"Damn it, Misty! What are you doing here?"

"I live here, this is my home city! I walk wherever I want, but you… what did you forget in here?"

The very fact that she knows about Black Market makes me worry. The fact that she actually followed me all the way here worries me even more.

"Do you know about the Black Market?"

"Of course, I do, everyone knows. But everyone pretends no to."

I looked around and grabbed her hand.

"We must leave this place. Come on."

We headed out through the back door to the alley. Misty run behind me, not telling anything until we reached outside.

"My place is that way, if you remember." She pointed her in another direction and tried to take lead, but I kept her on place.

"No, Misty… You see, I`m have a lot of troubles, and I don`t want to involve you too. This could be dangerous."

"Just shut up and follow me." Now she grabbed my hand very tightly and ran in the direction of her house. After crossing two streets we reached our destination, and she hurried to open the door, just now letting me go, but while I was stretching my hand after her grip she finished with the door, and pulled me inside the house.

Well, this house changed quite a lot since my last time being here. Everything became much more… grown-up. Looks like she got full control of her house when she started to live by herself, and rebuilt everything. This is really the style I like. Except for strange wallpapers with images of some water-type pokemon that I don`t know.

As I was busy looking around the house, Misty started to run from place to place, collecting things to her bag.

"What are you doing?"

"I must be ready to go, right?" She replied putting a bit bottle of lemonade into the bag." I now this will be not an easy romantic walk, so let`s be sure everything is fine."

"Wait-wait… You`re going to go with me? Do you understand how dangerous is this?"

"Of course I do! That`s why I`m coming, get it? Someone must protect you."

I had to grab her hand and stop right in the place. She looked at me with her eyes full of determination. Of course, this girl have always been so stubborn, but for this moment I really have to stop her. She like have read my mind.

"Hey, don`t look at me as at a usual girl. I can stand for myself." She gently released herself from my grip.

"I understand, but this is just…"

"Look." The interrupted me. "I have lived among these people for so many years, and nothing happened, see? I can really help you. I can show you a trick or two about pokemon battles."

"What, do you battle too?" I was not really that surprised. Back in days she befriended a wild Staryu that somehow appeared to be on Route 12. She tried to train that, but it was pretty hard thing to do as her parents were against it. I wonder what happened to this pokemon?

"Of course I do, who doesn`t? Just you, I guess." She laughed quietly and gave me a mocking look. I sighed and undid my greatcoat, revealing her two of my pokeballs on shoulder belt. I didn`t need to say anything.

"Heh, don`t be so grim, I know. I have followed you to the Pokemon Center too." She waved her hand and continued packing. "I can have some time with you. Show you the sights, all that…"

"Ehm… What about your job? You do have a job, right?"

"Oh, yeah! Thanks for reminding me!" She rushed to her phone on the table and quickly called to somebody.

"Hey, Diana? Hello there… I will be busy for a few days there, can you replace me? ... Of course, you can handle that, the last time you did this pretty good. … Great, I`m counting on you!"

Damn, that was my last chance to persuade her not to come with me.

"So… You do have a job, I see. What is it? You`re… a teacher?"

Misty walked to her clothing cover and stopped for a second, like considering.

"Yeah, sort of…"

She continued changing and soon appeared in her yellow tank top and jeans shorts with suspenders. That looks cool, I have to say.

"So, how do I look?" She turned on place, letting me to look descry her from different sides. The back one looks really nice…

"You look great, as always." I gave her a bit of applauses. "But is that a fitting cloth for a... field trip?"

"The best of the best!" She said while teeing her hair into a short ponytail on the side. "But I`m used to a swimsuit more…"

Yeah, can`t argue with that. Maybe a swimsuit would fit her even more. I gave another look to her house and suddenly my attention was attracted to a box on her shelf. Is that what I think?

I came closer and took this box. Yeah, this is exactly what I`m thinking.

"Oh, you have found your box… I completely forgot about her." Misty said guiltily.

Before I left Cerulean I left this box to Misty for safety. I told her not to open it under any circumstances, and, of course, the lock was opened and then accurately closed to look like it wasn`t opened at all. I turned this box around and noticed some scratches on the edges. Someone tried to open it without touching the lock. Smart thing, but it didn`t work. Not on this box.

"Did you manage to encrypt the text?" I asked her without turning.

"What text? I couldn`t even open the diary itself… I mean… Damn." She spoke too much. So, this girl opened the box, but couldn`t open the lock on diary. Very well, at least, that was honest."

"What is it anyway?" As she understood it is useless to argue with me about her duty as the "guardian of diary", she immediately started to assault me. So her.

"It is a diary, you already said."

