Chapter 12

Japanese Names:

Professor Ookido = Professor Oak

Disclaimer: We don't own pokemon.

Eight Years Ago

"Satsuki!" Chiharu yelled out as she wandered alone through the dense trees of Ilex Forest. She was still within her village's radius, but wandering alone when one cannot see the sunlight pierce through the leaves at noon does frighten her.

"Is that you, Chiharu?" A girl's voice asked. The blue haired child cautiously followed the noise when suddenly something fell from a tree branch overhead.

"EEP!" she screamed, causing a few Murkrows to skitter out into the air.

"Relax Chiharu, it's me," the owner's voice smirked as she hung upside down from the thicker branches. Her long black hair nearly reached the ground as her shirt threatened to fall though the young girl barely noticed. "You get startled too easily." She snickered with a wide grin on her face

"Let's go," the eight year old child hugged her blue backpack. "We're going to miss the bus..." Her hair was tied into braids with a visible expression of worry.

"Nah, not today," Satsuki snorted as she flipped right side up before landing softly on the balls of her feet. "Don't wanna go today..."

She noticed that the other girl was flinching at a thought, probably scared of getting yelled at by the teacher again. After getting a letter home from the teacher for missing class, the blue haired girl constantly studied to avoid getting in trouble so she could go home to listen to the radio. Chiharu discovered a new radio show hosted by a pokemon professor and that DJ broadcaster and would constantly talk about it. She would spend hours listening to facts and trivia about each pokemon and then go into the forest herself with her friends to see if they are true.

"Is something wrong?" Chiharu's eyes widen. She was so easy to read. Like an open book. It was clear that many thoughts were going through her and that she was unsure of what to say. Many thoughts that an eight year old shouldn't have to worry about.

"Not at all, I just feel like the teacher's lectures today are going to be super boring."

"What about that girl who lives near the Pokemart?" She said, "Didn't you promise to show her around the school and forest?"

The other girl had lived in the village her whole life, but she was one of the children who were homeschooled until her mom had to work outside the village and chose to avoid the forest and followed the adults' warnings. She had recently transferred to an elementary school in Goldenrod City due to her guardians' new jobs in the big city. Satsuki and Chiharu were the only students from the village the girl recognized in her new school.

"Sorry Chiharu, can you go and show her around for me?" Satsuki clapped her hands together and bowed apologetically. A blue hallowed raindrop shaped gem hung from her wrists, the water shook when she snapped her hands up.

"No one else knows the pokemon better than you!" Chiharu cried, "They never attack you and you always know what they want to say!"

"There are a ton of things I need to do today. I promised her this on a bad day, I feel really bad, but I can't miss this... So, pretty please? With a berry on top?" The dark haired girl pleaded with big hazel eyes.

"I guess I can..." Chiharu mumbled and looked at the small path leading west of the village, where the nearest bus stop for Goldenrod was there.

"Thank you Chiharu! I owe you alright?"

"Pinky swear that you won't make another bad promise to her?" The brown eyed girl held out her small right pinky.

"Yeah, pinky promise!" Satsuki smiled as the two locked fingers for a brief moment. "Gotta run!" she yelled out as she ran deeper into the forest.

"I hate walking in the forest alone..." Chiharu mumbled and turned the opposite direction to walk to the bus stop.

"What do you think of the forest?" Chiharu asked as she led the other girl through the dense forest filled with pokemon. "They normally don't attack you unless you bother them!"

"It's not as scary as they said," the brunette girl said. "I wish someone told me about this earlier."

Being homeschooled at a young age, Mirei was not allowed to go outside beyond the village's boundaries while the other villager children were always playing in the forest. She only knew the other children from seeing them walk to school in the morning or during the weekends or holidays when school was out. She hated being cooped up in the house but stayed in there because she was told that it was dangerous outside of the village. Her closest friends were the elderly, who always invited her for tea while the other children were at school.

"What happened to Satsuki?" Mirei asked, "I thought she was going to show me around."

"She couldn't make it," the other girl said. "She told me to tell you that she is sorry and that she'll show you the deeper parts of the forest next time."

"Oh," Mirei said with disappointment. She was on her way back from Mrs. Yoshida's house for a small birthday lunch when she saw Satsuki sneak into the forest.

