile over his worried expression. Green was beginning to regret touching upon the topic of the last visitor and the girl who went missing.
The gym leader tuned out the aging man to inspect the room he was in. Besides the Spinda decorated nightstand, the room was cluttered with pokemon printed merchandise. The window curtains had Jumpluff prints where their cottoned faces stared at him with smiles. It was a small wooden room with a desk and a small television propped on top of the drawers. The small room had a doorway off the side leading to what Green guessed to be the kitchen or another room. Green frowned at the incoherent man, who was talking in an unpredictable manner where one topic jumped on to the next. His mannerism reminded him of his old high school literature teacher, who too had the habit of connecting irrelevant subjects to make sense out of the books he had to read. Was this really the person who saved him and Red?
"I'm sorry, but where am I?" Green thought of the outside, where between the small houses were patches of grass and flowers. The village appeared to let nature live alongside with them where it was fairly easy for wild pokemon to come in without craving in attention. It looked nothing like Goldenrod City, Violet City, or even Ecruteak City. It was a modest rural village that had some resemblance to Pallet Town.
"Oh, silly me," the man laughed loudly. "I haven't told you much, have I?" He looked outside of the window too, "This is Sacred Heart Village. My name is Toshiyuki. 'Toshi' like 'wisdom', 'yuki' as in 'fortune'. This village has been here for hundreds of years." He stroked his thin wispy beard. "After the war ended almost two hundred years ago, the people settled in and wanted to live in seclusion. It's small, but good enough for us. Very nice place, isn't it?"
"Um, yes?" If you want to live with nightmares of your past, Green thought sarcastically. Why on earth would the villagers want to live in the forest with pokemon like that?
"What's your name, son?" Toshiyuki (1) asked.
"I'm Green," the gym leader answered quickly. "The other guy's name is-"
"Blue, right?" The old man cried. "Or was it Yellow? Purple?" He scrunched his brows in confusion. "He was on the television a few years ago, right? I'm afraid my memory isn't as good as it used to be," he said. "In fact, one time, I woke up and went to feed Zigzagoon his food, but when I left the house, I felt like I forgot something!" His loud laugh shook the room. "I spent the whole day going around the village asking if any of the villagers needed help, but I still couldn't remember what I forgot. Boy, was it frustrating! You youngsters are luckier than you think. You still remember everything like it was yester-"
"His name is Red." Green corrects him with the man shouting, "Of course!" The elderly man was very chatty. The gym leader noticed that as their conversation went by, the aged man was started to talk more and making his answers lengthier. Green was amazed the Zigzagoon was sleeping through all of it.
"Before I was interrupted," he coughed. "This village is located at the heart of Johto in the forest area between Ecruteak City and Azalea Town." Toshiyuki reached out his arm to the desk nearby to grab a cup of tea, "Like I said the village is protected by illusions of pokemon. The village is the remnants of a bigger city that used to exist before the war. The villager ancestors' ghost pokemon carried the honor to protect the village with their illusions to avoid the world's conflict."
"...what is this place?" a person moaned. His footsteps became louder as he walked into the sunny room with his hands shielding his eyes. His black hair hid the upper part of his face when he walked into Green's room. When he woke up, he found himself in an unfamiliar bed that didn't look like the Pokemon Center. His room was similar in design as Green's.
"Ah, you're finally awake!" Toshiyuki beamed at the pale Kanto champion. "Yellow!" He didn't seem to hear Green's mumbling, "It's Red..." and said, "Your friend here woke up not too long ago. Are you okay? You're as white as a ghost! Hahaha, you're not dead are you?" The newcomer stared at Toshiyuki's bizarrely adorned room and at the rambling man himself. Who was this man? Red gave Green a questioning look where the brunette replied with a just as confused expression.
"By jolly, I swear, I thought you were a zombie when my grandson pulled you in. I remember watching the first zombie movie when it came out. It was called The Return of the Haunter." Toshiyuki thought fondly of the memory, "It was a big deal in its day. I bought the tickets with my crush hoping that she would get scared and hug me but instead it was I who got scared and clung on to her like an Octillery the rest of the movie. A bit embarrassing. The movie was straight from Pokestar Studios with subtitles! Very hard to keep up with it."
