Recommended Music: Obviously Rhapsody in Blue, but also that commercial Bump of Chicken did for Lotte.


Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 17: Rhapsody in Blue.

"Do you want some roasted chestnuts?"

"A what now?"

"Roasted chestnuts. I'm gonna make some."

"Aren't chestnuts poisonous? What are you even talking about?"

"No, no. Some are. Not these. See? They're different."

"Just because they have a pointy end doesn't mean they're not gonna kill you if you eat them."

"Yes it does."

"No, it doesn't!"

Although the conversation grabbed his interest, Red didn't intend to stop and listen to it. He wanted to catch up to Blue as soon as possible so he put in effort to walk more in a day than he normally would. This way he reached the eastern end of Route 11 where he met with an astonishingly huge camping ground. He had to squeeze between multiple tents to continue his journey and during those times, he would hear more of these kind of conversations. The situation was annoying enough that he finally decided to ask a random person about what was going on.

"Excuse me." he said while stopping near a lone man who was in the middle of seasoning food he planned to fry on a portable stove.

"Yes?" the person looked at him.

"Why is there so much people here? Is there a music festival nearby or something?"

"No, nothing of the sort. The road is blocked."

"The road is blocked?" Red repeated with a worried voice "That means that I'm gonna have to go back and around through Vermilion and Cerulean."

"Or you could stay and give it a try."

"Give what a try?"

"It's not much further. You should go and see for yourself."

"Alright. I'll check it out." he responed, leaving the man, more confused than he was before asking the questions.

. . .

After walking for a couple more minutes, Red took notice that there were less and less tents but there was still a large number of people around. While looking around to see what it was that brought everyone to this place, he bumped into a teenage boy who immediately shoved him back. He looked as if he was already angry and Red just annoyed him more.

"What are you trying to pull?! The end of the line is there!" he said while pointing backwards with his thumb.

It was at that moment, that Red noticed a long queue, which constantly had new people joining it, leading to a small building. Many of them had their Pokemon outside of their pokeballs. He also overheard a lot of strategizing. He concluded that whatever was going, it must have been somehow related to Pokemon battles. He went further while avoiding the queue and reached the building. It looked like a house combined with a gift shop and a restaurant. He decided to approach a lady sitting at the information counter since she looked a lot less busy than the one before whom the enormous queue was lined up.

"Excuse me. Could you explain what is this place for?"

She stared at him, looking as if she was surprised that anyone would speak to her "Oh... Okay. This place was built by a rich Pokemon enthusiast to make the whole process of fighting the guardian more organized. That person over there gives people tickets which signify the order in which they can challenge the guardian. Although some of them aren't there for themselves and are instead giving their chance to one of the regulars. We also decided to make some money by selling food and drinks. Oh. And there's the gift shop where you can buy memorabilia of the guardian and the popular regulars."

Red still was a little confused as to what was going on so he decided to go see what the guardian the woman was talking about looked like. He left the building and, while making sure not to disturb any more people, walked even further. Finally, he arrived at a wall of people who looked as if they who acted and sounded like they were spectators of some event. He carefully made his way through the crowd till he was at the front and could see what got everyone so excited. His eyes made a couple quick movements, trying to follow the events that were unfolding in front of him but before he could understand the situation, the only thing he saw was something flying in his direction.

"Watch out!" he could tell those words apart from the yells of many spectators.

His instinct was to close his eyes and probably brace for any pain, but whatever hit him wasn't too hurtful. He opened his eyes back again and saw a boulder which used an arm-like protrusion to stop itself from flying into the crowd. Unfortunately, the earth was muddy enough that some of it shot out from under the rock and covered Red's hoodie. The boy was far more interested in the thing in front of him, which he assumed to be a Pokemon, than in his clothes getting dirty. The boulder suddenly sprouted 5 additional limbs and took a second to look at the crowd, probably to make sure that nobody got hurt, before it rolled up again and took off.

Red used his Pokedex to learn some quick facts about Graveler before returning to spectating whatever it was that was happening in front of him. The rock Pokemon was advancing towards a Snorlax, which the teenager also knew thanks to his device. It looked like a one on one battle between those two but it seemed like only one of them had a trainer giving it commands, but Red wasn't close enough to hear whom the commands were being given to. The distance between them was also one of the things which prevented the boy from instantly recognizing the trainer. Another reason was that she changed clothes. Since the crowd was gathered around the battle in a semi-circle, Red started walking to one of the sides while making sure to lower his head, in order not to obstruct anyone's view. Finally, he could get a good look at her face and confirm that the trainer was in fact none other than Blue.

