Dawn of Destiny (Long One-Shot, Prologue of Dream Chasers)
---Pearlshipping, PG-13---
Hey there! I made this as a request of johnny2d, it's actually a part of the manga I am currently working on, I wansn't planning a fic, but since I had done it for my dude then why not to post it? Many things aren't clear, and there may be many grammar mistakes (English is not my mother language) Anyways I hope you enjoy.
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The full moon gloriously shone in the sky, the slight sound of the waves was the only thing heard in that beach, nothing else.
“Be strong…” said to himself the boy looking at the moon, lying on the sand. “Please, Ash…be strong…” was the only thing that could come to his mind, tears came to his eyes, as he sat on the sand and hid his right eye with his hand, trying to contain the pain inside him, trying not to cry, but in vain.
“What can I do...? He just proved how weak I was…” The thoughts of his closest friend once again flashed in his mind, how his very first partner was always there. “Pikachu…why it had to be you?” He continued, sobbing “Why? Why I couldn’t realize that I had no hope?”
A boy stood right in front of Ash, under the rain, who held Pikachu tightly with both arms, even the left one, which didn’t stop bleeding of a deep wound on it. Ash raised his eyes to see the boy, his face, his red eyes, his red hair and the severity of his look.
“You…!” began Ash trying to contain his rage, holding Pikachu who barely breathed in his arms. “Why you…?!”
“Don’t blame me for your stubbornness” replied the boy “If you understood that you couldn’t win, then you should have accepted your defeat.”
These words hurt deeply Ash, who couldn’t answer. Those words had a meaning that he understood perfectly.
“You’re so cynical!” suddenly shouted a girl next to them.
The boy looked to his side, the girl ran to them under the rain waving her blue hair and red scarf. “Hikari…I really didn’t want to end things like this, nor do I expect you to understand, but…”
The boy looked serious at Hikari, who stopped next to them.
“Hikari, I just fought to win. He should have stopped. As a trainer he should have known for the sake of his Pokémon when to quit the fight. But instead he just kept pushing his partner, further than it’s limits, that’s why I had to do this. If he had known that it was enough he would have accepted his defeat and saved his Pikachu”
The boy passed right by Hikari’s side, while she didn’t look at him.
“Dying is a risk that you must accept when you fight. I just did what I had to in order to attain victory, some call this fighting spirit I call it stupidity.”
Hikari felt the anger inside her, but she also understood the boy’s words and soon her anger turned into sadness when she looked at Ash on his knees on the floor holding Pikachu.
“Damn it…” he mumbled once again finding himself on the beach.
“Ash…” suddenly he heard behind him. Turning around he found Hikari right to his side, she wasn’t wearing her hat nor had her hair combed like always.
“What is it?” he asked rudely as Hikari sat to his side.
“You’ve gone missing the whole day…” she began shyly “Everybody is very worried about you”
“Sorry…but I really want to be alone…”
There were some moments of silence, Ash stood up and walked away. Hikari followed him. Suddenly Ash placed his hand on his left shoulder; Hikari looked with concern his bandaged left arm.
“Does it hurt too much?” managed to ask Hikari, despite her fear to make things worse.
“No...” answered Ash, without turning around or even looking at her “It’s just...that my shoulder feels so light...”
Hikari felt a terrible sadness in that moment, she just stood on her place and looked at Ash who walked a little further, but stopped.
“Are you trying to cheer me up?” asked Ash rudely once again. Hikari looked away, grabbed his right arm and, not knowing what to do.
“I know it must be hard...” she finally began “But, you have to be strong...You have to stand...” Once again she looked at Ash “You have to keep going forward, for him as well”
“It’s so easy for you, the ones at the top, look at us, the ones in the deepest bottom” interrupted Ash violently, shocking Hikari.
Ash turned around, his eyes were darker and more aggressive than ever, much more than what Hikari had ever seen. Such view scared her; Ash’s words penetrated her chest violently.
“How bright and beautiful must everything look for you, the one who won the grand festival with a hand tied to your back!” continued Ash this time shouting “How easy must be for you to think that everything is alright!”
Hikari was out of words, but still had the courage and tried to answer: “Ash...I know how you feel...”
“No, you don’t!!” shouted Ash suddenly “You don’t have any idea of how it feel to realize that you are a loser! You don’t have any idea of what it feels to realize that your dream was just a childish illusion! You have no idea...” Stopped shouting, and began to hold the desire to cry once again “...of what it feels to lose your dearest friend...”
Hikari stood there, astonished, those words filled her with sadness, she walked to Ash and looked at him with sad eyes.
“That’s not like you...” she begged “Please, don’t talk like that...Your determination and courage are the things that turned you into my model...regardless that our path are different you are my inspiration...the person I looked up to all this time, that was what allowed me to get this far... Please don’t lose all that...Please don’t let this take you away...”
Ash forced a smile, but one filled with sarcasm, mocking every feeling expressed by Hikari.
“It was because I was being that idiot...” he began penetrating Hikari’s eyes with his “...that Pikachu gave his life in that fight...”
A hard sound was heard, a strong pain appeared in Ash’s left cheek, and he placed his hand there and realized that Hikari had slapped him. His anger was soon replaced with surprise and guilt when he could see Hikari, crying, looking at him with anger but more than that, sadness.
“I respected you” managed to say Hikari in her cry “I admired you...No matter how hard you fell you always stood up, you always were determined to get through everything. But it seems that Lucien killed you more than Pikachu in that battle...”
Ash was shocked, he tried to talk: “Hikari...”
“SHUT UP!!! COWARD!!!” was the last thing that Hikari exclaimed, from the bottom of her heart, expressing how hurt she was as well, before she ran away, leaving Ash there, alone in the deepest part of the abyss. Who couldn’t do anything but look. A while passed before Ash could look at his feet.