"Yeah, I see, but why is it in a box? With a lock? And another lock on the book itself? And it is… encrypted? What the heck for?"

I turned the box upside down, pressed two points on the bottom and took it out. Judging by the amazed sigh from behind, Misty didn`t know about this trick. I took out the book and put the box on the table.

"Do you want to see what`s inside?" I turned to Misty and show her the diary. Misty looked at it, trying to make a surprised face, but it didn`t work. But she looked really interested in content of this.

She gave me a suspicious look, but nodded in agreement. Of course, she wants. I touched the small lock on the diary, pressed small button and turned it clockwise. It clicked, but didn`t open. Misty`s face changed to disappointment.

"Did you forget how to do this?"

"I`m not that old, my dear…" I took out the pendant with fang that earlier I show to the hunters and opened it. The second part contains a small key inside.

"Oh yeah, by the way, what is this thing? Did you really meet a legendary pokemon?"

I was distracted by her question for a moment. This sounded really funny that she thinks that this could be true. I opened the lock and closed the fang.

"Do you believe in that?" I let her have a closer look to the pendant. A strange dark piece of tooth, with a small black jewel stone and a chain connected to it. Nothing special. Misty looked at it for some seconds, and then quickly looked at me.

"You didn`t, do you?"

I smiled and took the pendant away, under the shirt.

"Of course not. This is a piece of Sawsbuck horn. Sharpened and colored in black. But as I tell the story about some dark legendary pokemon of a faraway region, this think really starts to look evil, isn`t it?"

Misty stepped a little back, looking away from me.

"You don`t say."

"This is the work of psychology, nothing more." I continued the opening of diary by finally taking off the lock. Misty jumped closer to me to look inside. I opened the book and started intensely read the content. After a few seconds of silence, Misty literally shouted in my ear.

"And what is this? I can`t understand anything. Is this… some alien language?"

"No, this is English. You just can`t read it."

Misty looked closer to the writings. Some seconds later she sighed irritably and went back.

"You have an awful handwriting. I can`t understand this."

"My handwriting is perfect. This is just the encryption."

"Why? What did you write here? Why I had to keep it all these years?"

I closed the book and locked it back.

"There are some things you wouldn`t want to know about me. But I shouldn`t forget them." I put the diary inside my greatcoat and turned to Misty.

"Pfft."

Fitting reaction. I put my hand on her shoulder bended closer to touch her forehead with mine.

"Someday I will tell you all this. After I deal with everything."

She looked away from me, not believing. I turned back to the table.

"Or, maybe, not."

This time my attention was attracted by her bag. I came closer to it and looked inside.

"Wow, you have packed it like we`re leaving for some days!"

"Aren`t we?"

"No, we aren`t! We`re heading to the forest on the other side of river, find that Bellsprout, catch him and I will head back to the hunters. Make a good impression, find out the Team Rocket`s coordinates, frame these creeps to be caught by police soon, proceed to the real enemy. This is my plan, and I have one day for this."

She just laughed at me, like I said something stupid.

"Such naïve… Do you really think all this will be so easy? Look into the window."

Such sentence sounded pretty strange, but I obeyed her and looked at the window. To my surprise, it was morning already. Did I waste the whole night on passing through all these places?

"I bet we`re gonna reach the other side of river just till the evening." Misty said smiling.

"Why`s that?" I didn`t like that statement at all. Time is the thing I want to waste the least right now.

"Well… Our city grew quite a lot since you were here. And you should definitely remember how far that river was. Some hours of walking are definitely await for us."

"Maybe, we could use car. It is much faster than walking, don`t you think? Yours, for example, mine is… you know… stolen. You do have a car, right?"

She guiltily looked away and remained silent for some time.

"My car… Is… in service."

Yeah, right. Why I`m not surprised? She really wanted to drive one in childhood, but she couldn`t handle even an electro car attraction – she endlessly continued bumping into everything. Each time it was a disaster – the only thing she didn`t crushed into was her own car. That was always funny, counting that we used the attraction at night and never paid for that.

"Hey, shut up!" Misty suddenly interrupted my thoughts. "I know what you want to say, what you`re thinking! A driver woman is a disaster. You all say that. Men."

I didn`t want to say anything, just tried to give her a serious look, but because of her fury I all I wanted to do was to laugh.

"No, don`t look at me like that!" She seemed to calm down a little and turned away. "At least you could cheer me. I bought that car a month ago, and already I… it crashed."

"Ah, never mind." I came closer to Misty and embraced her from the side. "Let`s have a walk through one of the most corrupted cities in whole Kanto, together, where we can be a very nice targets for any hostile snipers. This is so awesome!"

