Look at this FAST update speed! … Compared to previous SL chapters, at least.

And back to Kanto. For the few who have seen the last chapter, a little clarification is required. I meant that Blue's rampancy cycle would come to an end eventually. Not right now. My mistake. I didn't word it properly. The rampancy cycle will start heading towards its end. That's what I meant.

Segment: Green & Blue.

Chapter 26: Remorse

April 23, Pallet Town, 10:20 am…

Blue watched Yellow until she disappeared from her sight. … Was it wrong to finally feel joy and happiness at the expense of the others? … Probably. But Blue didn't give a fuck anymore. For years, she had tried to keep everyone else around her happy by feigning joy and hiding her misery. That only got the others to think that she was annoying, so screw it.

She embraced Red tighter and rested her head on his shoulder. She slowly closed her eyes as she enjoyed this sensation. The feeling of being loved by someone. It was a brand new feeling, and it felt so… good.

But at the same time, she was quite worried. And she was rather afraid of what would happen later. Red loved her. But… she didn't exactly love him. She appreciated his love and care for her, but she didn't love him back. Of course she cared for him. He was her first and probably only friend, and she owed him everything. He was the only one to call her a friend when everyone else in the world (with the exception of Silver) hated her. It was Red who made her see the brighter side of life. And while Blue had hopes that he would continue to bring her towards the brighter side, she greatly feared that she may hurt his feelings instead.

What if he found out that she didn't really love him? What if he found out that she was just pretending to love him as a way to hurt Yellow? What if she accidentally brings him into the darker side of life?

Blue opened her eyes. No. She couldn't do that to him, ever. She had to try to get Red to pull back from her. She knew that Red deserved the best… and that was not her. Yellow would be a good fit. … Luckily, he would've seen how crushed Yellow was right now, so she'd be able to gain his sympathy.

"Listen, Red," Blue started at long last as she pulled away from her friend's embrace. "I… can't thank you enough for showing me care like this, but… … This is a big step for me. I may need a little bit more time. And you know that Yellow and I are friends, right? And she loves you so much. And yet, you said that you loved me right in front of her. I think you need to go talk to her, and get her to calm down."

Red blinked a few times as he suddenly remembered that Yellow had been there until a few moments ago. "Oh yeah… right…"

"She's a really nice girl, Red," Blue said again. "She doesn't deserve heartbreak like this. So please go and talk to her."

Red nodded and released Blue from his embrace. Though he may not exactly love Yellow, he considered her to be a good friend. He felt bad about breaking her heart right now. But at the same time, he couldn't help but notice how kind Blue was right now. She was concerned about possibly breaking her friend's heart due to a confession that made her happy.

"You're really kind, Blue," he said with a smile. "I'm right when I thought that there is no girl better than you."

Blue smiled at the compliment, but winced inside. If Red found out that she was hurting Crystal and Yellow just to make herself feel happy, he would feel so betrayed… and Red was the one person (apart from Silver) who she didn't want to hurt in any way whatsoever.

"… Thanks so much, Red," she muttered out. "… It's really nice to hear a compliment… But you should get going."

Red gave her a quick kiss on the lips and headed towards Viridian City Forest. Blue let out a long sigh as she watched him leave.

A thought soon occurred and she let out a bitter smirk. How ironic. For years, she tried to push Red towards Yellow. That plan backfired, and he fell in love with her instead, and Yellow now thinks of her as a traitor. And yet, here she was, still pushing Red towards Yellow. Albeit for a different reason. Back then, she wanted Red and Yellow to be happy together. Right now, she just didn't want Red to be dragged into the darkness, or be hurt in any way whatsoever thanks to her.

Now things were getting complicated, but at the same time, there was no turning back. As time passed, Red would begin to understand how… evil she was being right now, and would start to distance himself from her. If he understood why she was acting like this, that would be great. But it probably wasn't going to happen.

… Maybe after everything ended, and if they were still on relatively good terms, she could explain what exactly happened. And maybe, just maybe, everyone could agree to… let it all slide. Highly unlikely, however. At the very least, when all this was over, she would have a crystal clear path in front of her. She'd explain what happened and why. And then she'd leave them forever. Fuck Kanto and Johto. She had more bad memories of those two regions than good ones anyways.

Blue sent out her Wigglytuff and climbed on. Regardless of what the others thought of her, she was going to carry out her plans. There was no turning back. She was past the tipping point, and everyone would just have to deal with it. But right now, she had to wait before continuing with her plans. So she'd go back to her secret base and wait until the next day.