"Your grandson saved us?" Red asked quietly.
"It was a good thing he found you two as well," the oddly dressed senior citizen smiled. "He was going into the forest to chase after his sister's Gengar. Funny little fellas, aren't they? That particular Gengar likes to wander off a lot and his trainer has gone away. This boy had to make sure Gengar didn't go too far away from his home. Today is Monday, you know. All of the normal, dark, and ghost type pokemon get to have some fresh air and run around in the forest like they would have before they were caught. Very refreshing to see a Clefairy hop around and eat those berries in the west side of the village."
"What is he talking about?" Red was still staring at the old man and his odd taste in house decoration. When he was walking to Green's room, he went past the kitchen, where the decorator chose to have it be water pokemon themed. There were blue tiles and the wooden cabinets all had small doorknobs with Horsea prints. The teakettle Toshiyuki was using to pour himself a cup of tea was painted orange with a gold tea handle and lid to resemble a Magikarp.
"Tuesdays are pretty scary with all the fire and dragon pokemon roaming around. This Slugma almost burned my garden last week. I had to use my Slowbro to put out the fire!" The old man was still talking in the back of Red's mind. "Wednesdays aren't as bad with the water and ice pokemon as a little extra water never hurts the forest." Red noticed that his smile was distant and firmly placed on his face, much like his own smile eight years ago. "Thursdays are pretty normal with the grass, poison, and bug types. That Caterpie nearly ate my daffodils! Boy was I happy to see it evolve into a Butterfree..."
"...Huh?" Red didn't hear a single word the bald man said.
"You must be confused," the man rambled on.
No kidding, Green was starting to block out half of the things the elderly man was rambling about.
"Grandpa!" A boy's voice called out from the front of the house. "I'm here!" The wooden door swung open to reveal a young teenage boy. His chaotic brown hair pointed in all directions and he wore a white shirt and a pair of jeans. The teen wore a scowl on his face.
"My name is Toshiyuki," the elderly man reintroduced himself to Red with a short bow, "And this is my grandson, Keigo. This young man saved you." He gestured to the boy who just came in.
"Sorry for being late," Keigo apologized to his grandfather. "Gen thought it was funny to play a trick on me and poured water on me." The boy was soaking wet from head to toe. It looked more than just a bucket of water.
"Ha!" The grandfather chuckled, "I told you to be careful of your sister's Gengar! All of them are a funny bunch!"
"Uh, thanks for saving us?" Green was unsure of what to say and stared at the young teen. He looked like he was in middle school.
"Thanks?" The teenager twitched. "I did more than save you!" Green backed up from the sudden volume change. "Dynaman was totally cool and carried you and the other guy out of the forest while I defeated those ghost pokemon with my-"
"Who's Dynaman?" The gym leader asked confused.
"My Machamp!" He looked offended for being interrupted. "JAKQ then flamethrower those ghost pokemon and-"
"Who...?" Nothing made sense to the young man. Was he going into something worse than the nightmare? A world of nonsense to eventually drive him into insanity?
"My Flareon!" Keigo looked unimpressed, "Haven't you ever heard of-"
"No, I haven't heard of whatever show you named them after," Green was getting annoyed with all this petty talk. No wonder Red didn't like to talk in pokemon battles and wanted to get to the point. Right now, Green wanted to get the point. How were they going to get out of here? They should have been in Ecruteak City by now if the forest wasn't infested with ghost pokemon.
"Not fair!" He whined, "You didn't let me finish!" He huffed, "Aren't you the gym leader, Blue from Viridian City?"
"It's Green," the gym leader mumbled. Why couldn't anyone get their names right? He could have sworn he saw Red wearing a bemused look when the Toshiyuki's grandson got his name wrong.
"You were defeated by Red, right?" The middle school student recognized the green eyed trainer. "I saw you two on TV!"
