Arc 1: Trauma

Chapter 2-1: Path to Disaster

In the middle of a serene night, Sakura goes to her room and sits on the table where her diary was, she had many wounds on her fragile body that were taking a toll on her, but she wouldn’t let that stop her from writing, she picked her pen and tried to not fall asleep, whispering the words she was writing, trying to keep herself awake, however, unknown to her, she was being heard from outside the room.

Dear Diary;

I shouldn’t be writing in this state or time, but I don’t know… Something is driving me to do this, I’m so tired, I feel like I’m going to fall dead, but there’s no time to rest yet, even if I try to sleep now, the only thing that will happen is me getting haunted by nightmares, I guess this works as a letter of confession…

Today I woke up early, I did the usual thing, took a shower, ate breakfast, talked with the Pokémon present in the house at the time, the usual thing I do every day, finally, I went outside to see what was going in the town, the first thing I spotted were two kids trying to stay in a safe distance from Seth.

What I saw was a girl and a boy, the girl was hiding behind her friends as if he was the only one that could protect her while he was just looking at an annoyed-looking Seth with a look of pure amazement, the contrast between them contradicted their clothing quite well, both of them were using the same colors, they both had black hair and eyes, both were wearing white shirts and the girl was wearing a black skirt with white ruffles while the boy wore a black short.

It wasn’t until I decided to get closer to them that I noticed that they looked like they were on the same age as well as being almost identical when it came to their faces, it was then that I realized: Twins, different gender ones while at that, I don’t see that often, the only ones that I’ve met before were Tate and Liza in Hoenn, that’s about it, anyway, I was curious, so I decided to approach them.

“Wow sis! I never saw a green Scizor around here before! I didn’t know we had them in Floaroma.” said the boy, with a look of amazement on his face that was actually quite cute.

As the boy turned his head the best he could to see his sister behind him, she was still just holding him from behind, looking quite scared “W-We don’t, Lune, it must be of some trainer, let’s not get close to it, h-he may be violent…”

In all honesty, Seth wasn’t looking exactly friendly; I guess he isn’t good with children, after all children do have the talent of annoying you to hell and back, but still…

Looking at the scene I approached them, coming from the side and gave the children the same warm smile I give everyone “Seems like you two are interested in Seth here.” I said, trying to be as friend as I possibly could just so I wouldn’t scare the girl off.

Upon seeing me, the girl got a bit more relaxed and the boy was looking at me with a look of surprise, I don’t know why, but he got quite an interest in me there, Seth also glanced at me, giving a small, almost unnoticeable smile and looking a bit calmer like he usually does.

“H-Hello miss… You’re the owner of that Scizor?” said the girl, far more relaxed now, but still looking afraid and nervous.

“Yes, that’s right, Seth here is one of my most trusted companions, don’t worry, unless you give him a pretty good reason to, he won’t do anything to you.” I said, trying to have the girl relax a bit more.

I then held Seth by the claw and took him closer to the girl, who at first reacted with fear and took a few steps back, the boy, looking at the way his sister acted, just gave a sigh “Don’t mind her, she’s just scared of Pokémon because once she tried to approach one and almost got hurt by it.” he explained, the way he was scratching his head made him look like he was embarrassed with the way she was acting.

Not everyone is good with Pokémon I guess, or just not lucky like I was, poor Soleil must’ve been so scared when it happened, but I’m pretty sure that it’s nothing compared to what she had to go through today if what I was told is right, a sweet girl like her really doesn’t need any of that…

“I-I’m not scared of Pokémon! I just don’t want to be hurt…” she said, trying to stay in a safe distance from Seth, and looking at the ground.

What surprised was that Lune went to his sister and saying something along of the lines of “Then prove it!” he shoved her right in Seth’s direction, with her hitting him right in the chest or just below it, normally I wouldn’t mind that, but unlike Scizors, we usually aren’t wearing steel armor like them, so yeah, I could only feel sorry for the poor girl for essentially hitting a steel wall headfirst, Seth didn’t even budge after it, so it’s like she really like she hit a wall, but  at the same time I let a little giggle escape.  Ah, the human species, always laughing at other’s misfortune, or well… At least the small ones like this one.