As she slowly drifted away from Pallet Town, she sensed something from behind. A slight fluttering of wings, perhaps. She took a quick glance backwards and spotted Silver with his Honchkrow. It looked like he was planning to follow her. Then she had to land somewhere and confront him before going to her secret base…

…

Next day, April 24, Olivine City, Johto…

…

Blue leaned against the guardrails as she stared far ahead into the ocean. The calm ocean… sunlight sparkling as the never-ending waves headed towards the shore… Just seeing that was enough to calm her down.

She had climbed up the Tin Tower earlier while reliving her days under the Mask of Ice. Once she had climbed all the way up to the roof, she was hit by a sudden flashback of when she was first kidnapped. Silver had run up to her the moment she hit the roof and ever since then, she had looked after him, and he looked up to her as well. But now… it was no longer the case. Silver had made his declaration yesterday. He would not oppose her, but he would not approve or follow her if she continued to hurt her former friends.

Blue took a long drag from her cigarette. So be it. It would not affect her that much. After all, she had looked out for him in the past. Not the other way around. It was always just her taking on the world by herself, while looking after Silver at the same time. Now that she didn't have to care for Silver, it would just be easier.

She was about to take another drag but she stopped. She took the cigarette off of her lips and stared at it, suddenly recalling the time she had quit. She remembered the looks on her friends' faces when she declared that she'd quit. And she remembered their proud expressions when she had gone a whole week without smoking. And she remembered the care they had shown her when she struggled. They were all so supportive of her. Well, everyone except for Green, anyways. His expression was perfectly clear. Annoyed and bothered by the fact that she was bothering him during work for a private matter. She was quitting smoking. It had nothing to do with research and work, and yet she was apparently bothering him with a private issue.

"Son of a bitch…" she growled under her breath.

She kept the cigarette between her fingers as she stared off into the distance once more. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. But her memories just came back. … Maybe she should just go to Sabrina and ask if she can wipe her memories clean. … The Rocket commander was probably not the best person to ask, given… past encounters.

Blue was about to explore other possibilities of wiping her memories clean when she sensed a small group of people approaching her. She quickly turned around and noticed that Ruby and Sapphire were standing in front of her along with two strangers.

"What are you two doing here?" she asked as she crossed her arms, rather amused to see her two Hoenn juniors here of all places.

"Hi, Blue," Sapphire said happily. "Long time no see!"

"You smoke?" Ruby asked, frowning at the smoke blowing in his direction thanks to the wind.

Blue took another drag as Sapphire began to cough. She blew the smoke away from her juniors and aimed so that the wind would blow the smoke further away from them. "Surprise, surprise," she said with a huff. "You don't know either." She glanced at the two strangers standing behind Ruby and Sapphire. "And who are you two?"

"His name is Black, and her name is White," Sapphire said. "They're Unova Dex Holders."

Black and White gave Blue a polite bow. Blue purposely ignored them and took another drag. Again, she blew the smoke away from her four juniors. "So what are you all doing here in Johto? And what are you doing together?"

"Ruby and I went to Unova so that the sissy could participate in some Pokémon Musical thing," Sapphire answered. "But the Musical was closed, so we looked for the one who came up with the Musical, and that turned out to be White."

Blue stared at White for a little bit, looking at her from head to toe. This girl seemed to have been through hell. Her cheek was swollen a little, she had a crestfallen expression on her face, covered only by a very thin veil of feigned smile. She also had lots of bandages and band-aids around her bare arms and legs, and it was as if she had been mauled by an angry mob. Blue understood that feeling, as she had tons of experience running away from angry mobs. Her expression lightened as she felt sympathy and compassion for this girl.

"What's wrong with her?" she asked, pointing at the bandages.

"She got caught by an angry mob," Ruby said. "Long story, but basically she's being chased in Unova so we came here. We're hoping that you or Crystal would be able to help her feel better and cheer her up."

'Oh, I know that feeling. The need of friends and comfort…' Blue tossed the cigarette butt into the ocean behind her and crossed her arms. She wanted to help this White. If anything, she wanted to prevent her junior from becoming like her. Bitter at the world, deprived of friends and comfort, with anger and frustration building and piling for years…

But right now, Blue wasn't really able to help her out. Crystal would, but… not until she recovered from the insult Blue had given her.

"Tell you what," she said at last. "Go try with Crys first. If she doesn't help you for whatever reason, then come to me." She took out another cigarette from her bag. She looked up at Black and White, thinking of other advices she could give to them right now. "And introduce yourselves to the other Dex Holders. I'm sure they'll like you." She lit the cigarette and took a drag. "Now get going."