"How old are you?" Red asked.
"I'm thirteen!" He yelled, "Thir-teen!" He saw Pikachu lying on his belly on top of Red's head. How the trainer managed to walk around with the huge yellow mouse on his head was beyond anyone's guess.
"Thirteen... So five when you watched it..?" Green calculated out loud.
"You made a really weird speech!" The teen recalled. "I didn't understand it very well, but you sounded like a total jerk face!"
"...I have nothing to say," he replied, turning his gaze to outside the window. Green saw a Skarmory flying over the residential building. The steel bird spread its red metallic wings as it cried its name. He noticed that many of the village houses grew flowers and berries near their front porch; a small garden of sorts. Toshiyuki's garden grew vegetables and a few berry patches.
"School was boring," Keigo told his grandfather. "My English teacher gave us more homework today because our class failed the last quiz. Could you believe that? I had to walk home the other day because I missed the bus and Jetman (1) doesn't know fly yet."
"Jetman?" Red gave him a weird look.
"My Pidgeotto!" Keigo said exasperatedly, "Don't you guys watch-"
"No." The Kanto champion interrupted him.
"Anyways, Gramps! Today I saw a Spearow trying to build its nest. It swooped down and took some of my hair! It used Quick Attack and plucked some of my hair off, now you can see brown hair sticking out from one side of it."
"Oh no! Not the hair!" the old man winced from the comment.
"What..." the usually silent trainer muttered to himself. Pikachu cocked his head, causing Red to tilt to his left. He had to sit down on to Green's bed to prevent himself from tipping over.
"We both inherited beautiful dark brown flown hair; it is dominated in my father's side of the family!" The grandfather cried.
"Wait... What?" This time, it was Green who said this.
"See?" Toshiyuki pointed at himself. "We share the same hair!" Hardly...the elderly man was bald... Not a single hair on his head. The bald man's happy expression contrasted with Keigo scowling, probably not impressed that Red had no idea who Jetman was. "Anyways, it's a mystery how my son ended up with dark blue hair. He even passed down that trait to my granddaughter. She oversees the family ranch."
"Or makes me take care of everything while she wanders the big cities," Keigo mumbled in annoyance. "My stupid sister wants to release them every day so they could 'be free and get their exercise'." He made his voice high pitch in a poor attempt of imitating his sister. "She needs to stop catching so many pokemon!"
"Now now, if she didn't, then she wouldn't be able to-" Toshiyuki began to say.
"Then she needs to take care of them instead of dumping it all on me! I don't care if most of them are super rare pokemon, but it's so frustrating to have to chase down some of them every time!" The teen interrupted, combing his hair with his hand in anger. "She takes care of them and still gets top grades. I take care of them and I'm struggling in English! She should stay home to watch them. I don't know why she keeps going out to look for her when none of her previous tries resulted in anything!"
"Keigo..." the elderly man warned.
"I mean, she should have found a clue or some hint already!" He continued to rant, "It's been five years, and nothing. That's nothing!"
"Your sister catches?" Red suddenly looked interested.
They mentioned her again, Green thought to himself. Who is she?
"Why hasn't she been found yet, I don't think Johto is big enough to hide a person for five years!"
"Wait, what were you talking about?" The gym leader suddenly interjected, trying to bring back the earlier conversation.
"The ranch?" the old man asked.
"No, not that. What were you saying earlier?" Green demanded to know.
"The runaway Gengar?" He stroked his thin beard while petting the Zigzagoon, who woke up from its pleasant nap. The raccoon dog stretched its limbs and loudly yawned. Green sighed and threw himself back onto the pillow.
"Well, maybe you would like to hear about my granddaughter?" the old man cheerfully chattered. "She loves catching pokemon. You should see the family ranch!"
"She catches..." Green snuggled into the fluffy bit of goodness. Could it be? Could she be the cause of the legendaries disappearing? But what would a girl want to do with a bunch of legendaries? "What does she catch?"