The girl then stumbled a bit after hitting Seth and as she did that, she shed a tear, it was them that I stopped giggling, I also noticed that Seth was fairly amused by what happened until that point as well, the girl then looked at her brother, upset “Y-You stupid! Y-You know that they are made of steel?” she blurted, crying as she rubbed her forehead.

The boy was just stunned upon seeing her sister like that, and then started to look away from her with clear regret on his eyes, I turned back to the girl who had her back turned to me and before I could say anything, I saw Seth tap her on the shoulder gently, I just looked as the girl seemingly froze for a second before turning to face the Scizor that was right in the front of her, Seth then kneeled on the floor to be at the same height as her and gently wiped her tears with the back of his claws as she just stared at him in shock.

I have to admit, it was really cute to see Seth do that, it was almost like a big brother watching out for his little sister, most people don’t expect a Scizor to be like that specially since most people just look at them as “cool” and “strong”, I myself think like that sometimes, but I know how supportive Seth can be when he wants to. It was really nice to see the girl stop crying and giving Seth a smile.

“See? He isn’t bad.” I said, smiling as well.

“Yeah, he’s nice!” said the girl, now holding Seth’s claw and still smiling.

“Wow! That’s a very well trained Scizor! I can’t believe a girl like you has a Pokémon like him” said the boy.

I can only wonder what he’ll say when he meets Meteo, Grant and Halberd, though in hindsight, I suppose most would expect me to have a team full of cute mons, though I do think Arcanine is cute, Growlithe is cuter though… I’m getting way off track aren’t I?

“Well, thanks, I guess.” I said, giggling a bit before noticing something important “Oh yes, I forgot, I’m Sakura, what’s your names?” I asked.

“I’m Lune, Ms.Crybaby there is Soleil, my twin sister.” said the boy, chuckling at his sister’s expense.

“… Stupid.” said the girl, embarrassed and looking away from me and the others.

Lune and Soleil, Moon and Sun, pretty cute names if you know the meaning, and that wasn’t nice at all, though I guess Lune is the troublemaker kind of boy and Soleil is the one who has to keep him in line, I can’t say I don’t pity her.

Soleil’s answer was only good for making Lune chuckle even more at her expense, though he came to a sudden halt once he remembered something “Oh yeah! Sis, we have to see how mom’s doing!” he said, his eyes having widened a bit.

“O-Oh yes! Lune got distracted by Seth while we were doing.” said Soleil, letting go of Seth’s claw and rushing to her brother’s side.

“What? It’s a green Scizor, that must be like, super rare! I’d love to have one just to rub it on my friend’s faces!” said Lune, in a playful way before saying “bye” and running along with his sister to their home.

I saw Seth frown in response to that comment, I don’t like the concept of that either, but I wonder if there was more to that… Neverthless, the children going away meant that I had time to talk to Seth now, usually when there are other people around I try to not talk with my team and they tend to remain quiet since nobody else would understand them anyway, those armbands sure were convenient.

It was then that Sakura heard some sort of familiar noise from outside the room, however, her response was basically just to give a yawn and go back to writing, dismissing it as nothing to get worried over

“That was really nice of you, Seth, helping Soleil like that.” I commented, trying to get that frown out of Seth’s face and giggling a bit to lighten his mood a bit.

“What? It’s just common sense isn’t it? I couldn’t just leave the girl crying because of me.” he said, looking rather embarrassed now.

“It still was pretty cute to see you act to comfort someone like that, I should’ve taken a picture.” I joked, giggling a bit while I noticed that Seth blushed a bit, that was rather unusual for him.

“Yeah yeah, I was just doing what anyone would. I think I’ll go take a walk around for a while, see you.”