Clouds began to gather, the glorious moon was gone and the rain began slowly to show itself with all his rage. Hikari didn’t notice anything, she only ran without direction, but she had her limits, regardless of how much grief she felt she needed to catch her breath. Panting heavily, crying bitterly she stood in the middle of the plaza that she arrived without knowing it. In the middle of the storm that the rain had turned into a light shone far further where Hikari was. The light made his path through the darkness of the storm, reaching Hikari. She looked to see the source of the light; it was a wolf, a big silver wolf with strange marks over its fur and two scarfs like extensions of hair from his neck of a bright clue color.
“Mysclira...” Hikari called, recognizing the creature. Her heart jumped, she knew what the presence of that Pokémon meant. Mysclira turned around and jumped out of the plaza into the woods that surrounded the place. Hikari, hoping to meet certain someone, followed it.
The Pokémon didn’t rush he always seemed to wait for Hikari, its light made it easy to detect even in the darkness. Hikari at her limits finally got out of the forest and found herself right by the side of the sea once again, but this time it was a street, a path at the edge of a fall to the ocean. There looking at it was the boy, the same boy who caused all that pain to Ash.
Hikari expected of herself to burn with anger, but for some reason she felt sadder than ever. The boy turned around, the rain made his red hair fall over his face covering his eyes, only a small part of the left one could be seen, but it was enough to understand that he also felt grief inside him.
Hikari’s tears slide down her face, the boy could notice them even through the water. Mysclira walked to the boy’s side and sat down to rub, tenderly, its head to the boy’s arm.
“I was hoping...” the boy began with a timid voice “...that Mysclira could find you...”
“Lucien...” continued Hikari, approaching to the boy “Why? Can’t you feel how much pain did you caused to Ash?”
“I had no choice...” replied Lucien “I can’t afford to lose, never...”
Hikari looked at him, but Lucien didn’t dare to look at Hikari’s eyes.
“If I don’t fight fair and with honor it would be meaningless...but I will do anything to attain victory, defeating my opponents, hurting them or even killing them.”
“Don’t you feel anything? You killed the closest friend that Ash has ever had...Don’t you at least feel sad for that?”
“No, not really....this isn’t the first time I kill someone, and maybe it’s not the last either.”
Hikari couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but she just stood there.
“The first time you feel horrible, you feel that the whole world is looking at you, the expression of that person is pasted in your mind, it appears everywhere you keep thinking about the ones who suffer without him. The second time you ask yourself why you did it again, you feel that you are the lowest once again, but somehow it doesn’t feel as hard as the first time. The third time, you don’t feel anything... This...is the eighth time I have killed somebody”
“How can you be so selfish!?” interrupted Hikari “Do you know how it feels to lose somebody close to you? Do you? I bet you don’t, now Ash has become a coward, you took all his desire to fight! Aren’t Pokémon battles supposed to be a fair competition? Are...?”
“SHUT UP!!!” shouted suddenly Lucien in an outburst. “The person who understands the least all of this is you!”
Hikari realized what he meant, the same that Ash pointed to her. This realization made her heart start to jump once again her chest.
“I know very well that feeling...I know what it feels to lose something dear... Everything... My home, my family, my life, myself... I not only lost them, I learned that they never belonged to me in the first place, I just had to sit and watch how everything was taken away from me and started to be enjoyed by someone else.”
Lucien revealed his eyes, filled with anger that stroke Hikari.
“The way so lightly you speak about Ash reveals that it’s you the one that has no idea of how he feels. You blame me for having caused him pain, but at the same time you feel mad at him because he can’t stand this... This shows that you don’t know that feeling, that you can’t understand the guilt, the loneliness...he is feeling right now. And more importantly, you are not even a battler you’re a coordinator, your path differs way too much from ours. You enjoy a stage with a Pokémon and your battles are just show offs. The battling itself is much crueler than that, you will never risk anything more than a ribbon, but we are in danger of losing even our lives. Ash was stuck on a childish stage of battling, soon he’d have to face the harsh path that battling means. You’ll never understand this unless you experience it.”
Lucien remained silent for a moment and looked at Hikari with sadness once again.
“Hikari, the reason why I asked Mysclira to find you is to tell you two things...first it was really beautiful to have met you, but we can’t be friends...”
Cold words, at the same time hurting, they crossed her mind and her heart.
“Someday you may hate me enough to want to kill me...or perhaps you already do...”
“That’s not true!” interrupted Hikari, approaching to Lucien but Mysclira stood in her path. Lucien mounted on it.
“The second, for much cynical it sounds coming from me, please, be by Ash’s side, help him, he may be really bad now but you’re the only one who he still holds dearly in his heart. He needs you, please, be with him.”
“Lucien...” whispered Hikari, with tears in her eyes.
The boy just gave a last sad look at Hikari and then Mysclira ran into the woods with him. This time the light immediately faded.
He didn’t know where he was going; he even bumped into people without realizing it. Many times he passed across streets almost being crushed by cars, but he didn’t notice anything of that. His dead eyes remained always on the ground, he was totally lost, and he couldn’t feel anything, not the rain, the people or himself. Time passed and it was late, the rain ceased, the moon shone in the sky once again, but all the people were gone. He kept walking until he found himself out of the city, he continued walking until he reached a lake, a monument was in the middle of it, a stone with the image of a chained boy. In front of his eyes an illusion shook him, a voice blamed him.
“How could you let me die?” the voice asked sadly.
Ash raised finally his look, there was no one there.
“Why did I do it?” he asked himself.