"She catches everything around the area! She caught Johto and Kanto pokemon. She gets so excited when she comes home to show us all these weird different colored pokemon. She even found several Dratinis out in the nearby lake! She only caught one though, which made her really sad." Toshiyuki was eager to tell about his granddaughter's accomplishments.
"Uh oh..." Green heard Red breath out.
"My granddaughter once brought home this strange colored Krabby. It was gold! Kinda like that Magikarp I saw many years ago as a young man. Gold as my wedding ring! Very sparkly but not that strong, I admit. It was a very happy Magikarp though."
"She refused to give me her Krabby," Keigo complained. "She has two of them! What's the point of keeping it to herself?"
"Legendaries..?" Green dared ask.
"Sure," the old man said. Green automatically zoned out the continuing noise so he could think. "Dare I say it, she must be legendary! She caught another gold Krabby (2) a few years later! Imagine that! Never thought it was possible. Perhaps Krabby was her spirit pokemon, even though she chose to take Psyduck with her instead. Did I tell you about how much she loves that Psyduck? Hugs it every day." He was like a giddy child bragging about his new toy from Christmas morning.
"Can you stop talking?" A middle aged woman in business attire walked into the room from the kitchen. "You're scaring the kids from all your rambling." Her red brown hair made her bright blue eyes stand out in the room.
"Ah, Yukiko, home already?" The bald man greeted his daughter in law. "What happened to the important conference meeting? Hello Tina." He greeted Yukiko's Glaceon who was walking besides her trainer. The blue ice pokemon had a pointed face and diamond shaped ears with a cold demeanor.
"We're not kids," Green grumbled. Red didn't add any comments but nodded.
"The boss cancelled the conference because his wife called him in the middle of the meeting," she sighed. "Can you believe that? And he tells us to turn off our Pokegears during the meetings. What a hypocrite...! Who are these two?" The business woman looked at Red and Green with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, you see. My precious grandson, your child, found the two of you in the forest completely unconscious." He turned his attention back to his guests. "Those must have been some terrible nightmares young lad. I say, those pokemon are horribly sadistic. I can clearly see them snickering back in their little cave. Terrifying pokemon really, but I actually do find them quite adorable. I suppose I meant that look at their giant fluffy bodies, it's begging to be hugge-"
"What were you doing in the forest?" Yukiko snapped at the two men, interrupting her father-in-law. "Foreigners like you should avoid this place! Did any of you listen to the people in Azalea or Goldenrod?"
"Glaceon? Glaceon? Glace, ceon. Glaceon, Glaceon, ceon!" Hello? Visitors? We don't have many people visit us anymore; do you know if you found a berry bush recently? I planted one not too long ago, but I forgot where I planted it 'QQ'. The Glaceon said happily with delight.
"Pika..." Really? Pikachu was surprised by how...chatty an ice pokemon could be. This was a first. In fact, he never met an ice type that was so eager to start a conversation. Most ice types usually acted calm and cool at all times. Glaceon seemed normal enough...until she opened her mouth.
Red didn't mention that they were warned but stayed quiet as usual.
"Why would you even live here then?" Green snapped back. "You live in the middle of a forest that is run by nightmares and paranoia!"
"It wasn't always like that," she argued. "Besides, those born in these areas or have lived here for a long time eventually are recognized by the pokemon. They won't attack anyone they feel is familiar enough or that they know."
"Hm?" The Kanto champion looked at her curiously. Pikachu's ears perked up with interest.
"Glaceon, Glaceon, ceon!" My mate isn't here, but if he was, I'm sure he would be very happy to talk to you too! The ice type chirped.
"Pikachu." If you say so. Red's Pikachu was too tired to really care.
The electric pokemon spent hours in the forest wandering around waiting for his trainer to come back. He was about to fall asleep when a middle school student attacked the fog that only seemed to aim at trainers with his pokemon. His Machamp very cheerfully flung Red and Green over its shoulder with Pikachu sitting on the fighting pokemon's head. The Machamp threw an odd pose resembling one of those old Japanese superhero team shows. It was a weird adventure.