He then left, I kinda wished to know why here looked so annoyed when I first saw them with the twins, I guess Lune could be a bit annoying, going from what I saw, but I think there’s more to that than meets the eye, it certainly got me curious, it seemed like he wanted to avoid being near me just so I didn’t ask him about it…

Nevertheless, after that I went to do my own thing, which meant essentially spend some time with the team, have lunch… I think I need a better routine, today only Grant, Daisuke, Dusty and Lily were present at lunch, it’s rare to see Lily and Stella separated from each other, but usually if Stella isn’t with Lily, for some reason she’s always with Shade... All right, I do know why, but I still think it’s rather funny.

After lunch I was taking a stroll on Route 204 and that’s when things took a turn for the worse, I found Seth and Soleil next to the Ragged Path, the place that I dread more than anything else, but I wanted to find out what had happened for them to be there, especially why Seth was there with Soleil since he normally doesn’t stay around others that aren’t from the team.

“Seth? Soleil? What are you doing in front of the entrance to that cave?” I asked as I approached them and noticed that Soleil, upon turning to face me, looked very worried, I just guessed it had something to do with Lune “Did something happen…?”

“Sakura! Please! You must put some sense in that stupid kid’s head!” said Soleil, she seemed to be on the verge of crying.

She then explained everything to me and Seth, apparently, Lune found a stray Pokéball thrown away and decided to go out and catch strong Pokémon so that he could become a trainer as soon as possible, however, while his mom would be able to prevent him of doing so, she’s sick and Lune took advantage of that to whatever he wanted to do. I can’t believe he seriously took advantage of his mother being ill to do whatever he want, neither did Soleil for that matter, she chased him down to stop him, but of course, he went inside the cave.

“I’m too scared to go inside that cave alone… There are wild Zubat and a lot of other dangerous things in there, please, Sakura! Find my brother for me before he gets into more trouble!” she asked me, clinging herself at me.

The poor girl was begging me to go look for her brother, but just… That place… It’s where my trauma comes from, I even avoided going through it to reach Floaroma, I came to the city through Eterna Forest, but that’s not important, the important is that I essentially was being asked to go to the place that I dread the most, but still… I’m a Pokémon Ranger, I couldn’t just ignore that, could I?

“All right, I’ll bring Lune back to you.” I said, with a nod and then glancing at Seth, who nodded at me in response, though I did notice he looked rather worried, but it was no wonder why.

Soleil eyes were them glimmering with happiness as she hugged me as tightly as she could “Thanks! Thanks! I don’t know what I’d do without you or him!” she said, already tearing up a bit.

“Well, if it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.” commented Seth, with a look of somewhat indifference towards the scene, taking advantage of the fact that the girl couldn’t hear him.

I pretended I didn’t hear that and entered the cave alongside Seth as Soleil stood outside hoping for the best, the Ravaged Path wasn’t exactly big, but at that moment it sure was, I mean, just walking around that place made me feel claustrophobic despite it not being that cramped in there, the atmosphere felt heavy and I was even having a hard time breathing, I even froze out of pure fear when Seth put one of his claws on my shoulder.]

“Sakura, are you all right? Are you sure you don’t want me to do this for you?” Seth asked, there was no doubt that he had felt how uncomfortable I was in there.

“I-It’s all right, eventually I would have to face this anyway.” I replied, giving him a small, forced smile that, if anything, only made him worry even more.

I couldn’t be weak in a moment like that one could I? But now I think that it would’ve been better to listen to his advice, because right after that little conversation we heard a loud and furious roar, the sound was all too familiar to us, it was a Gyarados living in that body of water in the other side of the cave, I didn’t even know that they lived there at the time, but of course, hearing the roar sent me the biggest chill on my spine that I’ve had in a while.]

We glanced at each other with shocked expressions and soon ran in the direction of the roar, all the fear I was feeling at the moment being replaced with worry and adrenaline, as we got to the relatively big body of water that was found inside the cave and then we saw it, an angry Gyarados was right in front of us, and in front of it was Lune against a wall with a look of pure fear on his face. Immediately after we found it, it fired a big Hydro Pump against Lune, who fortunately moved out of the way in time and started to run away to the side, there was a big wall in the center of the area they were in, preventing the Gyarados from really cornering Lune.

I didn’t even need to say anything, as the Gyarados started to give chase to the boy; Seth immediately leaped and glided past the water right in front of us, while I had to swim, of course, I took some more time to get to land than Seth did.