"Did you see the Elite Four fight today?" The blue haired girl asked, "The new champion is an eleven year old guy!" Chiharu continued, "He had a strong Pikachu and it was so cute! It looked like they've been together since forever! His Eevee looks so happy with him. I wonder why he didn't evolve it yet." There were stars in her eyes as she gushed on about the trainer's other pokemon.

"Is that impressive..?" She questioned, really clueless about the outside world.

"It's amazing! I mean, how many kids can say they defeated the Elite Four? He is the youngest ever!" She babbled on. "Most kids don't even finish getting all eight badges after a year!" She nodded, "It takes a long time to get to each city and the school only gives us three months for break!"

"Are you going to go after the Elite Four someday?" Mirei asked her new friend.

"Me?" Chiharu pointed at herself, "Nah, I want to be a pokemon professor just like Professor Ookido! You?"

"I just want to get pokemon and be friends with them," the brunette girl smiled. "We can make poffins together and we can travel the world and just have fun!"

"Mom is letting us pick out some Eevees today," Chiharu welcomed the brunette in cheerfully. She held her front door wide open to let Mirei in. She led the girl through the short hallway and into the living room where the newly born pokemon were. "She said it's lucky that they had another litter this year."

"Thank you for letting me come and pick one Mrs. Yukiko," she bowed to her friend's mom. Although Chiharu and Satsuki were her first friends who were from her age group, Mirei was comfortable talking to older people and knew how to act around them.

"Oh, it's alright. Go ahead and play with them for a bit!" The red-haired young woman beamed at the politeness of her child's friend.

Satsuki was flat on her belly, staring at the smallest one in the litter. The tiny Eevee had his ears pulled back, sat still, and stared at the ground, occasionally looking up only to see the girl still watching him. His older siblings were wrestling around on the rug. Her black hair was neatly tied back, though her bangs still messily covered and framed her face.

The Eevees were a few weeks old now, but they still played close to their mother, an ice type pokemon called Glaceon. The blue pokemon gazed at her litter with loving eyes with a male Houndoom lying next to her. Houndoom was a tall black dog pokemon with horns on his head and a tail shaped like an arrow. The fire pokemon didn't seem to mind his children bumping into him when they were practicing their Shadow Ball attack. They were young, but they were already attempting to imitate their father's signature move.

"Hi Satsuki!" Mirei said, though the other girl didn't seem to hear. She kept her gaze at the tiny Eevee, waiting for something.

"Sorry, she gets like that sometimes," Chiharu explained. She leaned in to whisper into Mirei's ear, "I think she is trying to get him to talk. Mom says people can't talk to pokemon, but I think Satsuki can."

"Talking?" The brunette girl tilted her head; she had her eyes on the biggest Eevee. The normal type pokemon was busy fighting with the other Eevee, but was sorely losing. Eevee flopped on the floor with a tired look on his face.

"She is friends with all the pokemon in the forest; none of them attack her at all!"

"Vee..." The little normal type whined. The hazel eyed girl perked up as a huge grin formed on her face.

"Hello there! So you do talk! How are you today?" She said with an excited voice.

The pokemon scoot back a little, trying to shy away. If he could, he would have turned invisible as he scrambled to hide behind his dad's back. The fire pokemon nudged his son forward with his snout. Houndoom gave the baby pokemon a short bark and a nod with Eevee looking at the girl with uncertainty. Eevee's mother cheerfully cried out something.

"Aw, I don't bite," she pouted, listening to the Eevee with his parents.

"I want that one," Mirei said quietly. She separated the slightly chubby Eevee away from the one that won the wrestle. She hugged the normal type pokemon. While the youngest Eevee was shy, this one didn't mind being hugged by a stranger and licked the girl on the cheek. His big round eyes stared at Mirei's red-brown eyes with a smile.

Chiharu was hugging the other Eevee, who was calmly sitting on her lap with a small smirk for its victory against its brother. The Eevee was the middle child of the litter and was also the greediest - the one that would eat the most. Since the litter lived in Chiharu's house, they were already used to the girl's presence. The middle Eevee was fond of Chiharu and usually came to her, expecting an extra treat from the eight year old girl. There was a strange gleam in that particular Eevee where it looked like it was always judging you. It got up and pounced on its youngest brother, who yelped in surprise and wriggled his way out. He slid behind Satsuki, who was the farthest person from his sibling at the time.

"It's alright, she is only playing with you," the young girl patted the runt on his head.

"Um, Satsuki, mom said they are all boys," Chiharu corrected.

"Hmm? No, that one is a girl..." She pointed to the one who sat on the blue haired girl's lap earlier.

