1 (edited by FullMoon 2013-02-11 02:16:50)

Topic: Diary of a Blooming Flower

Prologue: Memento

At night, in Floaroma town, a young pink-haired girl was in a house abandoned for years until then, she had arrived in the morning and spent his entire day cleaning the house, but making sure that the only thing she was taking out of the place was dust and cobwebs, when the night finally arrived she was in one of the rooms, the place was bringing a lot of past memories back to her, after all, that was her old room.

The bed was certainly small with a flower liner on it, the wardrobe was pink and white with several drawers, each for a different type of clothing, there was also a table where her old computer was on, it would be a miracle if it still worked after years without use, but what mattered most was a small drawer that was on the computer desk, as she opened it, her eyes widened as she saw what was inside...

... A small notebook, a gift from her late father was a simple notebook pink cover, but what was most striking was what was written on the cover "Diary of a Blooming Flower", seeing that book brought her tremendous happiness, she then picked it up, closed the door, turned on a small lamp that was on a nightstand next to her bed and began flipping through the pages of her diary, reading every word written on it, as expected it was a recollection of several things that happened in her childhood in her point of view, the feeling of nostalgia growing inside her as she read everything written on it, her memory trip ended on a blank page, and with a smile growing on her face, she searched for a pencil, pen, whatever it was to start adding a new chapter in the history of the notebook, after finally finding a pen in the same drawer where her diary stood on, she began writing.

"Dear diary:

Sorry to have abandoned you for so long, but I'm back to the peaceful town of Floaroma, where I was born and raised. Forgetting something as valuable to me as you is almost unforgivable, after all, you're one of the few memories of my childhood that remain intact, and also the main memory I have of my father ... After all this time of disuse, it's time to add new things, of course, ignoring the fact that I should be sleeping.

Today, I finally decided to return to this wonderful town, why I took so long to decide to do this, I have no idea, although I have been really busy during the time that I was out. We arrived early, I decided to let the others enjoy the city and its surroundings, as I focused on the more laborious: Clean the house, the place was as you would expect from an abandoned place, full of dust, cobwebs ... I guess I really don’t need to go into details about that.

Anyway, I spent all day cleaning the place, it may seem boring, but doing so has brought back many memories, I started with the living room and while wiping the dust away from the furniture I saw some of the frames that were on one of the tables, photos of our period of happiness that almost made me cry when I saw them, not that I'm not happy now, but ... It's my family, the memories I have of them are the most precious things I have, can’t do anything about that can I? Clearing the room I also remembered all the times we would get together in the room and started to chat while we watched television together ... Yeah ... It's been a long time ...

Among the many memories that came to me was the time where my mother taught me to cook, memories of how Grant slept on the couch and Dad not liking that in the slightest, the Christmas we spent together ...Yeah ... This cleanup was a journey of memories ...

I don’t know where the others are, but they should be back tomorrow morning, I don’t have much else to write here and I'm a little tired right now, so ... I think tomorrow will be the day I'm really going to start writing here, our first day in Floaroma together, it's going to be a great way to start, surely!

Our days in Floaroma didn’t even begin yet, but I can’t wait to spend time with my Pokémon here, but as tomorrow still hasn’t arrived ... See ya!"

She then closed the diary and put it back into the place where it originally was along with the pen, turned off the lamp and went to bed, a smile in her face as she slowly fell asleep while she kept thinking of the tomorrow and what was reserved to her at that day…

2 (edited by FullMoon 2013-02-12 00:04:12)

Re: Diary of a Blooming Flower

Chapter 1-1: Memories of a Normal Day

The next night, Sakura was already going to bed, but as she was lying on it, she remembered the diary and opened the drawer to get the pen and the notebook and started writing.

Dear Diary:

I almost forgot that you exist, ops. I need to create a new habit of writing at night, it’s already midnight now, but I think this is more important than a few minutes of sleep. What happened today? Well... I think it's better to start with when I woke up.

I was sleeping peacefully as I always do, when suddenly came a certain Carracosta breaking the door of my room and giving me a huge fright, I think my heart stopped for a few seconds.