We tried to get into the small “hallway” that Lune was running towards, after we both got into that piece of land, we saw the child running at our direction with a desperate look on his face, however once he saw us, he seemed more than glad for us being there, the Gyarados was right in the beginning of the “hallway” and getting ready for another Hydro Pump.

“Sakura! Help!” Lune cried out as he ran towards us.

We also ran towards him and the Gyarados fired the Hydro Pump just as we got near the boy, I tried to protect him with my body in any case, but Seth got in front of us and used Protect to form a barrier that protected us from the shot.

Thanks Darkrai for Protect, otherwise we would’ve been dead right there, after protecting us from the attack, Seth started to confront the Gyarados to give me time to get Lune out of there, I was too focused on him to pay attention to the fight, but one thing I know for sure was that the Gyarados started to rely on Aqua Tail, he was hitting the walls of the cave all the time while trying to hit Seth and it was making the cave shake.

I know that because… The shaking, I think it wasn’t even shaking that much, but just feeling the cave shake was making me stumble around, as if I was sick, memories of that incident flooding back into my head, the shaking seemed to get stronger and as I fired that the cave would go down again, my vision became an incomprehensible blur and…

I fainted.

I don’t know how long I was out, but I was alive, of that I was sure as I heard some familiar voices around me as I was recovering, I soon opened my eyes to see a Growlithe staring at me, Conan.

“Hey! Everyone! She’s awake!” he said, looking quite relieved.

As I now sat on the sofa of my house, I saw those who were present at the time, Grant, Dylan, Lily, Daisuke and, of course, Seth, he looked quite beaten though, he was even bandaged in some areas of his body, I was still in a bit of a daze, but I clearly saw how happy they were to see me awake.

“Sakura! Are you feeling all right?!” asked Grant, of course very worried about my state.

I soon started to feel something aching in a few parts of my body; I then saw that I was also bandaged since I saw one of the bandages on my right arm.

“I-I’m fine… What about Lune?” I asked, being more concerned about the kid than with my own health.

I saw them look at each other with an expression that made it clear that the result wasn’t pretty; they explained that after I collapsed, the cave itself started to collapse as a result of the fight and that’s how I got these wounds I still have, Seth was put in a tough situation, Lune ended up very hurt and got separated from me, the Gyarados wasn’t going to kill everyone if he didn’t choose who he was going to save, me or Lune, he settled for me, and that fortunately was the right choice, Lune was hurt, but he managed to get away from the battlefield while Seth protected me from other attacks. I’m both glad and upset that Seth chose me over him, he was essentially throwing the child to his death and that was something I can’t approve, yet… It’s because of that decision that I’m alive, and everything worked out in the end, how could I be angry at him for that?

Lune didn’t manage to get out of the cave though, he only got out of the battlefield, he crossed the water into the “safe” area of the cave and fainted as well, Seth managed to win the battle, of course, and then Seth brought me and him back to Floaroma, Lune had worse wounds than me and he probably was still knocked out.

After hearing the details, I didn’t say anything, I just got up and headed to my room, the others tried to talk with me, but I didn’t want to, so I simply ignored them. I can’t believe how useless and weak I am, everyone could’ve gotten out without being hurt so much if I didn’t faint just because I had a phobia of the place… I’m a Pokémon Ranger, yet if it depended on me, Lune and I would be dead by now.

I… I try to be strong like my sister, but it’s simply impossible, if I can’t protect even myself from danger like that, how am I supposed to do my job and protect others?! I tried, I really tried to put the past behind, but… Those memories, they came back to haunt me again, I won’t, can’t, sleep, the images of that accident won’t let me, I’m sure of it…

Soleil and her parents must be worried sick about Lune now, and it’s all because I was stupid and weak enough to go inside a cave I knew I was afraid of just to faint and put everybody’s life in risk, maybe I should just quit… Someone like me isn’t fit to be a Pokémon Ranger if I can’t even go inside a cave anymore…

On another note… I think after what happened today, it’s now’s the best time to talk about him…