"This village had the history being Johto's former capitol, but those days are over!" She glared at them. "The village is done having the world focusing on them. The history of wars and bloodshed taught us to stay hidden from the evils in this land. Even this isn't enough! One of the children disappeared five years ago; this place still isn't completely safe!"
"Again with this girl..." Green mumbled to himself.
"Because of the missing child, my daughter and her friend have run away again!"
"It seems that it only brought on trouble..." Red concluded, completely annoyed by the amount of talking and just wanted it to end. "Who is this child?"
"She disappeared five years ago, shortly after our last visitor came to see the village. I can't think of anything else but that she ran away. She was alone here and she didn't have family anywhere else. I can't say her memories here are good either."
"I don't think she ran away Mom," Keigo whined. "I saw lights outside in the forest! Chiharu and Mirei went out to check it out, and you saw how they came back with scrapes and bruises! Mirei locked herself in her room for weeks afterwards even though she hates being home!"
"Not another word about this kidnapping nonsense. We don't know for sure, honey."
"But Satsuki isn't like that! She wouldn't have run away without telling anyone! I swear, that man isn't as good as he seemed to be! Why else did she go away so suddenly, and right after that man came too!"
"You mustn't be harsh on her," Toshiyuki said. The elderly man had a sad look in his eyes. "The poor child lost both her parents before she even became five. She had been watching over her home for six years before she went missing. It's unlikely that she simply ran away."
"Satsuki..." Red repeated the missing girl's name.
"What does your daughter look like?" The gym leader asked.
"Oh, Chiharu?" The redhead pointed at herself, "Why she looks just like me!" She smiled, "We even share the same eyes!"
"Didn't her grandpa say that she had blue hair?" Red whispered to his companion. Green's eyes were almost literally spinning in confusion.
"Do you know where your daughter is?" Green asked after clearing his head. Where would the catcher go? Maybe they could find the missing girl too.
The business woman closed her eyes, "She probably dragged Mirei to Ecruteak City. Mirei probably had her stop to get another badges. The girl always wants to fight more battles. I remember wanting to defeat the Elite Four when I was her age, but Sinnoh was a harsh place for trainers."
"I thought you were from here," Green said.
"No," she shook her head. "I married into the family. I met my husband in Johto when I was traveling."
"Toshiyuki!" someone shouted through the thin walls of the house. Footsteps raced closer and closer till a man screeched to a stop right in front of the room door. "Some punk kid entered the village, and he went and took something from her house!"
"This place hardly changed..." a young teenager mumbled. The teen had short, messy and crazy layered jet black hair that only reached to the mid of the neck with side bangs to cover the teen's left eye.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" a kid yelled out in a demanding voice. His messy brown hair blew back from the wind. His icy blue eyes glared the 'intruder' down. "How did you get here?"
Well this isn't good...
"Why aren't you answering me?" Her heart fluttered as his footsteps came closer. Her throat suddenly went dry.
Shit, what do I say? Satsuki panicked while she kept her face in a straight poker face. She struggled to keep herself calm. Maybe if I make a run for it, I can get into the house and out before he calls for help... Or I could battle him and make him black out, but what if I'm forced to bring out Entei? I don't think my pokemon are properly rested, considering all of the wild pokemon we ran into...
"Pfft, you just hit puberty didn't you?" He snickered as he ran off without another question. The girl was too shocked to find the proper words.
"... He didn't recognize me?" Her voice was quiet near the end of her sentence. She stared at the young teenager running back to the main part of the village. What was I expecting, after five years... she thought to herself as she watched the young teen bounce to his grandfather's house. How old was Keigo when they last met? Did he even remember what they did the last time?
Exhaling a breath of mixed relief and disappointment, she dragged her feet up to an old wooden house that was closest to the nearby lake. The lake was overcrowded with a horde of Psyducks, yellow little dopey pokemon that can't seem to think outside of their headache. And I thought I missed this noise..? She asked herself as she whipped her hood over her ears, hoping it would block out some of the Ow, headache or what was I just doing? These pokemon never seem to actually be able to completely finish a train of thought.