"A girl?" The girl said, "Huh...this whole time, my family thought Asahi was a boy."

"You named her already?"

"We can't call all of them Eevee," she said. "If I was to call this one Eevee, all three of them would come to me."

"Does this little guy have a name yet?" Satsuki asked, picking up the tiny normal type. He squirmed in her hands until she held him close to her chest in a soft hug.

"No," Chiharu shook her head. "Asahi is the only one with a nickname." Her mom told her to leave the rest of the litter unnamed in case the girls had a different name in mind for their new pokemon. Asahi was named because of her early attachment to Chiharu.

"Okay~ I'm going to call you Elliot! I read that name from a book, and I thought it was adorable!" She laughed as the Eevee looked up at her curiously.

"Then this one is Leo!" Mirei smiled as the Eevee gave her another lick to the face.

Five Years Ago From Present Time

"She is always bringing strangers here..." Mirei openly complained. The eleven year old girl was absentmindedly watering the Oran Berry she had planted last week.

It was the holidays and she and Chiharu were outside growing some berries. The brunette girl had found a new hobby in planting berries. It was fascinating to watch the small seeds grow into tall healthy plants. Her pokemon loved eating the berries from its branches and they enjoyed helping their trainer plant the seeds. The berries could even be used for poffins and as ingredients for some dishes suited for humans and pokemon alike.

"Well, the ghost pokemon openly attack non-villagers now... I wonder why they started doing it though; usually Zoroark just leads them away from here using its illusions." Chiharu replied. She overheard her grandpa the other day saying something about the pokemon pulling pranks ever since Satsuki started lingering at the forest borders.

"She doesn't have to though," the brunette pouted. "She is always in that forest. I see her leave in the middle of the night to go wander in there. I always lose sight of her, so I never found out where she goes." She didn't notice that the berry pot was overflowing with water.

"What do you think of the guy?" Chiharu asked quietly, "That one man she brought in yesterday? I think he's a little creepy."

The man looked like he was in his thirties, wore a shirt and long trousers with a huge backpack on his back. He talked with a horribly faked accent of what was supposed to be from Johto, but sounded more like the cry of a Stantler being butchered. The weird look he kept giving to their friend...it was eerie. Like he was planning to eat her. He claimed that he only had one pokemon, but she saw a few pokeballs hanging from his belt when she walked by him this morning.

"Yeah, and he keeps trying to talk to Satsuki whenever he can... Isn't that called being interested in her? I was told that it is not right for someone much older than you to be very interested in you." Mirei recited what her mom warned her about regarding strangers and certain adults.

Her Eevee was asleep in her arms and her Kadabra asleep next to her. She tried to get the psychic pokemon to finish his first pokemon battle today, but the pokemon shrunk away and used Teleport to escape the battle. Kadabra was always snoozing and didn't talk much, but he did smile a lot to his trainer when she mentioned food and planting berries.

"I think you are thinking of the wrong form of 'interested,' Mirei." The blue haired girl smirked. Her Growlithe was lying on the soft grass, enjoying a short nap under the warming sun. The fire pokemon seemed to gravitate towards the sun.

"What is that supposed to mean?" The brunette girl looked confused.

"Sorry I'm late guys!" Satsuki ran towards the two. The small Eevee curled up inside her hood. She had to explain multiple times to different people that the little guy hated being in a pokeball, though each looked at her with an odd expression. "Mr. Tanaka wanted to ask me a few more questions about the forest."

"I don't know about him Satsuki," Chiharu mumbled. "He seems a little odd to me. Has he asked about anything else?"

"Just what pokemon appear here and about the shrine we like to play at," she replied a little too quickly.

The blue haired girl was about to say something when Mirei whined, "What, you told him about our hideout?" The shrine was avoided by the villagers due to it being far away from the main path and that it attracted wild pokemon. The shrine was abandoned before the village was found.

"It's pretty open to be a hideout!" She laughed. "Super pretty too, I don't blame him for being curious, I did find him there."

"You never told this much information to the other travelers," Chiharu said while looking down at her Growlithe. The fire dog rolled on the floor and stretched under the sunlight.

She shrugged. "They never asked. Oh, and I met an Ariados today! It was pretty cool!"

Later that Night

"Satsuki, is there something wrong?" Yukiko asked, noticing that the girl was poking at her food rather than eating it. "Do you not like it?"