Someone stood in front of Ash, he heard it, he looked, a girl of his age was there, with bloody red hair and menacing eyes of the same color. Her long black dress was totally wet with the rain, but her boots prevented it from touching the floor. Ash felt a little afraid of such a strange person.
“Excuse me...” pronounced Ash as he turned around and was about to leave.
“You heard that voice too?” asked the girl, making Ash stop and look at her.
“What do you mean?” asked Ash looking surprised at the girl who looked back at him seriously.
“There’s someone following you...” continued the girl closing her eyes “He keeps trying to talk to you but you just won’t answer...”
Ash for some reason wanted to believe those words; he turned to the girl and walked close to her.
“What is he saying?” asked Ash.
“Why did you let me die? Why did it have to end like this?” answered the girl.
“Pikachu?” asked Ash, as anxiety grew inside him.
“I don’t know who or what is it, but the fact is that it is still following you...”
Ash rushed to the girl and strongly grabbed her shoulders.
“Please! Tell me how I can answer him!”
“Why? What do you want to tell him...?” asked the girl without losing her calm
Ash let go of her and looked confused, he really didn’t have anything to say, but refusing to accept all this, he decided to walk away.
“Forget it; I am not believing this nonsense...”
“Is your friend dead?” asked the girl suddenly.
“What do you care?” replied violently Ash.
“Let me ask you one last thing...” continued the girl “What causes so much suffering right now? Is the loss of your friend or the humiliation of that defeat?”
Ash turned around with a shocked look.
“How do you know that?” asked Ash astonished.
“Answer.” replied the girl.
“We were together for so much time; we shared so many things...”
Flashing in his mind, every memory of Pikachu appeared, good moments, bad moments, victories, defeats, everything, forcing himself but in vain he started to cry once again.
“And now some random idiot comes and takes him away...But what I can’t really stand is to think that this could have been my fault after all.”
“It was.” replied the girl, coldly.
Ash was stabbed in the chest, he didn’t have the courage to raise his look, if that was true then he wouldn’t be able to stand it.
“Then what should I do...?”
“He died because of you, for the sake of your dream, to get victory only for you...” continued the girl.
Ash couldn’t hold it, the despair and the confusion was making him go mad.
“Then what!? What else can I do!?”
“You know that well.”
Her cold eyes and her lack of expression made somehow Ash think; indeed, he knew what he had to do.
“I can’t...” began Ash “Lucien, proved it, I am puny and pathetic, I am weak...I can’t keep fighting...If I did it would only lead to the hurt and deaths of my other Pokémon.”
The girl walked to Ash and looked at him. Ash looked back and noticed, with surprise, that the girl had a little sadness in her eyes.
“Have you asked what the other Pokémon think about it?”
“What?”
“What do your other partners think?”
“I...I can’t face them...not after what happened...”
“It’s your lack of power what scares you? Is that belief what really tortures you?” asked the girl severity.
“Huh? I...”
“The answer to that is not even in your mind or your heart.”
The girl turned around and walked away. Ash stood there but once again the voice was heard.
“Why did you let me die?”
Ash was terrified by the voice, he apologized but the voice continued to ask. He was starting to feel terror. He wanted the girl to ask for help, but she was gone. He was alone with Pikachu, or not? Still he looked around, nobody was there, everything seemed to fade, his senses were disappearing and someone else talked to him this time.
“Lumine...” began a deep and frightening voice “...how low you have fallen...”
Ash understood it meant him, that creature was talking to him. Everything turned black, a woman stood right in front of Ash; she emanated golden light, like her hair. In her arms she was holding Pikachu, the wounds the body had were the same that Lucien’s Mysclira had caused him. Ash knew it was his friend’s corpse the one there.
“Pikachu!!” he shouted trying to approach but he couldn’t move his body. He could just raise his look to the woman, who kept her eyes closed. Suddenly, scaring totally Ash, Pikachu opened his eyes and asked:
“Why did you let me die?”
Ash despair took the truth from the bottom of his heart and made him expel it.
“I...! I just couldn’t accept that I was weak...! Shinji’s words, Gary’s words, my mother’s words...all of them told me that I was weak, that I would never achieve my dream, that it was just a childish illusion...But, I couldn’t accept it! I wanted to believe that I could do it...But to realize they were right you had to die...”
Ash downed his head and began to tremble.
“I was so stupid and stubborn and you had to pay for it...” continued Ash as he began to cry “Forgive me; I beg you, please forgive me...”
The woman talked to Ash.
“If it’s strength what you need I can give it to you, but don’t let his sacrifice go to waste, if you do he’ll be grieving like you forever.”
Ash looked at her in surprise.
“Do you mean that I really can achieve my goal?”
“That depends of you, if you have the talent, the power or not is up to you. If you want to know then you’ll have to prove it to yourself. All I can do is to give you what was formerly yours”
“What do you...?”
Ash couldn’t finish, before he was lifted in the air, the woman made a spear appear from the light and the black void turned into a screen of phantasmal images, everything inside Ash’s memory, his family, his dream, his friends, Hikari, and suddenly people he didn’t know, a castle he had never seen and a especially a blonde girl that smiled to him, that image made his heart beat much faster for some reason.
“Lumine...the lock has been destroyed, the gate can now be opened, return to your true self, what you really are.” were the last words the woman said before impaling Ash with his spear, Ash felt a terrible pain all over his body and screamed, however no wound was in his chest a golden light started to slide through his body writing strange words all over him, red marks were left where the light passed. Finally four golden bracelets were placed on his arms and legs. Everything began to disappear, Ash lost his senses but before fainting he could hear the woman talk to him again.
“You must regret having lost so much, but in order to bring you back the lock had to die. Please forgive Rugniard, my son.”