The house itself wasn't all that grand. A simple wooden house that was big enough to fit a family of three. The walls were painted white with a low red roof. The dusty windows still had the blue drapes to hide the view of the inside. A tiny flower patch was still in bloom where a few of the flowers were starting to wither away from the summer's heat. A stone path that led to the front step was worn out from use but was still in good condition.
It's still the same. She checked under the closest stone from the pathway that was closest to the doorway, pulling it straight out of the ground. Underneath was an aged silver key, quite clean despite being hidden for years. Perhaps the villagers took care of the place while she was away? The front of the house was surprisingly neat asides from the dusty windows because of the weather.
She slid the key into its proper slot and turned it counter clockwise until she heard a click and watched the door automatically swing inward. The first thing she thought was the word new. The empty house she left was no longer barren. A couple of couches were left to the side of the living room. They still had the sharp smell of new furniture with plastic wrap covering them. Other than the new addition to the house, it still remained more or less the same.
She immediately rushed to her room, praying to a nonexistent source that the village had left her belongings in that room. Her own room that she spent the first ten years of her life in. When she pried the old door of her room open, everything was still in place. The futon was folded to the side of the room with a box of pencils next to it along with a small stack of blank sheets of paper. A small drawer was played near the closet with one of its contents left open as if the previous dweller was in a rush to leave the house. Like how she left them open when she ran out of the house that night.
She dug through the bottom drawer and tossed all her old clothing out and onto the floor before reemerging with a small black box. She opened it to reveal a small necklace with a water drop shaped gem. Pulling the gem out of the box, water splashed within, creating a soothing effect to those who watch it. Satsuki watched the Mystic Water in her hand. The water inside of it dripped to the bottom of the gem.
She snapped her head to the window to her right, and saw a pair of eyes look down at her. Swearing out loud, she wrapped the necklace until it was secure as a bracelet and rushed out of the building. Satsuki made a straight dash for the forest when two people slid right in front of her, blocking the opening.
"Who are you?" the brunette demanded as he and his raven haired companion both reached for their Pokeballs. He had on a grey winter's jacket tied around his waist while his friend wore a red and white cap with a matching short sleeved vest with a black t-shirt underneath.
Why...why are they here? She recognized the capped man.
There were many poor attempts of trainers imitating his clothes and attitude, but there was no doubt about it. There is only one person could pull off that out of bed hairdo without looking stupid. He never spoke while he and the others were pursuing her. There was no need to. His red colored eyes said it all. And the one next to him, with the messy gelled light brown hair. No matter what strategy she could use or switch to, there was absolutely no way she can challenge and escape the Viridian gym leader and the Kanto champion, with or without the use of legendary pokemon. She frantically forced herself to think of all of the alternates, each sounding more ridiculous than the last. It was a lost cause before the battle could begin.
I need to leave, she thought. Picking a fight with the two strongest trainers in Kanto was foolish and almost begging for death.
"He took Satsuki's Mystic Water!" Someone behind her screamed out from the doorway of her house. She didn't dare look away from the two trainers before her. The calming effect of the Mystic Water was already gone. She saw Pikachu on one of the trainer's shoulder and felt nervous. That Pikachu... It was strong. The electric rat was standing with its head up with a look of determination. It was not a force to be reckoned with.
The short haired tomboy made a mad dash for her right, hoping that she would be able to outrun the two healthy guys while having the element of surprise. If I am caught... she shook the thought out of her head. Even if it was them, nothing could help her situation. She could hear their footsteps coming closer to her heels. Without much effort, her pursuers caught up in no time.
"I'll stop him!" Keigo yelled out, crouched down in a quarterback's position. He went into a strange stance with one hand giving the victory sign. Satsuki stared at the short teenager with the thoughts, Are you kidding me? and then deftly maneuvered behind him and twisted both his wrists into a hostage hold. Her face was callous the whole time, showing no signs of shock of surprise of the sudden appearance of the group.