"It's delicious," she answered immediately. "It's just..." She dropped her chopsticks and set them carefully on the bowl of rice. The girl carefully only ate the vegetables and some of the rice; she refused to touch the meat.

"Hmm?" The adult looked at the youngster with worry.

"I need to make sure Keigo finished his homework today," Chiharu's dad stood up from the table. "His teacher called again about his grades." He shared the same look of concern as his wife. His dark blue hair was cut into a short buzz; he was still wearing the suit he wore from work. He was already home when Satsuki came over for dinner.

"So if the two circles overlap, that means they are red and green," Chiharu was trying to explain the homework to her younger brother in the living room. "You get it?"

"No," Keigo had a prominent scowl. The eight year old boy was displeased of having the teacher call home.

"Don't worry! It's nothing," Satsuki smiled as she got out of her chair and grabbed her bag. "I just remembered that I forgot to do something at my house! I'll see you later. Good night!"

"Good night Satsuki, have a safe walk home!" The redhead smiled as the child ran off. She sighed to herself and said out loud, "She is so responsible for a ten year old..." Her Glaceon looked up at her trainer with worry. The ice type pokemon wailed into the humid summer night.

Late that Night

A scream echoed from the denser part of the forest, though the sound only barely reached the village. More specifically, through the window of a young catcher. Chiharu groggily sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"Was that Satsuki?" she asked herself as she stared out her window. Her unfocused eyes made out what looked like a bright red glow deep in the forest, where the shrine would be. Her mind snapped to overdrive. "No," she whispered. The blue haired trainer grabbed her belt with pokeballs and opened her window. After looking back and forth, she jumped out of the window as quietly as she could and ran towards the direction where Mirei's house was.

"Mirei, Mirei! Wake up!" She lightly knocked at her friend's window. The curtains swung open to reveal that she was already fully dressed and geared up. Chiharu felt odd for still being in her pajamas. She ran to the brunette girl's house barefoot with only her pokemon with her.

"I heard it, Chiharu..." Her eyes were wide with worry. "Do you think it's..?"

"I saw something that looked like a fire from my window, we gotta hurry!" She took out a red capsule, "Shion, go!" The yellow duck popped out of the pokeball with a tired face.

"Psy...duck?" Psyduck wiped its eyes with its paws in confusion. It waved its arms and cried, "Psy, yai, psy!" The water pokemon looked uncertain of the fire his trainer was pointing at.

"We need to save Satsuki!" Chiharu cried, "I know you're not that fast, but I think we can make it on time!"

"Kazama, Teleport to the shrine!" Mirei already had the psychic pokemon outside of its pokeball when Chiharu came over. The brown pokemon opened its eyes wide and made the two girls glow a blue aura along with it. With the wave of a finger, energy flashed under the two trainers with the girls disappearing with Kadabra.

When they reached the shrine clearing, everything but the building itself was covered in flames. Large paw prints had burnt itself into the ground, and very different than an Arcanine's. The fire greedily consumed the plant life around the clearing, threatening to spread. Its light grew and shrunk according to its fuel, making the already ominous night shadows dance a macabre dance like the end was near. The already crumbling stone figures had pieces threatening to fall off. Mirei saw many wild pokemon running the opposite direction of their destination, looking for shelter.

A voice not too far choked and coughed out ashes. Violent and raspy gasps for air as if the person had been punched or kicked in the rib cage or throat. Mirei snapped to the sound, recognizing it.

"Satsuki! Satsuki, where are you?" She cried out, covering her mouth with a bit of her jacket to prevent her from inhaling too much smoke. The smoke gently clouded over the remnants of the plant life that was left. Ember flickered around them. Chiharu's Psyduck used Water Gun and sprayed a thin stream of water at the flames, leaving steam evaporating with the smoke.

"Sa-" Chiharu gasped.

Big lilac eyes suddenly jumped at the girl with pearl white fangs and horn pointing at her. Its face was zoomed in to her face, only a few inches away from touching her. A large arachnid like pokemon teetered out from a large tree, using its six legs to stick to the side of the trunk. Three legs at a time took a step down as the others followed and soon the large bug pokemon stood in front of the two girls like any normal encounter.

"Hey, is that the Ariados Satsuki met earlier today?" Chiharu asked.

"I think so, can you help us find her?" Mirei asked desperately to the wild pokemon.