Everything faded, and then everything was quiet once again. Familiar sounds were heard, birds and the waves, he felt the sunlight on his eyes once again. He realized he was still on the beach, it was morning, and the sky was clear and beautiful, the sun was appearing in the horizon.
“What kind of dream was that? Like I needed more stupid pressures right now...”
At the moment he tried to stand, he felt a strange weight on his limbs. There, in his arm and legs the four black bracelets with the red writings on them. Ash was astonished, he realized the truth and for more a terrible heat came to his body, he tried to take the bracelets out but they were totally pasted to his body, he suddenly noticed the marks on his arms, they were there too, the arm he had injured was totally healed.
“Damn it!!” He exclaimed while he took off all his clothes and went into the water. The calm ocean refreshed him, the pains were gone. In the water he saw his reflect, the red marks were all over his body, from his feet to his head, the only part without them was his face, he approached to his reflect to wash his face, he did it once and when was about to do it once again, he noticed that his face had a change after all. His eyes had changed; they were no longer of a dark brown color now they were golden, like the light of the woman. Ash stood and placed his hand on his left eye.
“Now it results that I mutated...what else can happen now? ...Dammit”
Ash turned and walked to the beach, but for his surprise, feeling that his heart jumped Hikari was there, panting. Ash stood on his place and looked away in guilt. But he felt how he was pushed a little; Hikari had jumped in the water and hugged him. She began to sob in his chest and he didn’t know what to do he just placed his arms around her.
Hikari raised her eyes and looked to Ash.
“I am sorry...” both of them said at the same time, surprising each other. They stared at each other for some moments.
“Your eyes...” began Hikari with concern.
“I know... I am not sure myself what’s going on.”
Hikari suddenly realized that Ash was totally naked and jumped back, completely embarrassed, letting out a little scream.
“I...I....I...” she began, turning totally red. Ash blushed as well and looked to the water.
“Sorry for that little display yesterday...” he said suddenly.
“No, it’s me who should apologize...” interrupted Hikari “It was I who didn’t understand your feelings. It’s true I have no idea how it feels, but...”
Hikari stopped at the moment she saw Ash’s face reveal a sad smile. Her eyes lighted.
“Don’t worry...It’s not something easy to deal with...Don’t feel bad”
There were some moments of silence.
“Are you okay? How do you feel?” asked Hikari, shyly.
“I don’t know...But now I don’t want to give up, yet.”
Hikari looked at him with hope.
“I am not sure whether I can keep my dream or not, I will give myself another chance, I will enter the Sinnoh league, depending on the result I will decide. But now...I don’t want to end it like this, not after Pikachu gave his life for my dream”
Hikari’s face showed a tender and pure smile, she was happy to see that Ash still had some hope in him. Ash smiled a little but got serious almost immediately.
“Don’t worry, I am sure you will do it great” she said.
“I hope...” answered Ash. “Now I must get back on the training, I guess.”
Hikari nodded, and noticed how Ash looked at his hands as well as the marks all over his body.
“Those marks...” she began.
“I am not sure, it’s like the color of my eyes.” replied Ash. Immediately he was surprised and embarrassed as he saw Hikari taking off the upper part of her dress. He looked away, blushing furiously.
“What are you...!?” began Ash looking slightly at her, but for his surprise he found on her back, only there, a mark of the same color and very similar to the one all over his body.
“Where did you get that?” asked Ash.
“I can’t remember, but it means that we share something in common.” answered Hikari, with tender.
Ash looked at her smiling face and felt embarrassed, he looked away.
“Maybe you should take off those wet clothes...”
Hikari almost jumped as she looked like a tomato.
“WHAT!?” she shouted.
“That’s not what I meant!” interrupted Ash “You came into the water completely dressed, you will get a huge cold if you stay like this! Use mine meanwhile yours get dry!”
Hikari didn’t say anything, just walked to the beachside. Ash turned around, he felt his heart jumping inside his chest. Hikari took off her wet dress, her scarf, her boots and her hat letting his hair loose. She put them on the sand and walked to Ash’s clothes, when she grabbed them, a smile with a blush appeared in her face.
Ash heard splashing sounds behind him, he turned around and his heart instead of jump began to shake inside him, as he saw Hikari coming into the water with nothing on. The water was high enough to cover them from the waist to their feet but still he somehow felt happy.
“Why you...?” asked Ash, but Hikari placed her finger on his lips. And then she leaned against him hugging him again.
“I am so happy to see, that the boy than I admired still is inside there somewhere. I beg you, don’t lose your hope, don’t lose your courage, those were the virtues of your heart that got mine.”
“Hikari...”began Ash sharing the same feeling that she was expressing, embracing her with all his love.
“Ash...you can do it...Last night when I saw you so sad I was unable to understand your feelings, but it was more than anything because I was afraid that the Ash I knew had gone as well.”
Hikari raised her eyes and looked deeply into Ash’s golden ones, the light in them was purer than ever, more beautiful than anything, she felt so happy to be there in that moment.
“Ash...I said that I respect you...I admire you...but much more than that...I...” Hikari stopped and gathered courage, her cheeks were red and her voice trembled but she could say it: “...love you...”
Ash’s eyes filled with happiness, once again he felt warm inside, a happiness that could fill the abyss that Pikachu’s departure had left. He now had a new reason to keep going and something to love more than anything.
“Hikari...” began Ash, to the girl that with her pure blue eyes looked at him “...I love you too...”
Hikari’s eyes filled with tears, but her face showed the most beautiful smile Ash had ever seen, the feeling that was born in that moment, after seeing each other’s hearts and expressing how much they meant to each other, when their lips touched, was something that would remain in their memory forever.