"Wait, whaat?" He shouted out loud. Why does he sound more surprised than he should be? Satsuki thought to herself as she dragged the young teenager towards the thick trees of the forest. She heard a couple of small mumbles and complaints from the teen as she forced him through the narrow path.
The gym leader and Kanto champion both stopped dead in their tracks as they watched with sweat drops as the kid scream out, "Oh no! He caught meeeee!" It was almost impossible to tell if the scream was sincere or melodramatic.
The moment Satsuki reached the first tree; Keigo realized how loose her grip on him was the entire time. The teenage boy realized that his kidnapper was oddly quiet, never said a word. When they were running, well, when his kidnapper was dragging him along, he also noticed that the punk knew where he was going. The kidnapper was running through the forest like he had lived there his whole life. They were walking perfectly on the pathway backwards without having to look around.
Keigo pushed himself around to ask in a low tone, "Do I know you?" He found himself staring at the stranger's hazel eyes. Strongly familiar hazel eyes, like he had known them from his childhood. The image of those pair of eyes many years ago. How...?
Her eyes widened, realizing that he was trying to remember, as she released him and sprinted further into the forest. Despite how well she knew the forest, she still could hear footsteps steadily gain speed. She spied a small cave hidden by a bunch of trees and other plants.
"Gen, gengar?" Satsuki, is that you? A ghost pokemon called out loud, recognizing her scent. She couldn't see the pokemon, but she knew without thinking that the tall and round, purple pokemon was standing inside the cave with a wide grin on its face along with its friends. The other ghost pokemon probably sensed her presence and were looking at her through the cave's wall expectedly.
"Hide me." She demanded as she slid right into the Gengar's cave, knocking a few of the pokemon that were standing at the edge of the entrance. Her vision became discolored at the immediate darkness and only saw blurs of purple and black. She heard the sound of thumps and guessed that a few of the ghost pokemon tripped at her sudden entry.
"He should be over there!" She heard them call out to one another. Their voices soon spread out in distance. "He can't get away. Zoroark should be able to trap him, search the parameters!"
Route 36
"Are you awake?" She woke up early that day as usual. She was always a morning person and woke up when the sun rose. The trainer already brushed her teeth and was ready for the day. The girl looked at her friend with worry.
"Ugh," Chiharu moaned. Her usually neat braided ponytail was a mess from rolling in her sleep last night. She sat up from her sleeping bag and rubbed her eyes. Mirei must have found her and brought the sleeping bag with her.
"What happened to you?"
"I don't feel good..." She has not eaten since last afternoon. "What happened?"
"What happened?" Mirei's voice went high pitch. "You were gone for more than an hour! Helios came to me when I was about to look for you!" Chiharu's Growlithe led her to the odd stony stage where Chiharu was found kneeling on the floor in shock.
"Is he okay?" The blue haired girl glanced at the orange striped dog. Helios looked at her with sadness. Her Eevee was laying in the grass, talking quietly to the other Eevee.
"Helios is fine," the brunette said hastily. "What about you? What kept you so late?"
"I saw Satsuki," she whispered. "She was there. At the place where we played as children" The image of Satsuki facing the moon was still in her mind as the catcher pointed towards south.
"What do you mean...?" Mirei looked confused. Although she asked what her friend meant, the brunette already knew the answer. She was hoping that she would be wrong though.
"What else could I mean?" She said impatiently, "Satsuki was there. She was thin and sickly. There were bruises on her, and she was bleeding... And she wouldn't talk to me." What was that? Chiharu thought of the dark shadow that flew over her last night. It must have taken Satsuki somewhere. Was it a pokemon?
"What, that can't be Satsuki," the brunette waved off. "There is no way Satsuki wouldn't want to talk to you or me for that matter." The missing girl was still the happy friendly girl in her mind even after all those years. Mirei didn't see alternatives to her schema of Satsuki.