"Sakura! You woke up! "Dylan said with a cheerful smile on your face as well.

Kinda hard to not wake up with all that...

"Dylan... We just arrived and you're destroying the place? "Sakura asked, looking at the door that was lying on the floor and looking very nervous because of the scare she received.

Seth was nearby when the accident happened and noticed the lack of a door, seeing that Dylan was also in there, it does not take long to connect the dots, he then began to look at Dylan with a look of annoyance, while Dylan himself looked like quite happy.

"Hey Seth! You also- "said Dylan until interrupted by one of Seth’s claws hitting him right on the head.

"Why did you do that, you idiot?!" Seth said, still looking quite annoyed with the Carracosta "Now we have to fix that door ..." he sighed, and then looked at Sakura, seeing that she was still a little nervous " And you almost scared Sakura to death, didn’t you? ".

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

I always found the relationship between those two funny, even with Dylan being somewhat annoying to Seth, at least I think he is, they often are together, they almost look like brothers sometimes.

"Ow, ow, ow! Sorry! But it was important! "Dylan replied, covering his head with his flippers and rubbing his head to relieve the pain.

"Hm? What happened to Dylan? "Sakura asked, now sounding a little calmer, but also worried that something happened while she was asleep or tidying up the day before.

"I'm starving! What will be the breakfast? "

I admit that the idea of saying "turtle soup" came to mind, but it would be wrong for several reasons.

1: That would be just mean

A: I don’t think anyone eats turtle soup for breakfast.

If I remember correctly Seth reacted slapping himself in the forehead, and I just tried to go back to sleep, praying that everything had just been a dream. Speaking of bed, this one is extremely uncomfortable, children's bed don't work very well with a teenager like me... I could sleep in my parents' bedroom, but Grant is sleeping there and even though there was room for two people, sleeping in the same bed as him would be veeeeery awkward.

After unfortunately realizing that everything that happened wasn't a dream, I went downstairs to go to the kitchen to prepare something for us to eat, my back ached a little and Seth realized that I was walking half bent and rubbing my back.

"That bed will end up killing you if you're like that after just a day," said Seth, the way he looked at Sakura making it clear that he was at least a bit worried about her, "Wouldn’t it be better to sleep in your parent’s bed? " he suggested as he looked back, as if to point to the room in question"Grant is an Arcanine, he's used to sleeping outside. "

"I know, I know, but Grant is human now and he seems to be enjoying that, I don’t want to force him to sleep outside or something, but yes, I do need a new bed." Sakura answered.

"And a door!" Dylan said, trying to fit into the conversation.

Sometimes it's hard to know if he is naive or simply ignorant.

Seth didn’t talk about that subject anymore after I answered, he didn’t look too surprised by my response either, I’m not that predictable, am I? Anyway we were going to get something for us to eat, and that's when I realized that we have not done shopping yet and I threw all the food stored on the trash because I do not think food from years ago is still within the expiration date, I couldn’t  even make Poffins because we were missing ingredients. I told them I would go shopping and come back as soon as possible, both nodded and I left the kitchen where we were, but not before eavesdropping a bit on a little conversation they were having.

"Aaaaw ... I really wanted to eat something now ... "Dylan said, looking very disappointed.

"For the love of Darkrai, waiting for a while won’t kill you." Said Seth, the tone in his voice clearly being one of frustration.

"But I'm hungry now ..."

Seth sighed before speaking again, "When are you finally going to grow up..." he said, shaking his head as he spoke.

"I don’t think I'll grow more than I grew once I evolved ..." Dylan replied, tilting his head and obviously taking the question to the literal side.

I'm not sure what happened after that, but I heard the sound of metal being hit by something, so I think Seth hit his forehead again, then he started to come to the living room, where I was, so I tried to hide the fact that I was eavesdropping a little by pretending to be looking for something, I took my leave after pretending I didn’t find what I was looking for and Seth waved at me once I started to leave.