TO BE CONTINUED – POCKET MONSTER DREAM CHASERS
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That should be, soon I will be postin the manga in the fan art forum I hope you had enjoyed this. =)
---Pearlshipping, PG-13---
Hey there! I made this as a request of johnny2d, it's actually a part of the manga I am currently working on, I wansn't planning a fic, but since I had done it for my dude then why not to post it? Many things aren't clear, and there may be many grammar mistakes (English is not my mother language) Anyways I hope you enjoy.
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The full moon gloriously shone in the sky, the slight sound of the waves was the only thing heard in that beach, nothing else.
“Be strong…” said to himself the boy looking at the moon, lying on the sand. “Please, Ash…be strong…” was the only thing that could come to his mind, tears came to his eyes, as he sat on the sand and hid his right eye with his hand, trying to contain the pain inside him, trying not to cry, but in vain.
“What can I do...? He just proved how weak I was…” The thoughts of his closest friend once again flashed in his mind, how his very first partner was always there. “Pikachu…why it had to be you?” He continued, sobbing “Why? Why I couldn’t realize that I had no hope?”
A boy stood right in front of Ash, under the rain, who held Pikachu tightly with both arms, even the left one, which didn’t stop bleeding of a deep wound on it. Ash raised his eyes to see the boy, his face, his red eyes, his red hair and the severity of his look.
“You…!” began Ash trying to contain his rage, holding Pikachu who barely breathed in his arms. “Why you…?!”
“Don’t blame me for your stubbornness” replied the boy “If you understood that you couldn’t win, then you should have accepted your defeat.”
These words hurt deeply Ash, who couldn’t answer. Those words had a meaning that he understood perfectly.
“You’re so cynical!” suddenly shouted a girl next to them.
The boy looked to his side, the girl ran to them under the rain waving her blue hair and red scarf. “Hikari…I really didn’t want to end things like this, nor do I expect you to understand, but…”
The boy looked serious at Hikari, who stopped next to them.
“Hikari, I just fought to win. He should have stopped. As a trainer he should have known for the sake of his Pokémon when to quit the fight. But instead he just kept pushing his partner, further than it’s limits, that’s why I had to do this. If he had known that it was enough he would have accepted his defeat and saved his Pikachu”
The boy passed right by Hikari’s side, while she didn’t look at him.
“Dying is a risk that you must accept when you fight. I just did what I had to in order to attain victory, some call this fighting spirit I call it stupidity.”
Hikari felt the anger inside her, but she also understood the boy’s words and soon her anger turned into sadness when she looked at Ash on his knees on the floor holding Pikachu.
“Damn it…” he mumbled once again finding himself on the beach.
“Ash…” suddenly he heard behind him. Turning around he found Hikari right to his side, she wasn’t wearing her hat nor had her hair combed like always.
“What is it?” he asked rudely as Hikari sat to his side.
“You’ve gone missing the whole day…” she began shyly “Everybody is very worried about you”
“Sorry…but I really want to be alone…”
There were some moments of silence, Ash stood up and walked away. Hikari followed him. Suddenly Ash placed his hand on his left shoulder; Hikari looked with concern his bandaged left arm.
“Does it hurt too much?” managed to ask Hikari, despite her fear to make things worse.
“No...” answered Ash, without turning around or even looking at her “It’s just...that my shoulder feels so light...”
Hikari felt a terrible sadness in that moment, she just stood on her place and looked at Ash who walked a little further, but stopped.
“Are you trying to cheer me up?” asked Ash rudely once again. Hikari looked away, grabbed his right arm and, not knowing what to do.
“I know it must be hard...” she finally began “But, you have to be strong...You have to stand...” Once again she looked at Ash “You have to keep going forward, for him as well”
“It’s so easy for you, the ones at the top, look at us, the ones in the deepest bottom” interrupted Ash violently, shocking Hikari.
Ash turned around, his eyes were darker and more aggressive than ever, much more than what Hikari had ever seen. Such view scared her; Ash’s words penetrated her chest violently.
“How bright and beautiful must everything look for you, the one who won the grand festival with a hand tied to your back!” continued Ash this time shouting “How easy must be for you to think that everything is alright!”
Hikari was out of words, but still had the courage and tried to answer: “Ash...I know how you feel...”
“No, you don’t!!” shouted Ash suddenly “You don’t have any idea of how it feel to realize that you are a loser! You don’t have any idea of what it feels to realize that your dream was just a childish illusion! You have no idea...” Stopped shouting, and began to hold the desire to cry once again “...of what it feels to lose your dearest friend...”
Hikari stood there, astonished, those words filled her with sadness, she walked to Ash and looked at him with sad eyes.
“That’s not like you...” she begged “Please, don’t talk like that...Your determination and courage are the things that turned you into my model...regardless that our path are different you are my inspiration...the person I looked up to all this time, that was what allowed me to get this far... Please don’t lose all that...Please don’t let this take you away...”
Ash forced a smile, but one filled with sarcasm, mocking every feeling expressed by Hikari.
“It was because I was being that idiot...” he began penetrating Hikari’s eyes with his “...that Pikachu gave his life in that fight...”
A hard sound was heard, a strong pain appeared in Ash’s left cheek, and he placed his hand there and realized that Hikari had slapped him. His anger was soon replaced with surprise and guilt when he could see Hikari, crying, looking at him with anger but more than that, sadness.
“I respected you” managed to say Hikari in her cry “I admired you...No matter how hard you fell you always stood up, you always were determined to get through everything. But it seems that Lucien killed you more than Pikachu in that battle...”
Ash was shocked, he tried to talk: “Hikari...”
“SHUT UP!!! COWARD!!!” was the last thing that Hikari exclaimed, from the bottom of her heart, expressing how hurt she was as well, before she ran away, leaving Ash there, alone in the deepest part of the abyss. Who couldn’t do anything but look. A while passed before Ash could look at his feet.