"I'm serious!" The blue haired girl desperately looked at her friend to agree with her. "She knew I was there, she could clearly hear me ask her where she had gone!" Her voice shook slightly as she glared at the other girl.
"Stop it," Mirei's voice dropped to a low and quiet tone. "If it really was Satsuki, then she would have gone straight to the village and look for us. Stop with these stories."
"You don't know that," the blue haired girl said darkly. "It has been five years. There is no way she could be the same pers-"
"Stop," was all Mirei managed to force out without completely losing her temper.
"Growl..." Stop it you two, the fire dog whined.
"What if she couldn't talk?" The catcher demanded. "What if she has been gone for so long that she couldn't talk because she thought that we forgot about her?"
Her right hand closed into a tight fist. Why do you ignore that possibility? She thought sourly. Did her friend really think that their search for the missing girl would end that easily? They initially started the search for their friend five years ago, but as time went on, Chiharu's faith was beginning to wither until last night. Even then it seemed unlikely to meet Satsuki again, especially with that shadow she had...
"Well, if she thought we forgot her, then wouldn't that suspicion be cleared when you called out her name?" She snapped back.
"Don't forget that it was he who took her." Chiharu's blood turned cold all of sudden from her tranquil rage. "Did you forget of what he did to us? What he did to her?"
Mirei's anger surged further. "Then if she escaped, she would have returned here, where people she knows could help!"
"If would be hard to trust people if no one did anything to save you back then, huh?" Chiharu laughed sarcastically. She looked up at the morning sun that was slowly rising up at a two-ten degree angle. Eight o'clock. She was out for that long?
"That's nothing to laugh about!" Mirei's scowl made the other girl stop laughing, "That girl can't be Satsuki. She would trust us!" She refused to accept truth, which poked its ugly rear at the wrong time and place.
"Eevee, Eevee!" Leo attempted to lighten up the tension in the air. Stop fighting over me! The brown dog hopped around and kept poking his trainer's leg to catch her attention. "Eevee!" Look at meeee!
"Vee!" Shut up, Leo! His sister nipped at the Eevee to silence him. Leo had no idea what was going on...
"I'm done talking about this." Mirei growled as she turned around and stormed off deeper into the forest. A wave of guilt washed over her as she was reminded of the day she wasn't able to protect her friend - the day Satsuki was taken. She failed and she knew it.
"You can't keep pretending like this never happened!" Her friend cried. The brunette girl ignored her. Tears rolled down Chiharu's cheeks, unused to being mistrusted by her close friend.
"We're having breakfast before we head to Ecruteak," Mirei said coldly as she continued to walk away.
Extra Notes:
Dynaman, JAKQ, Jetman (1) = Keigo's pokemon are named after different Super Sentai series.
gold Krabby (2) = Believe or not, this really happened to one of the authors. She caught a shiny Krabby in Crystal game when she was eleven years old and then caught another one in HeartGold eight years later.
Authors Notes: We were originally going to only have Keigo show up twice in the story, but one of the authors liked his character so much that she ran off with it and gave him more cameo. Question of the chapter: What was your favorite part of Toshiyuki's dialogue? Or you can answer this question instead: Out of the three of us, who do you think is the beta reader? A favorite, follow, and review would be appreciated. Until next time, see you later!
"LunarAbyss": The old man [Toshiyuki] uses his wisdom and knowledge to ramble on and on. It runs in his family, or at least the men. The only shiny pokemon I ever ran into is Red Gyarados in SoulSilver, and I think that everyone knows, IT'S PART OF THE DAMN PLOT SO NO MATTER WHAT, WE ALL MEET IT.
"MikaStoryInc": I've never caught a shiny before... I do have a shiny Blastoise that I took from a used Black 2 game though :D
"LunarAbyss": But you just started playing... I've been in these games since Red and Blue! Q^Q THAT DOESN'T COUNT
"RainSonata": I just got into Super Sentai, so I thought having Keigo's team named after it would be interesting. Currently watching Jetman, Dekaranger, and Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger 2! I love Timeranger and Shinkenger.