Floaroma has that name for a reason, and that is the amazing number of flowers that grow in the city, making it even more beautiful, while I went to the Poké Mart I stopped to look at some flowers and to talk to some people in the streets. I think I also saw Lily and Stella going towards the meadow, but I didn’t pay much attention to it and went to do my shopping.

I would never believe what I saw when I arrived at the Poké Mart, I saw Grant and his son, Conan, looking at some of the things they were selling ... "Son" ... Never thought I'd see Grant taking care of his own child, but that is not important, the important thing was...

"Grant! What are you doing awake at this hour? "asked Sakura, partially joking.

Seriously, Grant sleeps, a lot. Seeing him waking up early to me would be a sign that something is very wrong with the world, unless there was some external factor that woke him up, then I guess it would make sense.

"Sakura! Good morning! " Grant said, looking at her with a smile on his face, he then chuckled a bit upon hearing the question," Yeah, I know I do not usually wake up early, but this pup here woke up early and was pawing me all the time to wake me up, what could I do? "he replied, shrugging and snickering a bit.

"You sleep too much dad." Conan said, looking a little bored

So, that was the external factor, it all made sense once I heard that.

Apparently, Conan was eager to play, like any child and woke Grant up so that they could do something together, that’s rather cute, tehehe~ when I mentioned the lack of food at home, Grant offered to help me with the shopping,  he helped to get the thing I was looking for faster so we could be home sooner. Finally, after we finished we went back home together, it was around 10:30AM when we got back.

I went to the kitchen to prepare something for the group, at the time there were only Dylan, Seth, Grant, Conan and me at home, or at least that was what I thought until Dusty and Phantom appeared from some other corner of the house, Phantom, being the chef that he is, helped me prepare things, Dusty tried to help too, but all he could do was drop the pot where Phantom was making Poffins to the floor with his tail by accident, poor clumsy boy.

"Ah! Sorry Sakura! I just wanted to- "Dusty said, waving his little arms in a panic as he stood near the dough lying on the ground, Sakura knew how that conversation normally went, so she wanted to keep things short.

"No problem, Dusty, let me clean up this mess." Sakura interrupted, stopping what she was doing and now going to look for a cloth to clean all that mass on the floor.

It was around this time that Grant appeared in the kitchen, having heard the noise of the pot falling on the floor, and then he looked at the mess and the obvious culprit and scratched the side of his head in response.

"I still don’t know how you manage do things like that all the time, Dusty" he said, leaning down to pet the little Furret to try to comfort him before staring starting to look at Sakura "Let me take care of this mess, you finish making the food "he said, nodding and then turning back to Dusty" Go talk to the others a bit while things don’t get ready, kitchen work isn’t for you, kid." he finished, with a few chuckles.

It was nice to see Dusty cheer up a little and leave the kitchen to go interact with others a bit, I kept preparing the food together with Phantom while Grant was cleaning up the mess that Dusty made with a mop, it took a while, but after some time everything was ready and the kitchen clean, it was time to eat!

Everybody here, like any group, have quite different tastes, so I had to make several flavors of Poffin and Aprijuice so that everyone could eat and drink what they liked, I could go into further detail about everyone’s tastes, but if I do this I'll be here until tomorrow, and it's already midnight!

As we ate I looked at Dylan and saw that he really seemed to be hungry, it almost looked like he had not eaten in days, I could only wonder why he was so hungry, maybe he had a dream about food or something. Speaking of dreams, I had a really weird tonight, when Dylan entered breaking the door of my room I think I was in a part of the dream where the moon falls on Earth and destroyed everything because I apparently had to go back in time or something, dreams are strange, go figure ... Maybe that's why I got scared like that, that and of course I can’t help but get a scare when a Carracosta shows up breaking the door of my room and saying that he is hungry, if Dylan was wild I swear I would have died right there.

Anyway, not all of the team was at home when we started to eat, but after a while Lily, Stella and Shade appeared, the latter being covered in pink glitter for some reason, although it was pretty obvious what had happened to him, no one could do anything outside of laughing at the poor thing.

"Our Shade, simply fabulous!" Grant joked, laughing as much as he could and making everyone laugh even harder at the Umbreon with that comment.