Clouds began to gather, the glorious moon was gone and the rain began slowly to show itself with all his rage. Hikari didn’t notice anything, she only ran without direction, but she had her limits, regardless of how much grief she felt she needed to catch her breath. Panting heavily, crying bitterly she stood in the middle of the plaza that she arrived without knowing it. In the middle of the storm that the rain had turned into a light shone far further where Hikari was. The light made his path through the darkness of the storm, reaching Hikari. She looked to see the source of the light; it was a wolf, a big silver wolf with strange marks over its fur and two scarfs like extensions of hair from his neck of a bright clue color.
“Mysclira...” Hikari called, recognizing the creature. Her heart jumped, she knew what the presence of that Pokémon meant. Mysclira turned around and jumped out of the plaza into the woods that surrounded the place. Hikari, hoping to meet certain someone, followed it.
The Pokémon didn’t rush he always seemed to wait for Hikari, its light made it easy to detect even in the darkness. Hikari at her limits finally got out of the forest and found herself right by the side of the sea once again, but this time it was a street, a path at the edge of a fall to the ocean. There looking at it was the boy, the same boy who caused all that pain to Ash.
Hikari expected of herself to burn with anger, but for some reason she felt sadder than ever. The boy turned around, the rain made his red hair fall over his face covering his eyes, only a small part of the left one could be seen, but it was enough to understand that he also felt grief inside him.
Hikari’s tears slide down her face, the boy could notice them even through the water. Mysclira walked to the boy’s side and sat down to rub, tenderly, its head to the boy’s arm.
“I was hoping...” the boy began with a timid voice “...that Mysclira could find you...”
“Lucien...” continued Hikari, approaching to the boy “Why? Can’t you feel how much pain did you caused to Ash?”
“I had no choice...” replied Lucien “I can’t afford to lose, never...”
Hikari looked at him, but Lucien didn’t dare to look at Hikari’s eyes.
“If I don’t fight fair and with honor it would be meaningless...but I will do anything to attain victory, defeating my opponents, hurting them or even killing them.”
“Don’t you feel anything? You killed the closest friend that Ash has ever had...Don’t you at least feel sad for that?”
“No, not really....this isn’t the first time I kill someone, and maybe it’s not the last either.”
Hikari couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but she just stood there.
“The first time you feel horrible, you feel that the whole world is looking at you, the expression of that person is pasted in your mind, it appears everywhere you keep thinking about the ones who suffer without him. The second time you ask yourself why you did it again, you feel that you are the lowest once again, but somehow it doesn’t feel as hard as the first time. The third time, you don’t feel anything... This...is the eighth time I have killed somebody”
“How can you be so selfish!?” interrupted Hikari “Do you know how it feels to lose somebody close to you? Do you? I bet you don’t, now Ash has become a coward, you took all his desire to fight! Aren’t Pokémon battles supposed to be a fair competition? Are...?”
“SHUT UP!!!” shouted suddenly Lucien in an outburst. “The person who understands the least all of this is you!”
Hikari realized what he meant, the same that Ash pointed to her. This realization made her heart start to jump once again her chest.
“I know very well that feeling...I know what it feels to lose something dear... Everything... My home, my family, my life, myself... I not only lost them, I learned that they never belonged to me in the first place, I just had to sit and watch how everything was taken away from me and started to be enjoyed by someone else.”
Lucien revealed his eyes, filled with anger that stroke Hikari.
“The way so lightly you speak about Ash reveals that it’s you the one that has no idea of how he feels. You blame me for having caused him pain, but at the same time you feel mad at him because he can’t stand this... This shows that you don’t know that feeling, that you can’t understand the guilt, the loneliness...he is feeling right now. And more importantly, you are not even a battler you’re a coordinator, your path differs way too much from ours. You enjoy a stage with a Pokémon and your battles are just show offs. The battling itself is much crueler than that, you will never risk anything more than a ribbon, but we are in danger of losing even our lives. Ash was stuck on a childish stage of battling, soon he’d have to face the harsh path that battling means. You’ll never understand this unless you experience it.”
Lucien remained silent for a moment and looked at Hikari with sadness once again.
“Hikari, the reason why I asked Mysclira to find you is to tell you two things...first it was really beautiful to have met you, but we can’t be friends...”
Cold words, at the same time hurting, they crossed her mind and her heart.
“Someday you may hate me enough to want to kill me...or perhaps you already do...”
“That’s not true!” interrupted Hikari, approaching to Lucien but Mysclira stood in her path. Lucien mounted on it.
“The second, for much cynical it sounds coming from me, please, be by Ash’s side, help him, he may be really bad now but you’re the only one who he still holds dearly in his heart. He needs you, please, be with him.”
“Lucien...” whispered Hikari, with tears in her eyes.
The boy just gave a last sad look at Hikari and then Mysclira ran into the woods with him. This time the light immediately faded.
He didn’t know where he was going; he even bumped into people without realizing it. Many times he passed across streets almost being crushed by cars, but he didn’t notice anything of that. His dead eyes remained always on the ground, he was totally lost, and he couldn’t feel anything, not the rain, the people or himself. Time passed and it was late, the rain ceased, the moon shone in the sky once again, but all the people were gone. He kept walking until he found himself out of the city, he continued walking until he reached a lake, a monument was in the middle of it, a stone with the image of a chained boy. In front of his eyes an illusion shook him, a voice blamed him.
“How could you let me die?” the voice asked sadly.
Ash raised finally his look, there was no one there.
“Why did I do it?” he asked himself.
Someone stood in front of Ash, he heard it, he looked, a girl of his age was there, with bloody red hair and menacing eyes of the same color. Her long black dress was totally wet with the rain, but her boots prevented it from touching the floor. Ash felt a little afraid of such a strange person.