"Found ya." he said, not realizing how big the smile on his face was.

He realized that it wasn't a good idea to interrupt the battle so he proceeded to observe the rest of it. After watching it for some time, it was easier to tell that the Pokemon Blue was giving orders to was the Graveler. That must have meant that Snorlax was the guardian he heard about. But what was it guarding exactly? Since it seemed like the battle was fairly even, Red decided that it would be a good idea to learn more about the situation instead of just waiting around. He made his way through the crowd and approached a thing he noticed a while earlier. It was a big stone arch. After taking a closer look, he realized that it was part of a bridge leading over an enormous chasm, probably an after-effect of some earthquake.

"Hmm. So it's guarding this bridge?" he said to himself, slowly beginning to understand the situation "And probably only those who beat it in a battle can cross it... But what about people with Flying type Pokemon?"

"It won't attack them. It has a sense of honor." someone unexpectedly answered Red's question.

He turned around and saw a woman in a costume similar to the one worn by the nurses in Pokemon Centers.

"And you are?"

"I'm one of the people responsible for taking care of the guardian. Me and my team heal it after every battle and provide it with food and water since he ate everything that was around and doesn't move from this place. It would starve without us." she explained.

"But what is the point of this?"

"We're not exactly sure. Whoever ordered this bridge to be built supposedly told the guardian to protect it. If people don't want to pass the bridge directly or if they don't have any Pokemon with them, he leaves them alone. But if you have even one Pokemon, you have to defeat the guardian in a one on one battle if you want to pass. We are here to make sure that every battle is fair."

"And you have the whole ticket system to make sure that everything runs smoothly."

"Yup."

Red turned his eyes towards the ongoing battle and asked the thing that interested him the most "How many people were able to defeat the guardian so far?"

"Hmm... It's been here for around 2 years and to my knowledge... it hasn't lost once."

Red looked at her with a shocked expression and noticed that she had a kind of smirk that looked like she received some kind of pleasure from the fact that the guardian remained undefeated.

"You should wipe that smile off your face." Red said to her in a mocking voice.

A vein popped up to her forehead. She took a couple steps, to the point where her face was uncomfortably close to his.

"What was that? You think you're some hot shit? That you're gonna beat the guardian?"

"Not me. Her." he said while pointing towards Blue, without breaking eye contact with Snorlax's caretaker.

Although his confidence in Blue's victory wasn't unsubstantiated, it failed him this time since at that exact moment, both he and the woman in front of him heard a loud noise and turned their eyes towards the battlefield only to fitness the guardian standing triumphally over the unconscious Graveler.

"You were saying?" the woman asked in an arrogant voice, after taking a step back.

The teenager didn't care about her moral victory as much as about getting to speak with Blue, especially since the girl quickly returned her Pokemon to its pokeball and was slowly retreating towards the crowd. He ran after her, passing the guardian on the way. Snorlax glanced at him but it must have deduced that the boy wasn't there to fight him so it let him pass and started making its way towards the team responsible for taking care of it. Red was about to catch up to Blue when his way was blocked by the crowd. They didn't do it intentionally. It just seemed like Blue became popular in her short time at this place.

Some people were asking her for advice, others were giving words of encouragement, while yet other people were ready to give her their tickets just so they could see her fighting again sooner. Although most of them were swarming around her because of her abilities as a trainer, some were clearly more interested in the girl's looks and were trying to get her to notice them, probably to have a one on one chat.

Red was trying to squeeze through the crowd to get to her but the people were squeezed too tight and he ended up being pushed back as if the people were a trampoline for him to bounce off. Although he could barely see her at that point, he noticed that Blue also wasn't too excited about all the attention she was getting. She was putting her hands up to keep to let the people know that she wanted some space but the people kept getting closer to her.

"Okay. If this goes on, I'll never get a chance to talk with her. Magikarp, I need your help."

Red released the fish from its pokeball. The Pokemon looked at him with readiness.

"I'll need you to Bounce me into the middle of that group of people and then right back out, but I want to grab an additional person while in there. It's not really a matter of time, but... can you lift us?"

Magikarp smiled confidently and flapped one of his fins as if he wanted to make a thumbs up gesture. After that, the Pokemon gathered its strength and used it to jump as high as it could. Red allowed him to bounce in front of him two times, so that Magikarp could gain some height, before he grabbed onto him and both traveled far above the crowd. The people were too busy with pestering Blue to notice that something unusual was happening behind them.