I felt sorry for the Shade when that happened, but I admit that I also laughed together with the others, throughout all of that he looked at us all with a grumpy expression and somehow that just made things even funnier. Once everyone calmed down, and Grant and I scolded Stella and specially Lily for doing that to him, but everything worked out after that, Shade didn’t seem all that bothered by it either.

After lunch everyone gathered in the living room to watch television, well, minus Shade, he just came to eat and left soon after, it was good to have a good part of the team join together to watch TV, but every five minutes Dylan asked something about the movie we were watching, it was getting annoying really fast for everybody present and the unlucky one that had to explain everything to Dylan was Seth, but after a while I was offered myself to do that, I had already seen the movie in question anyway, but I ended up telling the ending of the movie by accident, oops!

"Well, movie ruined, let's look for another, yes?" Grant said, chuckling as he passed through the channels with the remote control.

"And this time, ask something after the movie ends, Dylan, I know you're slow to understand things, but you don't need to annoy us to death to show that." Said Lily, looking quite annoyed with the Carracosta.

"As much as I don’t want to admit, I agree." Said Seth, looking pretty tired of having to explain everything to Dylan

"Oh come on, now you two are being just mean." Sakura said, with some giggles.

"I was just curious, my bad." Dylan said, passing one of his flippers on the back of his neck and chuckling somewhat nervously.

"Um, hey Lily, where did you get all that glitter you used in the Shade?" Dusty said, he was still eating a Poffin, but stopped to ask your question.

Fun fact about Dusty: He eats things veeeery slowly, taking very small bites on the food, he apparently does this to be able to enjoy it for longer, this habit of his is kinda of rubbing on me now, but I'm not complaining, eating slowly makes you enjoy the taste of the food for a bit longer.

"In the house of a girl who lives here in town." Lily replied, quite casually, just to notice that everyone was looking at her now, "Do not worry, I returned everything after we were done with it."

"But didn’t we use all of the glitter?" Stella asked, once again making things harder for her best friend.

"But of course! What we returned was the pot! "Lily said, with a forced laugh and a just-as-forced smile, it was clear that nobody liked the joke so Lily immediately ran outside so she wouldn’t get in trouble.

"Hey Lily! Wait! "Said Stella, shortly following her best friend to the outside.

These two will never learn, will they? I remember I was told that they tried to make Aprijuice for them, stealing a lot of Apricorns in the process; Lyuri said the result was hilarious, though.

Well, after that conversation we continued what we were doing, watching television together, after a while, Conan wanted to play outside, so Grant got up from the couch and took the puppy to go off and play while the rest of us were just talking about various subjects in the living room.

Time passed and I didn’t even realize it, members of the team came in and out of the living room at times and the only one that was inside the house all the time I was, why? Well .. I guess I just preferred to stay at home at that time. Over time, the night came and the group that were going to spend the night inside the house arrived, these being Seth, Grant, Conan, Dylan and Lily, I was in the living room watching TV and drinking tea when they arrived.

"Hey guys, had fun out there?" Sakura asked, looking at them while sitting on the couch with a smile on her face.

"I was enjoying myself until some green insect appeared in front of me." Lily said, sounding somewhat stressed.

"Well... I had a relatively good day, that's all. "Said Seth, looking to the side" At least I managed to keep some cotton ball troublemaker from causing another disaster. “ he added, just to spite Lily.

One thing I'll never understand is the relationship between Seth and Lily, the two of them have a mutual hatred between each other, but Seth’s reason is understandable at least: He does not like troublemakers, I still don’t know why Lily hates him so much though, he isn’t the only one that prevents her from doing her pranks, but he seems to be the only Pokémon in the team that she seems to have a grudge against.

"I had enough playing and training for one day, if you don’t mind I'm going to bed." Grant said with a yawn and going up to Sakura’s parent’s room, which was now his room.

"I'm also a little tired… Well, until tomorrow guys!" Conan said, yawning and also following Grant to his room.

Like father like son.

"I'm still not sleepy, so I guess I'll stay a little longer out there, maybe have a little fun in the water." Dylan said with a smile.