“Excuse me...” pronounced Ash as he turned around and was about to leave.
“You heard that voice too?” asked the girl, making Ash stop and look at her.
“What do you mean?” asked Ash looking surprised at the girl who looked back at him seriously.
“There’s someone following you...” continued the girl closing her eyes “He keeps trying to talk to you but you just won’t answer...”
Ash for some reason wanted to believe those words; he turned to the girl and walked close to her.
“What is he saying?” asked Ash.
“Why did you let me die? Why did it have to end like this?” answered the girl.
“Pikachu?” asked Ash, as anxiety grew inside him.
“I don’t know who or what is it, but the fact is that it is still following you...”
Ash rushed to the girl and strongly grabbed her shoulders.
“Please! Tell me how I can answer him!”
“Why? What do you want to tell him...?” asked the girl without losing her calm
Ash let go of her and looked confused, he really didn’t have anything to say, but refusing to accept all this, he decided to walk away.
“Forget it; I am not believing this nonsense...”
“Is your friend dead?” asked the girl suddenly.
“What do you care?” replied violently Ash.
“Let me ask you one last thing...” continued the girl “What causes so much suffering right now? Is the loss of your friend or the humiliation of that defeat?”
Ash turned around with a shocked look.
“How do you know that?” asked Ash astonished.
“Answer.” replied the girl.
“We were together for so much time; we shared so many things...”
Flashing in his mind, every memory of Pikachu appeared, good moments, bad moments, victories, defeats, everything, forcing himself but in vain he started to cry once again.
“And now some random idiot comes and takes him away...But what I can’t really stand is to think that this could have been my fault after all.”
“It was.” replied the girl, coldly.
Ash was stabbed in the chest, he didn’t have the courage to raise his look, if that was true then he wouldn’t be able to stand it.
“Then what should I do...?”
“He died because of you, for the sake of your dream, to get victory only for you...” continued the girl.
Ash couldn’t hold it, the despair and the confusion was making him go mad.
“Then what!? What else can I do!?”
“You know that well.”
Her cold eyes and her lack of expression made somehow Ash think; indeed, he knew what he had to do.
“I can’t...” began Ash “Lucien, proved it, I am puny and pathetic, I am weak...I can’t keep fighting...If I did it would only lead to the hurt and deaths of my other Pokémon.”
The girl walked to Ash and looked at him. Ash looked back and noticed, with surprise, that the girl had a little sadness in her eyes.
“Have you asked what the other Pokémon think about it?”
“What?”
“What do your other partners think?”
“I...I can’t face them...not after what happened...”
“It’s your lack of power what scares you? Is that belief what really tortures you?” asked the girl severity.
“Huh? I...”
“The answer to that is not even in your mind or your heart.”
The girl turned around and walked away. Ash stood there but once again the voice was heard.
“Why did you let me die?”
Ash was terrified by the voice, he apologized but the voice continued to ask. He was starting to feel terror. He wanted the girl to ask for help, but she was gone. He was alone with Pikachu, or not? Still he looked around, nobody was there, everything seemed to fade, his senses were disappearing and someone else talked to him this time.
“Lumine...” began a deep and frightening voice “...how low you have fallen...”
Ash understood it meant him, that creature was talking to him. Everything turned black, a woman stood right in front of Ash; she emanated golden light, like her hair. In her arms she was holding Pikachu, the wounds the body had were the same that Lucien’s Mysclira had caused him. Ash knew it was his friend’s corpse the one there.
“Pikachu!!” he shouted trying to approach but he couldn’t move his body. He could just raise his look to the woman, who kept her eyes closed. Suddenly, scaring totally Ash, Pikachu opened his eyes and asked:
“Why did you let me die?”
Ash despair took the truth from the bottom of his heart and made him expel it.
“I...! I just couldn’t accept that I was weak...! Shinji’s words, Gary’s words, my mother’s words...all of them told me that I was weak, that I would never achieve my dream, that it was just a childish illusion...But, I couldn’t accept it! I wanted to believe that I could do it...But to realize they were right you had to die...”
Ash downed his head and began to tremble.
“I was so stupid and stubborn and you had to pay for it...” continued Ash as he began to cry “Forgive me; I beg you, please forgive me...”
The woman talked to Ash.
“If it’s strength what you need I can give it to you, but don’t let his sacrifice go to waste, if you do he’ll be grieving like you forever.”
Ash looked at her in surprise.
“Do you mean that I really can achieve my goal?”
“That depends of you, if you have the talent, the power or not is up to you. If you want to know then you’ll have to prove it to yourself. All I can do is to give you what was formerly yours”
“What do you...?”
Ash couldn’t finish, before he was lifted in the air, the woman made a spear appear from the light and the black void turned into a screen of phantasmal images, everything inside Ash’s memory, his family, his dream, his friends, Hikari, and suddenly people he didn’t know, a castle he had never seen and a especially a blonde girl that smiled to him, that image made his heart beat much faster for some reason.
“Lumine...the lock has been destroyed, the gate can now be opened, return to your true self, what you really are.” were the last words the woman said before impaling Ash with his spear, Ash felt a terrible pain all over his body and screamed, however no wound was in his chest a golden light started to slide through his body writing strange words all over him, red marks were left where the light passed. Finally four golden bracelets were placed on his arms and legs. Everything began to disappear, Ash lost his senses but before fainting he could hear the woman talk to him again.
“You must regret having lost so much, but in order to bring you back the lock had to die. Please forgive Rugniard, my son.”
Everything faded, and then everything was quiet once again. Familiar sounds were heard, birds and the waves, he felt the sunlight on his eyes once again. He realized he was still on the beach, it was morning, and the sky was clear and beautiful, the sun was appearing in the horizon.
