Chiisaki Mono

Chiisaki Mono

by,

Aestivate

Summary: Haruka's recent failures are overshadowed by the awful dreams that plague her and Satoshi of the Sea Temple, and moreover Manaphy, being in danger. Evil and Shadow taunt the pair in their nightmares, and also threatens to darken the rest of the world in its reign…

Disclaimer: Pokémon and all related characters and themes of the franchise respectfully belong to Satoshi Tajiri and all related companies in charge of distribution of the manga, anime, game, and merchandise. The title of the fic translates to "Small Things," which is also the ending theme of Pokémon: The Wising Star of Seven Nights. The song "Chiisaki Mono" is property (and mastery) of the very talented Asuca Hayashi.

Author's Note: This chapter serves as a sort of get-things-together chapter, and I swear the action will pick up. And I have a nasty habit of not finishing fics that I start, but this one has been in the development process for a while now, and the plot is pretty concrete as far as they go. Now all I have to do is get around to writing each individual part, which could be easier said than done. And I'm sorry for the pacing! The way the plot is, the beginning might be sluggish compared to when the plot really begins to move forward. There's so much I'd like to include in a summary that I cannot without giving too much or too little away.

As far as names/places used, I've recently watched a lot of Pokémon in the original Japanese, and will be using the original Japanese names of the characters, of their Pokémon, of items, of attack names, and of locations. Apologizes if this is a turn off, but here is a basic idea:

Ash – Satoshi

May – Haruka

Brock – Takeshi

Dawn – Hikari

Misty – Kasumi

Tracey – Kenji

Max – Masato

Zoey – Nozomi

Kenny – Kengo

Drew – Shuu

Solidad – Saori

Jessie – Musashi

James - Koujirou

… and Harley thankfully keeps his own name in the original and the dub. And please excuse the Japanese used in poor context; I must iterate that I am not Japanese and have very limited fluency.

For pairings, advanceshipping (satoharu, aamayl) of course will be the major pairing, with penguinshipping a solid secondary.

Although Kengo/Kenny does not appear too much in the Diamond/Pearl anime, I must say that I love his character. He gives me a sense of fierce loyalty that suits Hikari well, and I think the fact that (well, to me, anyway) he was in love with Hikari since their childhood makes him a very steadfast yet complicated character.

As far as time period, this is pre Sinnoh League Conference and just before the Sinnoh Grand Festival. This takes place two years after Diamond/Pearl's beginning, and I figured this league would take a lot longer since the anime pacing has been so slow (but not in a bad way! Character development 3).

Ages, assuming Kanto took 1 year, Orange Islands took ¼ year, Johto ¾ year, Hoenn 1 ½ year, Battle Frontier ½ year, Sinnoh 2 years:

Satoshi is 16. Haruka is 14. Shuu is 14. Takeshi is 21. Hikari/Kengo/Nozomi are 12/12/13 respectively. Musashi/Koujirou are both 25. Kasumi is 18. Kenji is 20. Masato is 11. Harley is probably in his late 20's, so I arbitrarily pick 27 for both his age and Saori's age.

Note: I'm probably not going to use all the characters, Saori and Harley and Shuu are pretty minor as far as characters go, but this is just to give a basic idea of names and ages and such.

And I'm now done with my rambling, on to a very poor beginning chapter!

--

An ivory spear pierces the heavens, dazzling the sleepy desert region of Orre with its captivating, dazzling architectural design. Opening the front doors is like entering a fortress, and the inside is almost as exquisitely crafted as the outside. At the top of the magnificent Ragal Tower, suspended in mid-air, is the latest state-of-the-art colosseum, filled to the brim with spectators and their Pokémon itching to get into the battle stadium.

It seems wondrous how just a few years ago this beauteous location was the source of unspeakable crime, born from the twisted mind of the evil syndicate, Shadow, determined to infect on the world the soulless Shadow Pokémon.

--

These days, her dreams are becoming less and less abstract and more and more horrifying. The Prince's screams are becoming shriller and the wave's howls more pronounced. The sea is beckoning to her, a trill in its call. Her arms are out in front of her, facing the source of the melody. There is a strange ghastliness to her skin; it is pale, milky, and pearl-colored. Light from above dances on her hands, the only the thing she can see for miles other than a cool, rich blue. Suddenly all around her is black, and all in her are those anguished cries of "Tasukete…"

--

Haruka had never been truly fond of the picture on her Johto Contest Pass, as it made her face look pinched and her eyes look beady. Unfortunately, the monitors on every Contest Hall she stepped foot in the Johto region had to show that god-awful picture. It had become a habit to keep her eyes on her Pokémon during her contest battles, and her mind not on trivial self-consciousness, but on methods to make her Pokémon look as beautiful as possible. But nervousness and unease seized her and would not let go, and Haruka found herself looking up every few seconds at the clock and therefore the disgusting picture, both of which were spelling her doom. "Shit, the timer!" she muttered. She threw one longing glance at the audience; Shuu looked so painfully stoic and disappointed and isolated compared to her own, old personal cheering squad…

She bit her lip in resolution. She could not will herself to think of her friends at the moment, and continued to shout commands to the ever-faithful Bursyamo until she heard the timer beep that signaled the beginning of the end.

"And it's overrr!" cried the cheerful as always MC. "And the winner of the Kogane City Pokémon contest, the last before the Johto Grand Festival, is challenger Harley-san from Kaina City!"

"Isn't it too bad, Kamo-chan?" Harley's gloating and gleeful remarks floated towards her and shot her with each piercing word. "It seems like I've finally beaten you at your own game. Too bad the Johto Region Grand Festival won't be seeing Harukamo-chan as one of its contenders...!"