"Ok! Just be careful out there. "Sakura said, smiling at the Carracosta.

Maybe I shouldn’t leave that boy alone, but ... Even being the way he is, Dylan is very strong, he knows how to take care of himself, he probably won’t get too far away from home anyway. He soon left, leaving Seth and Lily there, the two were looking at each other rather fiercely and I think I might have seen some sparks between the two, unsurprisingly.

"I’ll go to my room, I mean, Lyuri’s room" Said Lily, starting to go upstairs to the room in question, she probably just wanted to get away from Seth.

"Okay, goodnight Lily!" Sakura said, waving at Lily with her free hand.

"Well, I'm staying here until I get sleepy, I guess I can eat something, take a better look around the house, something like that." Seth said with a shrug as he did not know exactly what he would do, he then realized what Sakura was drinking "Tea?" he asked, a small smile forming on his face.

"You got it. Want some? "

"Yes, please."

I find it somewhat amazing that a Pokémon like Seth likes tea, there’s actually a little story behind that: Seth saw me drinking tea alone once and when I realized he was there, I asked if he wanted some, he then asked exactly what I was drinking. The tea I normally take is chamomile, and I explained how it helps to calm down a bit, he did not look particularly stressed, but he decided to taste it when he learned about that effect, the rest is history. When he received serious injuries in the battle against Chuck, I offered him a bit, since the tea also helps to relieve headaches, it didn’t do much though, but since then we had tea together at times, serves as a time to relax, this tea helps me stay calmer and helps keep me to keep a calm and friendly composure most of the time.

I then went to prepare some tea for Seth and we spent about a half hour talking with each other, the TV was off, partly because I prefer a quiet environment when I'm drinking tea.

"So… Enjoying the city so far? "Sakura asked, with a serene expression on her face.

"It's ... I can see why you like this place so much, I'm not a big fan of flowers, but I admit they make this place seem very calm. "Seth replied, drinking another sip of tea before making your own question" This place is pretty old, you want to make some changes in place? "

"Well… This house brings back many memories, but since we’re living here now ... Yes, changes would be a good idea. I guess I should change the furniture, buy new equipment, beds... "

"Doors..."

I could only giggle at that, yes Seth, doors. Although this house has a lot of sentimental value for me, changes are inevitable, the memories that were brought back to me are saved forever now here in this diary, so, it's time to leave the past behind and make this a better place for us to live in, some things like the frames will remain here because they don't take up much space, but maybe buying a different frame for the photos would be a good idea too, those pictures I don't want to lose as they are very precious to me and they're also a way of some team members to see how my family looked like before.

After talking for a while, I decided to go up and sleep, but I wasn't having much success in falling asleep, and here I am writing now. Not much happened today, just spending time with my Pokémon, it may not have been a very exciting day, but hey, as long as you have fun, that kind of thing doesn't  matter, right?

Now... I think this diary would be a good place to talk about certain people, and I think I know who to start with...

3

Re: Diary of a Blooming Flower

Chapter 1-2: Family Dog

                                                                         
                                                                                  Grant

Well, what can I say about Grant? He’s been with me since I was a child and, along with my sister, being my main playmate at the time, a while after “that” accident I also started to think of him quite differently than what I thought of him as a child.

You see, when I was a child, Grant was just a pet for me, a pet that I really loved, but still “just” a pet. He was always following me around and I frequently played with him just to pass time, he also always tried to protect me from danger and most of the time he actually failed pretty badly at that, like me, he was just a child at that time…

Once “that” happened, we both matured a lot, I stopped being afraid of interacting with others, among other things, but him… To me he stopped being just my pet and became essentially the only family I had at the time, he became much more protective of me and always comforted me every time I had a problem, even when I couldn’t understand him, I knew that he was just trying to cheer me up, and I really appreciate everything he did for me. Thanks to him, I could get around places faster, and I also felt safe when I was around him, because I knew for a fact that he wouldn’t let anything or anyone harm me.

It’s funny now that I see him as a human, he looks older than me and even has his own child now, I guess that out of the two of us, he was the one who matured the most, though it’s probably because age is different between species, but I prefer to think this way, seems more… Appropriate.