She gave me such look I understood at once – she uncovered my sarcasm. Too bad, because this can partly be true – and this is what I fear most.

"You`re exaggerating things, as always." She took her bag, looked around the house, put on sunglasses and headed to the exit. I sighed and followed her to the outside. Damn, why does this girl need to be so stubborn and overconfident? And why the heck did I love her? Ah yes, because of her nice ass! And because I`m stubborn and overconfident too. And some other things, but that doesn`t matter…

"We are going to Pokemon Center for your Zubat?"

"Really? You did follow me all that way, don`t you?"

"Yes, I did. You can`t hide your suspicious face under that cap, my boy." She smiled satisfied and directed me to the Pokemon Center.

After we left her house, we walked several minutes in a complete silence. She was busy with her thoughts, and I was just looking at the city. That felt a bit weird as I`m so used to travel alone. Hope this will not give any more trouble.

"Something bothers you?" She seemed to read my thoughts now. I guess, everything was literally written on my face.

"You know… It is quite strange to have you here. All these years I was travelling absolutely on my own."

"Don`t get used to it, we have just a couple of days. I can`t leave my job just for you… I would like to, but can`t."

"Ah yeah, teaching. How long do you do that?"

"Well… A year, maybe. It`s not that hard as you could think. I teach only few of those who really want to study, the selection is pretty tough. So… Those who are selected are always trying their best. So I never have problems with that."

"Glad to hear it. But I would never think you to become a teacher."

"I would never think you to become a pokemon trainer! Is everything so serious?"

"Yeah, you can`t even imagine…" I guess, even I can`t imagine how serious everything is now. Maybe my efforts are futile and everything already lost?

Very soon we passed the Mart. I think, I can stack on some supplies for the next road. And so we did in the universal store we bought some pokemon medicine, greatballs. Misty bought some food and different travelling stuff. As for me, I headed to the stationary shop to find two pens. I have to write some new chapters in my story, and it was pretty hard to find these. Even Misty managed to finish with her purchases, find me and even ask some stupid questions.

"What`s taking you so long? Why do you need these pens at all? I thought you`re in a hurry."

"I am in a hurry, but one hour will change nothing. Also there are some things that need to be done anyway."

"Urgh" She walked away to another store to wait for me. As soon as I found what I need, I returned to her and found her reading some newspaper. I sat near her and looked at the paper too.

"So, what`s happening in the world?"

"Nothing special. Except for this idiotic article about the return of "Kanto Stalker"

"Kanto Stalker?"

"Yeah, didn`t you remember? You were there as it appeared the second time, seven years ago. And definitely heard about the first one, happened… nineteen years ago. People start disappearing without any reason, and the only way for community was to explain it as some mystical serial killer, the 'Kanto Stalker".

"Yeah, now I start to remember… After his two… appearances people were missing and still no one of them was found?"

"At least of those who were reported, yes. People are scared even to go to police. Who knows how many people actually disappeared?"

What strange events happen. As I can remember, nineteen years ago was the first appearance of this "Kanto Stalker" guy. Over a thirty people disappeared and were not found, even as the bodies. And seven years ago the same happened again, not long before the next more horrible events happened. Can this be somehow connected?

"Do you believe in this?" I asked Misty.

"Do I believe that some crazy dude is kidnapping and killing people nearly for twenty years and somehow stays unpunished? I know that Kanto is not calm region, and all these criminal statistics are quite frightening… But a serial murderer? I don`t think so. But… It`s quite a coincidence for you to appear as soon as new disappearances happened."

"Hah, you got me! I`m the "Kanto Stalker"!"

She just silently closed the newspaper and stood up from the bench.

"Yeah, and the first killing you made at… how much? Eight years old? Good story."

She turned away from me and headed to the exit. I had nothing to do but to follow her out. When we went outside she stopped for a moment.

"Did you call yourself… Vengeance back there? On the Black Market?"

For a second I was scared that someone around us might hear her about my connection to the Black Market. But after a quick look around I calmed down as there were no people close to us.

"Yeah, so what? At the exact moment this is the best nickname to describe my soul right now."

"Aww, I`m so used to ScrewDriver. That was better!"

"That was so many years ago, Mrs. Reddie. Just… Ah, never mind, call me any way you want."

"I`ll get used to it. Vengeance sounds pretty cool. Maybe, I should take a new nickname for me too? How about… Scarlet Fury?"

"No way Scarlet Fury will travel with me! I agreed to nice and cute Misty to accompany me."

"You can be such a downer sometimes." She said resentfully and continued walking in silence.