Without warning, the arachnid leaped behind them, hissing and baring its large fangs with drops of venom dripping down it. With one swift movement, the spider lunged, forcing the brunette to skip backwards. A bit of the flames licked her jacket, igniting it.

"Crap!" She cried out as she flopped onto the dry ground and began to roll away from her attacker. The fire left her clothing and began to devour the dying grass as a new source of fuel. The fire surrounded them almost entirely, the only thing still standing is the shrine itself. The burning red lights sucked up most of the oxygen, making it harder for the two girls to breath and the bug pokemon seemed to not notice.

Chiharu tried to step away from the spider pokemon, but her legs could not move. She took out her pokeball to call out one of her pokemon, but the pokemon was faster. "Shadow Sneak," the blue haired girl moved her lips. Her voice was barely audible for Mirei to hear. The brunette girl looked at where Chiharu's eyes were and saw that an Ariados' dark shadow was connecting to Chiharu's.

"Chiharu!" Mirei shrieked and took out her pokemon, "Kisaki, Scratch!" The female Nidoran charged at the giant bug pokemon with her claws out. The poison pin pokemon attacked Ariados, but the pokemon easily tossed her aside with only a single leg and continued going after Chiharu.

Ariados' long limbs extended and bind the girl close to its body. Despite its appearance, Ariados had a tough exoskeleton body. Being bind to the pokemon felt like being tied to a boulder... If it was normal for boulders to have multiple limbs with poisonous fangs and a horn. The giant arachnid pokemon hissed and continued to wrap the girl. Chiharu cried from the tight binding of Constrict and cried out Mirei's name. The blue haired girl's arms were unable to move under Ariados' attack. Her Psyduck glared at the bug pokemon and had his eyes glowing blue. The yellow duck used Confusion on Ariados, causing the bug pokemon to release the girl. Chiharu staggered away from the spider pokemon and called out her pokemon.

"Helios, Ember!" Chiharu's Growlithe opened his mouth wide with flames flying out. Ariados dodged the small fire attack and opened its mouth to use Bug Bite, aiming for the Growlithe's trainer. The fire dog ran in front of Chiharu and used Ember on Ariados when the spider was a few feet away. Too late to react, Ariados took the fire attack in the face and fell on the floor.

"Chiharu!" She was so close to getting bitten by the poisonous spider. Mirei whimpered at the fiery hell they were in right now. Her Kadabra opened his eyes for once with a look of fear on his face. The brunette girl had to tap her pokemon on the shoulder to remind him that there was nowhere to run. Not when Satsuki was nowhere to be found.

"Mirei, now!" The girl shrieked.

Mirei numbly nodded and threw a Great Ball at the spider pokemon. The catching capsule had a blue top with red marks on the sides. The Great Ball hit the spider pokemon on the head. As the pokeball hit Ariados on the head, something odd happened. The moment the Great Ball came into contact with the spider pokemon, sparks instantly flew out of the pokeball with red light flashing out from the capsule. Ariados hissed at the two girls with the broken pokeball tossed aside on the floor with sparks still sizzling out.

"I-it's not working!" Mirei cried, "It's not working!" Her Kadabra frowned and tried to comfort his trainer with a hug. "Leo, don't touch it!" Her voice went off a few octaves at the Eevee, who was growling at the spider pokemon.

"Try again!" Chiharu said as she threw an Ultra Ball at the pokemon. The black pokeball bounced on Ariados, but broke once it came into contact with the bug pokemon. Growlithe and Psyduck attacked the aggressive arachnid with Confusion and Ember. They leaped on the spider pokemon in attempt of slowing down Ariados' slow march against the two preteens.

Mirei's Eevee ignored his trainer's warning and formed dark energy in front of himself to hurl it towards the poison type bug. Ariados' eyes widened and looked at its attacker. The bug pokemon stampeded at the Eevee, its long sharp legs moved its fat striped body across the burning forest. The bug pokemon bore its fangs at Eevee and bit the normal type by the side. Eevee instantly fainted from the bug attack and collapsed. Green goo coated the Eevee's body.

"Leo!" Eevee's trainer sobbed and ran to the normal type pokemon. She scooped up the fainted pokemon and cradled him in her arms, "Leo! Are you alright?"

"Mirei, look out!" Chiharu jumped in front of the crying girl to push her away from the angered spider.

"What are you...?"

"Help!" Chiharu cried, "Somebody help us! We're being atta-" Her voice was instantly muffled by Ariados. The spider pokemon jumped on her into a crouching stance. It used its silk to tape her mouth shut.