“What kind of dream was that? Like I needed more stupid pressures right now...”
At the moment he tried to stand, he felt a strange weight on his limbs. There, in his arm and legs the four black bracelets with the red writings on them. Ash was astonished, he realized the truth and for more a terrible heat came to his body, he tried to take the bracelets out but they were totally pasted to his body, he suddenly noticed the marks on his arms, they were there too, the arm he had injured was totally healed.
“Damn it!!” He exclaimed while he took off all his clothes and went into the water. The calm ocean refreshed him, the pains were gone. In the water he saw his reflect, the red marks were all over his body, from his feet to his head, the only part without them was his face, he approached to his reflect to wash his face, he did it once and when was about to do it once again, he noticed that his face had a change after all. His eyes had changed; they were no longer of a dark brown color now they were golden, like the light of the woman. Ash stood and placed his hand on his left eye.
“Now it results that I mutated...what else can happen now? ...Dammit”
Ash turned and walked to the beach, but for his surprise, feeling that his heart jumped Hikari was there, panting. Ash stood on his place and looked away in guilt. But he felt how he was pushed a little; Hikari had jumped in the water and hugged him. She began to sob in his chest and he didn’t know what to do he just placed his arms around her.
Hikari raised her eyes and looked to Ash.
“I am sorry...” both of them said at the same time, surprising each other. They stared at each other for some moments.
“Your eyes...” began Hikari with concern.
“I know... I am not sure myself what’s going on.”
Hikari suddenly realized that Ash was totally naked and jumped back, completely embarrassed, letting out a little scream.
“I...I....I...” she began, turning totally red. Ash blushed as well and looked to the water.
“Sorry for that little display yesterday...” he said suddenly.
“No, it’s me who should apologize...” interrupted Hikari “It was I who didn’t understand your feelings. It’s true I have no idea how it feels, but...”
Hikari stopped at the moment she saw Ash’s face reveal a sad smile. Her eyes lighted.
“Don’t worry...It’s not something easy to deal with...Don’t feel bad”
There were some moments of silence.
“Are you okay? How do you feel?” asked Hikari, shyly.
“I don’t know...But now I don’t want to give up, yet.”
Hikari looked at him with hope.
“I am not sure whether I can keep my dream or not, I will give myself another chance, I will enter the Sinnoh league, depending on the result I will decide. But now...I don’t want to end it like this, not after Pikachu gave his life for my dream”
Hikari’s face showed a tender and pure smile, she was happy to see that Ash still had some hope in him. Ash smiled a little but got serious almost immediately.
“Don’t worry, I am sure you will do it great” she said.
“I hope...” answered Ash. “Now I must get back on the training, I guess.”
Hikari nodded, and noticed how Ash looked at his hands as well as the marks all over his body.
“Those marks...” she began.
“I am not sure, it’s like the color of my eyes.” replied Ash. Immediately he was surprised and embarrassed as he saw Hikari taking off the upper part of her dress. He looked away, blushing furiously.
“What are you...!?” began Ash looking slightly at her, but for his surprise he found on her back, only there, a mark of the same color and very similar to the one all over his body.
“Where did you get that?” asked Ash.
“I can’t remember, but it means that we share something in common.” answered Hikari, with tender.
Ash looked at her smiling face and felt embarrassed, he looked away.
“Maybe you should take off those wet clothes...”
Hikari almost jumped as she looked like a tomato.
“WHAT!?” she shouted.
“That’s not what I meant!” interrupted Ash “You came into the water completely dressed, you will get a huge cold if you stay like this! Use mine meanwhile yours get dry!”
Hikari didn’t say anything, just walked to the beachside. Ash turned around, he felt his heart jumping inside his chest. Hikari took off her wet dress, her scarf, her boots and her hat letting his hair loose. She put them on the sand and walked to Ash’s clothes, when she grabbed them, a smile with a blush appeared in her face.
Ash heard splashing sounds behind him, he turned around and his heart instead of jump began to shake inside him, as he saw Hikari coming into the water with nothing on. The water was high enough to cover them from the waist to their feet but still he somehow felt happy.
“Why you...?” asked Ash, but Hikari placed her finger on his lips. And then she leaned against him hugging him again.
“I am so happy to see, that the boy than I admired still is inside there somewhere. I beg you, don’t lose your hope, don’t lose your courage, those were the virtues of your heart that got mine.”
“Hikari...”began Ash sharing the same feeling that she was expressing, embracing her with all his love.
“Ash...you can do it...Last night when I saw you so sad I was unable to understand your feelings, but it was more than anything because I was afraid that the Ash I knew had gone as well.”
Hikari raised her eyes and looked deeply into Ash’s golden ones, the light in them was purer than ever, more beautiful than anything, she felt so happy to be there in that moment.
“Ash...I said that I respect you...I admire you...but much more than that...I...” Hikari stopped and gathered courage, her cheeks were red and her voice trembled but she could say it: “...love you...”
Ash’s eyes filled with happiness, once again he felt warm inside, a happiness that could fill the abyss that Pikachu’s departure had left. He now had a new reason to keep going and something to love more than anything.
“Hikari...” began Ash, to the girl that with her pure blue eyes looked at him “...I love you too...”
Hikari’s eyes filled with tears, but her face showed the most beautiful smile Ash had ever seen, the feeling that was born in that moment, after seeing each other’s hearts and expressing how much they meant to each other, when their lips touched, was something that would remain in their memory forever.
TO BE CONTINUED – POCKET MONSTER DREAM CHASERS
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That should be, soon I will be postin the manga in the fan art forum I hope you had enjoyed this. =)
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