Blue actually didn't want this conversation to continue any longer, as she was afraid that her juniors would be affected by her attitude. Right now, she had absolutely no reason to give Ruby, Sapphire, Black, or White any hell. Meaning, Blue didn't want to drag them into this mess and had no reason to. But if she talked to them any longer, there was a risk of doing just that. To avoid such a situation, she turned away from them and faced the ocean once more.

Once she heard her four juniors leave, she let out a sigh of relief and flicked the relatively fresh cigarette into the ocean. She had lit it rather instinctively, and she didn't have any stress built up inside her that needed purging. If anything, she felt… sorry for White. She thought about her past and remembered all the pain she felt. Just imagining White going through the same turmoil was painful. But for White, she had friends and seniors to help out. Which was great. Blue was going to guide her whenever necessary to ensure that she did not turn out like her. And that was something she could focus on without stress piling up.

Blue began to think about what she could do in order to help out. She first needed to know what exactly was going on. So maybe she'd invite White over to a secret base privately and just chat. It was what Blue had wanted all those years ago. Someone whom she could trust and explain everything. She never had such a person, as she had kept many things secret from Silver in order to protect him. And the results were… well… frustration and anger pent up for about 18 years.

… 18 years, huh? It was probably closer to 19 years. Blue smirked. It's been almost 20 years since she was kidnapped. Almost 20 years of anger and frustration building up without having an outlet or someone to dissipate them. And here she was now, slowly erupting and burning everyone around her that got on her nerves.

It was certainly not what she had imagined her future to be when she escaped captivity. Was this what she had fought for?

"Miss Lady, look out!" came a loud voice from the side all of a sudden.

Blue looked over in surprise and a girl immediately bumped into her rather roughly, forcing her to stumble backwards by a little bit. She glared at this girl and saw her holding a map and understood what happened. This tourist was just staring at the map as she went, and therefore did not see her. Understandable.

"I am terribly sorry," the tourist girl said apologetically with a slight bow.

A thought suddenly struck Blue and she immediately narrowed her eyes. She scanned this girl from head to toe like she did with White, noting the various features that stood out. This girl's clothes… Blue had seen this type once while window shopping. Just trying to buy those boots would've required about a year's worth of scamming and stealing. And yet, here was this girl, wearing those boots and other clothing of equal cost.

Super rich.

Then there were the two large rings. Blue had never even seen those kinds before, as the jewelry stores didn't have rings with diamonds or pearls nearly as large.

Beyond rich. Absolutely filthy rich.

Blue looked at the girl herself rather than her clothes or accessories. Her posture, stance, behavior, tone, voice… everything just screamed "super elegant". It was painfully obvious that this girl was of a super high class, having literally boatloads of money. The heiress of a beyond-the-limits-of-rich family.

And only one thought flash across Blue's mind. '… Unfair…' It was so unfair. Unbelievably unfair. This… heiress was just… so rich. And this kind of richness was due to her family. Parents. She probably had loving parents who took all sorts of measures to make sure she wasn't harmed in the slightest. And definitely would've taken serious measures to prevent a kidnapping. She was probably protected from even kidnapping attempts made during the middle of the night, let alone kidnapping attempts made by a giant red bird in an open field in the middle of the day. Loving and caring parents… physical security from everything… enough money to buy a region…

Everything Blue had ever wanted in her younger days. And this girl even looked like 10 years younger than her! How was this fair?

'… Lucky…' Blue thought as her expression significantly darkened for a split second. She suddenly snapped back into focus. 'No. No more envy. Everyone thinks I'm being jealous. I'll show them jealousy.' She gathered her thoughts and glared at this heiress, having decided to teach this girl what misery was. Blue straightened out her cheap clothes and leaned against the guardrails once more. "Watch where you're going, kid," she said in a growl. She felt a sudden spike of stress and reached into her bag for another cigarette. Was this like her 5th cigarette of the day? Already? … Who cares. It's not like she had anyone to care about her health. She didn't give a fuck either. "Damned kids today have absolutely no respect."

This heiress looked up at her with a fierce glare. "I beg your pardon?"

Blue ignored her and lit her cigarette. She took a deep drag and blew it away from the heiress, but aimed it so that the wind would still blow that smoke directly into the younger girl's face. She then slowly examined her once more from head to toe, staring at the two large rings more intently.

"Those are some expensive looking rings. You must come from a rich family," Blue said as she crossed her arms.