The teenage trainer and his Pokemon had to focus on aiming in what way they would bounce, in order not to crash into anyone by mistake. They managed to land perfectly but Red had only a fraction of a second to act before they would bounce again. Thankfully, his reflexes were heightened thanks to all the things he had to go through during his travels. He grabbed Blue's hands before she, or anyone else for that matter, could realize what had happened.

"What?!" the girl shouted in surprise since the first thing she noticed was that she somehow was several meters above ground and still getting further from it.

"Sorry to drop in unannounced!" Red had to yell because the speed at which they were travelling was making it hard to hear anything.

Somehow, the shock of seeing her friend was greater than that she was flying through the air and Blue's hand almost escaped Red's grasp. To prevent her from falling, he grabbed her tighter and brought her close to himself. Even though all these things happening at once were messing with her head, she still had a clear enough mind that she could ask an essential question.

"How are we going to land?!"

"You know, I hadn't thought about that!" he responded in an annoyingly frank way "But we still have at least a couple seconds. I'll think something up!"

"I hope!" she shouted, in a clearly more distressed voice.

They were already at the apex of their bounce when Red came up with an idea. He let go of Magikarp and quickly returned him to his pokeball. Meanwhile, Blue shifted her arms around so that she could grab onto Red and give him easier use of his hands. The boy took out another ball and summoned Eevee who landed on his head.

"I need you to create the biggest Superstar you can!"

The dog took some time, during which they already fell a couple meters, to gather energy before it shot out a star that was around one meter in diameter. Red was close enough to step onto it. Although their descent wasn't slowed down, the idea was that at least while standing on it, he could control the way in which they were falling. After returning Eevee to the pokeball, the next one he called out was Charmander. Even though there was probably enough space for her to stand on the star, Blue was still hovering above it, clinging to Red's neck.

"Charmander, use Flamethrower to steer us towards the forest!"

The lizard started shooting a stream of flames from its mouth. It was strong enough to change the direction the star was moving in but it also gave them an unnecessary boost. Red recalled the Pokemon and looked at Blue who still looked afraid by the situation he placed them in.

"It's your turn!" he announced.

Those words and the look of confidence on Red's face brought her to back to her senses.

"Alright! I've got this! Tori! Bell!"

Wartortle and Bellsprout appeared on the surface of the star and immediately understood what was happening, but still looked to their trainer to receive orders.

"Tori, slow us down with Water Gun! Bell, when we're low enough, use your vines to makes a safety net!"

Her idea worked out excellently. Wartortle's move more than halved their speed and gave Bellsprout enough time to shoot several vines between a group of trees, creating a pattern similar to an enormous spider web. The landing wasn't exactly nice but at least nobody got hurt. As they lay on the vines, the thing Blue couldn't stop wondering about was if Red already came up with the tactic she used and that was the reason why he shouted that it was her turn. Both of them had to catch their breath so they remained in the same positions they landed in for a while. Meanwhile, Bellsprout slowly lowered them all to the ground.

"Huh... Huh... You can let go of me already..." said Red, since he noticed that Blue laying on top of him wasn't helping with slowing down his breathing.

When the girl realized that she was still hugging him, she immediately rolled to the side and stood up as fast as she could, her face completely red. Since they finally had a moment of rest, Red could finally get a batter look at her new clothes. She had black, form fitting pants with red patterns resembling pokeballs running down the side, grey overknees with flat soles and a dark blue jacket. Additionally, she didn't have the hat she usually wore. After eyeing her up, he also slowly got on his feet, while getting rid of the dirt on his pants.

"I should really get a Flying type Pokemon." he commented, remembering the previous instance in which he risked his life while using Magikarp to travel in a dangerous way.

"Why do you always have to do everything so recklessly? That's exactly why I left you." Blue complained quietly, as if the words weren't meant for Red's ears.

After hearing that, he rotated his eyes, since he wanted to start off the whole thing in a proper way, but that moment was as good as any to begin, especially since it didn't seem like anybody followed them into the forest.

"That's a lie." he said without beating around the bush.

"What?" it seemed like his words took Blue out of deep thought since she looked at him with a face saying that she didn't hear, or maybe didn't understand, him.

"I said "that's a lie". What I mean by that is..." he stopped for a second so that he could properly articulate what he wanted to convey "...You leaving suddenly and leaving that note... combined with the fact that you've avoided me after the battle on St. Anne... It just doesn't make sense."