Ariados shot out silk from its mouth. The catcher muffled a yell from the attack as the spider skillfully wrapped Chiharu's body entirely in silk. She felt the individual hairs on the Ariados' legs as they moved around her body. The spider used its sticky legs to weave the steel strong and water resistance silk around the catcher. She struggled and tried to wiggle free from the silk's binding, but it was no use. Chiharu saw the bug pokemon's face up close and froze when it looked at her like she was dinner. She saw all of its fangs and knew what spiders ate.

"Leave Chiharu alone!" Mirei took out a full bag of pokeballs and started tossing them at the bug pokemon, ignoring that it was impossible to catch a fully evolved pokemon when her team was still low leveled. Net Balls, Great Balls, Ultra Balls, and many other variety of catching capsules flew at the spider pokemon. Mirei and Chiharu's pokemon attacked the Ariados in union with their strongest attacks as Ariados crawled about in attempt to avoid the pokeballs. Sparks flew all over the place from the pokeballs that failed to catch Ariados. All of the catching capsules fell to the floor malfunctioned.

Ariados used Shadow Sneak on Mirei's female Nidoran and made the small pokemon squeal as its health points deduct to zero. Psyduck and Growlithe combined Confusion and Ember on Ariados, but the spider pokemon hurled a log at them. Growlithe whined from being hit by the damp wood. The fire dog stood back up and howled at the moon; the moon beam shone on the orange dog and restored his health. While the fire pokemon was healing with Morning Sun, Ariados tried to attack the dog with Bug Bite, but it caused Psyduck, who tried to stop it from hurting his friend, to faint instead.

"Eevee!" Asahi cried.

The female Eevee wanted to reunite with her trainer and bear her teeth at Ariados. The normal pokemon kicked sand into the spider's face and used Shadow Ball on it. Ariados shrilled from the ghost attack and extended its limbs to bind Eevee as well. The female pokemon whimpered at the bug pokemon. Ariados opened its mouth and bit the Eevee with Bug Bite, making her become unconscious.

The brunette girl had tears flowing down her cheeks. She couldn't catch the pokemon. It was a wild pokemon. Satsuki said she befriended it yesterday. Why was it attacking them? Why didn't the pokeballs even wobble? The pokeballs didn't even turn Ariados into energy. Could it be that this Ariados belonged to someone else? Mirei stared at the crouching spider pokemon, who was guarding Chiharu with its mandible bent over.

"No," Mirei whispered. "NO!"

She recalled back the pokemon who have fainted and ran to Chiharu. The girl undauntedly charged head first into Ariados with her Kadabra, who focused and released balls of energy at the spider. Kadabra's Hidden Power shot into the spider's eye and made it fall backwards onto its back. Chiharu's Growlithe ran over to his trainer and bit into the silk, but only to have the sticky substance foam in his mouth. The fire dog barked at the unwelcomed taste and saw that he was unable to free his trainer.

"Chiharu, are you okay?" Mirei frantically went over to her friend, who was lying still with her eyes shut tight. The blue haired girl moaned, refusing to open her eyes. She didn't respond to Mirei's words. The brunette trainer called out, "Kazama, we need to go back home!"

Mirei glanced at the Ariados, who was still rolling on the floor with its legs sticking up towards the sky. The only sound she could hear was Chiharu's soft muffles and her own heartbeat, pounding against her rib cage. She turned to her Kadabra to ask him why he was hesitating when something hit her on the side of her head. The small girl fell on her side with the broken pokeballs and her friend nearby. Her knees felt weak and her vision was hazy.

"Stupid," she heard someone spit out nearby.

In the haze, she saw the bug type pokemon flash into its capsule as someone stood before them. A tall slim figure of a child's, eyes wide in shock and horror, the flames reflected a violent crimson color in the irises. The person opened her mouth to let out a desperate scream as she lost consciousness.

Goldenrod Hospital

"The sticky substance seemed to be the silk from an arachnid pokemon, possibly an Ariados from the strength of it." A calm professional voice floated in the air, "Very few material can successfully bind a human as well as survive a multitude of ways to remove it. In the end, we had to use a fire move to burn off some of the strands before we were able to release your daughter. The only pokemon capable of using Spider Web are from the Spinarak family and from a pokemon of a new region."