"For your information," a blonde haired boy said from the side. "Miss Lady comes from a very wealthy family in Sinnoh that's known to produce very high quality scholars every generation. And she's going to be that scholar of this generation."

Blue winced a little at another surge of envy. Having friends who would defend her honor… She quickly covered it up with a laugh. She took another drag to kill the stress spike. "A scholar, huh? What does a spoiled brat like you know about anything?"

The heiress clenched her teeth. "If you are implying that my education is lacking, I will have you know that I have read thousands of books in the past couple of years alone, and most of them were informational."

'Don't rub your fucking possessions in my face, you little bitch. Not all people have the luxury of reading thousands of books at home.' "A bookworm, huh? Good for you. So you had nothing better to do than read. Too bad you don't put it in practice." Blue took another drag to kill the stress spike and this time, blew the smoke directly into the heiress's face. The girl coughed and tried to blow the smoke away, and Blue watched her pain on her face. She decided to insult this girl based on knowledge. Blue had read lots of books as well. In her younger days, she had to sneak into libraries at night to learn technological stuff. It was necessary at the time in order to hack machinery and tweak devices. But after becoming a Dex Holder, she focused on reading educational books to change her way of thinking. And that was because of… Green. Blue admitted that she was too money focused. She only did something if she benefited from it. But for her, that was necessary. She knew it was wrong and… disgusting. Which was why she read books to alter her way of thinking and viewing life. And eventually, she stopped caring about money, and she found… joy in helping. Not that it got her anywhere… But regardless, she knew many good quotes that she could use to mock this young girl in front of her. "If you've read nearly as much as you claim, then you'd know that "the wealthiest person needs to remain modest". But look at you, with your expensive clothes and those diamond and pearl rings. Clearly your education is lacking." Blue then focused on this heiress's two… entourages. "And what are you two? Did you get hired by this Miss Lady?"

The black haired boy simply looked off into the distance, as if he didn't give a shit about what was happening right now. The blonde boy looked quite angry, however.

"Hey, what's your problem? We're her friends, alright? Show some respect!"

The heiress looked over at him. "Pearl, you do not have to get angry over what this commoner says."

Blue laughed again. And this one was genuine. Commoner, huh? That was precious. "Like I said, your education is seriously lacking. Look at you, acting all high and mighty because your family is so great and is so rich. Money doesn't mean crap, kid. And just because the family is educated, it doesn't mean everyone in that family is educated. "Do not treat others lowly by considering yourself high". You don't remember that saying, do you?"

The heiress clenched her teeth and glared at her. Blue could see the anger and frustration in her eyes as her words were seriously getting to her. Perfect.

"No. I remember," the heiress said rather angrily. "But I do not have time to argue with you all day long. I can compare knowledge with you forever, but I know I will win. As such, I shall save myself the effort."

'You call that a taunt, kid? That was pitiful!' Blue smirked. "Again with your utter lack of humility! "If you do not experience one event, then you do not gain one piece of knowledge". I've experienced far more than someone like you will experience in 50 years. Life is about experience, kid, no matter how shit the experience is. The sooner you understand that, the better." Blue could see this girl trembling in anger and blew cigarette smoke into her face yet again. "Now get out of here, kid. Come back later once you actually know something."

The heiress glared at her fiercely for a few seconds before she stormed away. The boy named Pearl did the same, and the other boy slowly followed with no particular expression on his face. Blue watched them all leave before she looked off towards the ocean yet again.

"Sorry, kid," she muttered under her breath. "But maybe now you'll know the feeling when random people give you the finger."

Declaration! The Hoenn segment is GONE. Its events will only be mentioned in the other segments instead of having its own segment. Reason? The priority for SL is… ending it. I want this thing to end (not cancelled, mind you). In order for that to happen, I need to want to update SL. Hoenn segment… f*ck the Hoenn segment. I don't like it, so I don't really want to update that. It will be detrimental in my efforts to update SL a lot more. So it's gone.

And besides, as I mentioned before, Ruby & Sapphire pairing is… unbreakable. I can't hammer it, I won't hammer it, and those two will not split. It's like trying to split apart Black and the Light Stone (hehehe). Once they're together, they ain't coming apart. Meaning, any conflict that I introduce will be solved really quickly if I keep those two in character. There may be slight overreactions from Sapphire's side, but even that will vanish very quickly. All Ruby and Sapphire have to do is talk to each other. They naturally know each other and trust each other so well that no possible conflict will tear them apart. Meaning? Ruby and Sapphire's SL conflict is precisely 1/3 chapter's worth of chat away from being resolved. So… f*ck it.

Next up: another Kanto segment.