Since I mentioned his human form, I should mention that I really like how he looks, it’s quite a stylish appearance and gives it me a wild vibe when I look at him, must be the messy hair and the fangs. I’ve seen that he’s also been drawing attention from other women, while he was playing with Conan during our trip here, I could see a few women looking quite interested on him, he’s completely unaware of it too, if only they knew~

If I had to say something about Grant’s good points, well, he’s normally a very kind, playful and loyal pers… persomon…? I dunno what to call him anymore. Anyway, he’s very strong too and quite agile, he took a while to adapt to the human way of being, but what he lacks in speed as a human, he compensates in agility. He also tries as hard as he can to make everybody happy, and surely enough wouldn’t let anyone mess with any of us without giving them a warning or, if it gets bad, a beating. I guess he really is somebody anyone would want as a friend, tehehe~

His bad points though… He can be reaaaally lazy sometimes, something that Seth said once that I quite agree: “Sometimes he acts like he’s a Slakoth in an Arcanine body”, that sums it up pretty well, he also worries a lot sometimes, just like any good father would… Hm…  Well… He also has a bit of a habit of sometimes getting lost in thoughts while doing something or right in middle of a conversation; it’s not very frequent though.

You know… Ever since that cave-in… Grant has become somewhat fatherly to me, like any good parent, he worries about me and tries to keep me safe, tries to give me advice on occasion, is very supportive… I guess he has even more good points that I didn’t think of before, I can see that I’m not the only one who sees him as a father figure, he really treats the other members of the team like family, one example being the little conversation he had with Dusty at the kitchen, but to me it’s quite a bit more special, ever since he became human, I started to mistake him for my dad when I look at his human self sometimes.

Seth asked me today why I’m letting him sleep at the more comfortable and bigger bed in my parent’s room, I guess the way I see him now is why. I see him as a second dad, not just as a pet or friend, we’re way more closer than that and I think, or at least hope, that it won’t ever change, so… I guess that him sleeping on my parent’s room was more than appropriate… Who knew, Grant has had a daughter all this time and we both never noticed it until now… I wonder how he would feel if I told him that…

Sakura then heard someone coming on the corridor, whoever it was probably noticed the light coming out of her room, especially since there wasn’t a door there anymore, surprisingly and coincidentally, it was Grant, when he saw her from the corridor, both traded looks between each other for a few seconds.

“Sakura, it’s already 1AM, you should be sleeping now.” he said in a slightly stern tone, he then came inside the room and noticed the pen and diary “What, you’re a writer now?”

Sakura quickly glanced at the clock by the nightstand and Grant was right, it was already that late, it seemed like she got way too into writing that diary and didn’t even notice the time

“O-Oh, sorry, I got so involved with the writing that I didn’t even notice the time passing…” she said, getting up from the chair she was sitting on and then gives a small smile to him “It’s just something I like to write at night, I’ll give you the details later.”

“Couldn’t you write it in the day if you’re going to get so involved with it?” he suggested, giving out a yawn while he was at it “Anyway, go sleep now, you can finish that tomorrow.” he said, pointing to the bed right next to him with his thumb.

“Right, sorry for making you worry, d-“ Sakura then paused upon noticing what she was about to say, she looked at the floor for a few seconds before looking at Grant and giggling “I’m sorry, I’ll go to bed right now.”

“You don’t need to apologize that much you know, it’s not like I’m scolding you or anything.” he commented, a bit confused by what just happened.

“Right… So…”

Sakura then came closer to Grant and gave him a hug, surprising him initially, but then he hugged her back, Grant looked down at Sakura as she rested her head in his chest with a smile on his face, before breaking off the hug.

“… Goodnight.” said Sakura, with a smile as she went to bed.

“Goodnight.” said Grant, turning off the lamp on the nightstand and then leaving the room, he would close the door, but there wasn’t one for him to close.

“… Sweet dreams, dad…” whispered Sakura, as she slowly started to fall asleep.

4

Re: Diary of a Blooming Flower

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…