"Where am I?" The patient groggily said out of the blue. She sat up with a dazed look, "I'm not...dead?" She opened her eyes to see a tall man, who she guessed to be the doctor, and a few figures sitting by her bed.

"Honey, why would you say that?" Yukiko asked, with her eyes wide with worry. She sat at the side of the bed, her hand holding her daughter's. The doctor stood nearby the door on the opposite side of the bed.

"It was going to bite me," Chiharu said quietly.

It still had blood, green ooze, dripping down its body when it attacked her. It smelled of burning wood and flesh. She looked down at her small thin arms, which had scars and bruises from the rough handling of the spider pokemon and the occasional burns from the fire. Its sharp legs pierced through her skin. The nurses put layers of bandages on her arms, but she could see the blood soaking through.

"You're alright honey, we heard Mirei scream-"

"But, Mirei didn't scream..." Chiharu recalled.

"Honey, of course she did, how else were we able to...find you?" Her mom choked back tears. Her tone dropped, scolding, "What were you doing out in the woods at the middle of the night? In the middle of a fire no less?"

"Do you remember what happened?" Chiharu's dad asked.

"Where's Keigo?" The patient looked around for her little brother.

"He is in the lobby with grandpa, the doctors won't let him in because he is too young to enter the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit-"

"Should you be saying that?" Yukiko snapped quietly, but not quietly enough. Both parents have been dismissed from work and were wearing casual clothes, an uncommon sight for Chiharu. It scared her to see them look so sad.

"Not knowing would only freak her out when she starts to fully understand her situation," he reasoned.

"Where is Satsuki?" The young girl didn't answer the question. "She was out in the woods, where is she right now?"

"Sa-satsuki?" Yukiko's face dropped, unable to describe what had happened.

"Mom, where is she?"

The room was all white. She was lying flat on her back on a wheeled bed made of a thin mattress and papery sheets. The room had a starchy smell with the television located near the ceiling. Chiharu looked outside the window beside her bed, but only saw concrete with no signs of life. The outside only showed the side of the hospital barred with wires. Her room had a big sliding glass door with a sign taped on it to warn of caution. She knew that there were other rooms beside her, probably holding patients whose conditions were just as bad as her's, if not worse. Was Mirei in the hospital too?

"Mirei is in the other room, she is doing well." Yukiko ignored her daughter's question.

"Satsuki, I'm not asking about Mirei, I know Mirei is okay if I am okay. I can even hear her!" She cried and looked at her mom desperately for an answer.

Mirei, in the other room, was given the news right away, rather than how Yukiko was trying to avoid it. Chiharu didn't understand why her friend was screaming and trying to force her way out of her room, or at least that is what it sounded like. She could hear her friend pounding on the glass door with her fists. The door to her room could only be unlocked from the outside. The voices of doctors and nurses could be heard rushing to Mirei and trying to calm her down.

"She... Sa-satsuki..." Yukiko stuttered. She took a deep breath in and looked down, unable to meet her daughter's eyes. "She is gone. We couldn't find her."

Author Note's:

What, a very long flashback this is. At least it's not like some manga where flashbacks last for volumes... We're looking at you, Naruto. Anyways, question of the chapter! What was your favorite activity to do as a child? Read and review! Sorry that we didn't upload this until later, but it was a busy Friday for us and we forgot to upload it online.

"RainSonata": I liked to draw, read books, watch Disney movies, and daydream story ideas. And question the meaning of life. I was an odd child. My biggest dream back then was to get a Gameboy SP or a Gameboy Advance so I could play pokemon. Pokemon Crystal was my first game. I got into the pokemon video games very late (11 years old), but I was a fan of the anime since first grade.

"LunarAbyss": Anything game or art related hahaha. Started playing Pokemon Blue when I was two years old. :3 Once, I made an entire mansion out of post its, paper, origami, and tape. Built it in my desk during the fourth grade for the little animal erasers that we got as rewards for being good kids. I was about to expand it and add a garden, but my teacher found it, told me to bring it home, and then my mom trashed it. *sadface*

"MikaStoryInc": I drew houses and played piano... Am I the only person who did so little? I didn't have any game consoles of any kind other than a Gameboy Color that my brother owned before my parents bought him a Gameboy SP. He got the Gameboy Color from a cousin who got a Gameboy Advance. Sadly, the console did not work...yeah, I played with broken things and scary dolls... And then "Satsuki" gave me a DS the summer after my first year of college along with Pokemon Pearl - my first ever Pokemon game.