Blue took a step back. She still didn't have a proper way to explain herself to Red and it already was taking all of her will not to run away, just so he herself wouldn't have to face the truth that she already thought over almost every day since they parted ways. But at that moment, standing face to face-to-face, her train of thought once again went to the things she was concerned about after their meeting on St. Anne. Even though she talked herself into thinking that the things she did were for both of their sakes, when being right next to him, she felt like she acted awfully selfish all that time and the thought that ruled her mind at that moment was what response would be less hurtful towards Red. She didn't notice how long it was taking for any words to come out of her lips.

"Are you okay?" Red asked to break the silence "Sorry if I..."

"No!" she stopped him, since she felt that she was the one at fault and couldn't bring herself to make him feel like he did something bad "You have... nothing to apologize for."

"Do... Do you?" he asked to feel out how she felt about the whole thing, since he didn't want to mess up their conversation from the start.

"I..." she froze up, since the thing that came to her mind was a request that seemed outrageous in her eyes, yet was the only way she could think of at that moment to have a proper talk "Can you promise me you won't get upset... whatever I say?"

She had to wait a couple seconds for his response since the things she said were unexpected and he had to give them some thought.

"Well... You know me. Have you ever seen me get actually upset?"

In her mind it seemed like the landscape surrounding them suddenly turned to glass and the ground beneath her suddenly broke, making her fall into an abyss, only to land on a soft pillow, with Red who placed it there, standing right next to her. She came back to her senses and smiled. He was right. Self-pity was like an unknown concept to him. Whenever he had to deal with something negative, he immediately would find a way to turn the situation around and come out of any trouble with his head held up high.

"You're right. I'm not usually one to overthink stuff myself... It's just... There's this thing... and I feel like if we talk about it, we may never be like we were before." she explained, carefully choosing her words in order to observe the slight changes in his expression.

"Huh..." Red scratched himself behind the ear, since he didn't expect this to become so complicated that they would have to have a conversation about whether they should have a conversation "I... I don't think there's anything you could say that would change what I think of you. Or rather... Whatever you may have done or said, wouldn't make me think less of you since I would assume you had a good reason."

"Is that how you feel about me?" she asked while beginning to slowly walk around him, while lowering her gaze.

"I guess. Yeah."

"Could you say that again?" she gave him a quick glance.

"I... What?"

"How do you feel about me?"

"I mean... I trust you. I like you. I like spending time with you. Uuhh... Should I talk about your looks? I... I just wanted to have a conversation but it turned into me praising you..." he looked a little helpless at the end, at same time trying to follow her movements.

"And... Did you ever wonder what I think about you?"

He looked completely clueless about what she was trying to do but decided to ask her just to make some progress with their conversation "What do you think about me?"

She finally stopped walking, lifted up her head and looked in his direction, with blushing cheeks and a big smile.

"I think I love you."


At this point, I would be surprised if there was anyone who didn't see it coming. It's hard to write about this stuff in a subtle way, especially since I myself know nowt about love. But this was months in the making and I tried to approach the topic carefully. This isn't really a romance story so Red's character serves to offset the stuff Blue is going over in her head. If both of them acted in that way, I would feel extremely miserable. It's still an important part of Blue's development but I like to think that this way it comes out more as a cute "will he, won't he" than a madman going "ohmygod, ohmygod, what if he says no".

I have some more stuff besides Red's reaction, answer and how things will work out between them, so I decided to leave it at a point which I hope will make you restleslly wait for the next chapter which will come out who knows when. It'll probably be shorter than this so maybe I'll manage to squeeze it in before the end of the year but it's hard to tell.

I could probably talk about other things that happened in this chapter, but there really wasn't anything meaningful. The whole Snorlax thing is in the games so here I just made a bigger deal out of it. I like the idea that even though Magikarp is a Water type, he's essentialy serving as Red's Flying type for the moment, especially if you take into account the fact that his evolution is a Flying type.

If you see any errors(I'm not talking about the fact that I have no clue about laws of physics), then let me know and I'll probably try to fix them. Most of the time I remember to send my stuff through Word after writing it, but when I'm writing it, I'm in a trance and sometimes make mistakes that Word won't catch.

Useless fact about me: I recently got into Azur Lane. My favorite is Yamashiro.

Red. Team: Eevee, Charmander, Raichu, Oddish, Magikarp.

Badges: 3

Green. Team: Ivysaur, Nidorina, Jigglypuff, Hitmonlee, ?.

Badges: 3

Blue. Team: Bellsprout(Bell), Wartortle(Tori), Zubat(?), Graveler(?).

Badges: 3

Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.

Angie. Team: ?, ?.

Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, ?.