Harley's voice got lost in the crowd, but another's took its place.

"Haruka, just what the hell…" came Shuu's voice. It was a wonder she could still hear him amid the commotion that came with Harley's victory. She did not face Shuu, shoulders shaking, already able to picture Shuu's face, red with anger at Haruka's broken promise and the shattered rivalry that came with it. "We were supposed to face each other at the Grand Festival! What was that?! How could you just give up?"

Haruka did not respond. Wordlessly, she recalled dear Bursyamo, and tried to walk away from chaos and noise. She paused a moment and met Shuu's stern gaze with a sad smile. "Gomen ne, Shuu. I don't know what happened back there. Good luck at the Grand Festival, and say 'hi' to Saori-san for me."

He deadpanned at her response, as he expected her respond devastatingly. Shuu dropped his gaze, feeling ashamed those words had come out of his mouth, but even more so because Haruka had accepted them.

She turned her heel once more, out of the Contest Hall doors into the white sunlight, which provided distraction enough so no one could see her tears.

--

Haruka sank into one of the plush sofas at the Pokémon center, wishing for the people around at the center to stop giving her odd looks, and that yes, she was the one who lost in the Pokémon contest just ago, and that indeed, it was a shame she was not moving onto the Grand Festival.

After a while she stopped acknowledging the sympathetic and the smug and started playing with the seams on her mini-dress. She wanted more than anything to just retire to her room at the center and maybe disappear beneath the sheets off the face of the planet possibly with a bowl of ramen and a box of tissues, anything to stop reminding her how ugly a word failure is. Fed up with feeling sorry for herself and with waiting, Haruka stood slowly, headed towards the counter.

"Ano… Shitsureshimashita..." And judging from Haruka's luck, Nurse Joy was absent.

"Ruuuhhh!" responded a voice from under the counter. An aging Lucky, with a smile that said 'just a little longer,' patted Haruka's arm.

Getting the hint that she wasn't allowed to disappear off the face of planet just yet, Haruka gave a huge sigh and wandered towards the videophones. From her bag, a flash of temporarily blinding Monster Ball light directed itself towards the floor and Glacia materialized. The Ice-type purred in happiness at the sight of her trainer, who looked both exasperated and overjoyed at the same time. Glacia wove in and around Haruka's legs.

"Glacia, you shouldn't let yourself out of the Monster Ball like that," scolded Haruka gently, picking up her Pokémon and cradling it. "But now that you're out, I want to apologize. You won't be able to be in the next Grand Festival since I lost today." Glacia licked Haruka's arm, indicating forgiveness. Haruka smiled and sat down at a monitor, and rested her cheek on Glacia's soft-blue fur, turning her face away from the rest of the center. "I screwed up," she whispered, voice softer than fresh snow falling. "How do I face them?"

"Glaaa," purred Glacia. Haruka sighed once more. It wasn't as if she were expecting her Pokémon to respond.

Haruka looked up into the empty monitor, looking resolutely at her mirror image. She blinked several times, paying close attention to her usual sapphire-blue eyes, which appeared murkier and greyer despite the fact she was looking at her reflection through a video monitor. She wondered fleetingly whether it was possible to cry away the pigment.

Being in a strange region on her own with companions who could not do much more than say their own names or offer shoulders to sleep on could be very lonely. Despite the fact that she was cradling an Ice-type Pokémon in her arms, the chill that was slowly turning her body into stone was due to the absolution of being alone, and the absolution of her failure. She needed to talk to people that weren't faceless strangers; she needed to find comfort and sympathies in the friends that were the spirit her coordinating career was so lacking.

"That's it," Haruka murmured. "I'm calling Satoshi." She placed Glacia on the stool next to hers, who merely lifted a sleepy eye. Haruka's gloved hand was shaking as she dialed the directory for the Sinnoh region. Just one more number…

"Haruka-san!"

She dropped the phone in surprise, her heart leaping, and took a deep breath as the Lucky from before approached her with a tray with two Monster Balls in it. From her desk, Nurse Joy grinned. "Your Pokémon are fighting fit and their health is restored. I'm sorry I didn't bring them do you myself, but I'm tied up with much more work to do. If you need anything, just ask Lucky, who has been given the permission to attend to your every need tonight, you're the guest that is staying the night, since the usual guests are at hotels near the department store… There's a sale first thing tomorrow morning…" Nurse Joy acknowledged Haruka's uninterested glassy stare and the "mhmms" and "uh-huhs" and "sou da nes" as a cue to be quiet and resume her work.

Nurse Joy disappeared into the treatment rooms and Lucky, who felt awkward in Haruka's brooding presence, thought it to be more tactful to stay out of sight until she was called upon. From her egg pouch she removed a service bell, set it on the monitor desk, and disappeared after Nurse Joy.

Now that Glacia seemed fast asleep from her perch, the heavy silence weighed down on Haruka once more. "I'm such an idiot," she hissed angrily to herself, removing her green bandana, scrunching it into a ball and exchanged it between her hands. "Traveling alone, what a joke. Chasing my rivals? What a sham. How ridiculous."

It seemed she was nothing without the support of her friends, who never failed to convert their steadfast love into reassurance and strength. She thought by separating herself from them that she could be independent of this dependence, but she was wrong. At the heart of her 14 years she was still the little 10 year-old girl that could do nothing for herself. And even though she attempted to be the mature one and find her own strength, she had not changed from the immature girl that had left home those impossibly many years ago. Even her brother Masato, at 11 years of age had grown into someone completely new.

I'm pathetic…

She tossed the bandana-ball a tad too high and it dropped to the ground and unraveled. She buried her face in her hands and angry tears spilled through her fingers. Her eyes slid closed, beaten.

To be continued…