"Hey, why sometimes? I`m always like that, my dear Reddie." I rushed to her to stay near.

In some minutes we reached Pokemon Center and entered inside. To my surprise, there was the same nurse from yesterday.

"Hey there! Is my Zubat all right?" I asked her.

"Of course, mister. I`ll get it in a second! Hello, Misty! Are you here to take your pokemon too?"

"Yes, please. Get me all of them."

Nurse bowed to us and ran away to another room for picking up our pokemon. I leaned on the counter and looked at Misty.

"I wonder what pokemon do you have. Water-types, I guess?"

"And you`re so right. Water is my element! I just love them." She looked so happy talking about this I have no doubts left about this.

Nurse returned very soon with a tray full of pokeballs. I instantly recognized my, by the scratch on it. The other six, obviously, belonged to Misty, and there was just one simple pokeball. There was also three Great Ball, one Ultra Ball and one pink one, I don`t know the name of it, but it looked pretty… girlish.

"We`ve restored your pokemon to full health."

I took my pokeball and moved the tray closer to Misty. She accurately put all of them inside her bag while I was attaching mine to the shoulder belt.

"Thanks a lot, young lady." I thanked the nurse and headed to the exit. Misty closed her bag and quickly hurried to me, shouting her thanks to nurse on run.

"Thanks, Lily, see you later!"

"Hope to see you soon!" Nurse, obviously named Lily, shouted to us. What a horrible good bye, if you ask me. Actually, I would want my pokemon to never medical treatment and thus never visit Pokemon Centers. But, I guess, this is too good to be real.

We exited outside of the Pokemon Center. I tried to look around and try to see the river from this point, but tall and densely built houses were closing all the view. All I could see is the pokemon gym nearby, but I have no time for that now. Well, at least, there was a crowd near it, maybe the gym leader has returned.

Misty immediately turned left and went straight. I guess, I should trust leading the way to her as she know better than me which road to go. We made some turns on the roads and then found ourselves on the long street. At the far end of it I could see something like the bridge.

"This way." For some reason Misty headed not straight to the bridge, but some side street from the main one.

"Hey, where are you going? Isn`t that the right way to the bridge?"

"Yes, but… Let`s take the other way."

I don`t know what she`s up to, but her behavior is extremely suspicious for moment.

"What`s wrong with THIS way?"

"Uh… This way passes… your house." And her face immediately changed to very sorry one.

"Misty, I have been there seven years ago, not seventy. I remember where my house was."

"I thought… You wouldn`t want to see it. As it stayed absolutely the same."

I completely lost the track of sense in her words. What`s happening in her head?

"Do you think the sight of that abandoned ruins will be bad for my mind? Well, too late. Nothing can hurt my mind more than it is already. Let`s go." I headed straight to the bridge. Misty sighed behind me and then followed me.

For some reason, two feelings were battling inside me. For some reason I wanted to see what`s left from my house, although, as I can understand, no one touched it in seven years and it`s still in ruins. Bur from the other side I actually wanted to avoid this. My birthplace… That means a lot to me, but it mustn`t. No more.

I sped up a bit, willing to reach the Nugget Bridge faster. Misty had to run behind me, periodically calling me to slow down. But I didn`t want to.

And, whenever I want that or not, we reached the area of "old town" – the place where all old houses remained almost untouched after the past events. Some of them, of course, were rebought by owners and rebuilt. But some were abandoned forever… The new buildings looked very strange among all the others. And, very soon I could the what`s left from my house. Almost nothing. Just a huge hole in ground, filled with rotten wood and dusty blocks. A terrible sight.

I wanted to proceed, but the other half of me like paralyzed the body. I couldn`t move, just stood there and thought about the past. About my family, about everything that was there once. And everything that came in replace…

"Come on, we should go." Misty finally took my hand and led me away from this place. I didn`t resist her, just followed her way. My mind was shrouded by the darkness. I felt myself like a walking zombie.

I don`t know how long we walked after that, but anyway we finally reached the Nugget Bridge. And just now I noticed that the bridge is closed, but the event of some sort was holding there. A lot of people gathered there for some reason, and we came closer to see what`s happening.

I managed to come to senses sooner as we came to this place. I wonder what`s happening there. We came deeper in the crowd to see the center of event.

"Wow, didn`t expect to see both of you there." An annoying familiar voice came from behind. As I turned back, the face of Douchebag appeared in front of me.

"Same goes to you, Douchebag. What the hell is going on here?"

He made a step back and crossed his hands on chest, laughing confidently.

"No surprise you know nothing about it, loser." He spread his hands. "Welcome to the Nugget Bridge Challenge! The challenge that you will lose in the first round!"