Chapter 33: Widening Gulf
New
- Partners
-
Prema knocked on the door to her father’s office. In spite of, or maybe because of the situation, she wore a faint smile. It was finally time.
This would not be the first time they would be observing a battle that involved Nori together. The first was his initial test with the Demon Nidorina. That was back in the infancy of their friendship, when he and his Pokemon were a pair that the gods had guided her to. Here they were a year and two months later. The circumstances had changed, yet it managed to invoke a feeling of nostalgia in the priestess.
That is, if he was not having second thoughts. “Father, are you ready to head out?” she called to him. “Maiden Kaede is waiting for us.”
There was no answer, not at first. The sound of footsteps in the hall shortly followed. Prema nodded at Priestess Satomi. She was there to assist.
“It’s now or never, Haruto,” their elder urged.
Prema took a small step forward. “Father, unless you see this Qwilfish with your own eyes, you will not be able to make a proper judgment,” she said, unsure where the words were coming from. Yet there they were in her heart and mind. “Furthermore, this may be your only chance to see her under the context of battle. In other words, you will be able to judge for yourself if she truly is cruel. It is…” While the words caught in her throat, she swallowed her hesitation away. “One of your responsibilities as Master of the Kannagi Shrine, Father. All people and Pokemon deserve a fair chance.”
Priestess Satomi flashed a radiant grin. “I couldn’t have said it better myself, Lady Kannagi.”
Prema could only turn away slightly. It was out of necessity. She was hardly proud of saying that.
“We won’t blame you if it’s too much, Haruto,” their mentor added. “But if you can’t bring yourself to do this, we only ask that you accept what we see.”
“I will only be a moment longer,” her father begrudged. Prema could hear the fatigue in his tone, and it weighed upon her heart.
“Soon, Father…” she whispered. This would all be over soon. After tonight, their lives would be back to normal.
The day had come. Granted, Emi didn’t exactly give them a lot of time to react, which she had privately confirmed to him was part of her plan. At this point and after what Chad had said to the team yesterday, the general consensus had shifted to reluctant acceptance.
They had gathered to support their teammate. And on top of that, a good battle was about to happen. They all enjoyed watching those. The coach had been generous enough to arrange transportation to Mynwest Court. They were outside in the parking lot in front of the bus. The driver was taking his time getting ready.
Chad stepped in front of the group to address them: “Is everyone who wants to be here, um, here?”
There were some goodhearted laughs. No one spoke up, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kiara approaching.
“Ah, did you change your mind?” There was plenty of extra space on the bus.
She turned up her nose. “No, I wanted to say some things.”
The captain of the team raised a hand. “Could we not do this in public?”
“No, I want everyone to know!” Kiara stated. She balled her hands into fists and gave a tooth-filled scowl. “I think you’re giving her,” and with this she pointed accusingly at Emi, “WAY too much leeway. Plus you’re playing nice with the Demon Tamer. He’s why we’re in this damn mess!”
He shook his head. “Kiara, I told you my stance before. I am not going to stand in Emi’s way. It’s her decision to make.”
“Then goodbye!” Without a further word, she spun on her heels and stomped away. Chad frowned, only able to harden his heart.
“Stupid petty bitch,” Emi grumbled. It was all anyone initially had to say on the matter. Everyone else really wasn’t sure what to say, or from their expressions, tacitly agreed with Emi.
“We lost another member?” Aki finally asked, their voice and knees both quavering.
“We’ll give her time,” Chad said. He hoped that she simply needed to cool off. If she changed her mind, he was willing to welcome her back with open arms.
There was no further time to discuss it as a group, because the bus door opened. With a nod and gesture from their captain, the team started to board. Chad motioned for Emi to sit with him; she went to the back in response. After a pause, he followed. He wanted to talk. He supposed it didn’t matter where they spoke.
“Emi, two things,” he said as he was sitting down.
She leaned back and replied, “Yeah?”
Chad huffed. He knew she wasn’t going to like him saying this, but it needed to be said. “I still can’t shake the bad feeling I’m getting from this situation.”
Emi only stared back. She averted her eyes for a second. In a way, it was more distressing to him than an explosive or sarcastic reaction would have been. “Chad,” she started with a shake of her head. “It’s way too late to back out now. Especially on a hunch.”
Chad frowned. “I suppose not,” he relented. It would not reflect well to go through all this only to cancel at the last second. Especially with so many people looking forward to this. Chad was still amazed at how quickly the news spread. There were even likely several out-of-towners who had come by, and they wouldn’t take kindly to hearing the trip had been for nothing.
She leaned in a little. “For the record, what do you think this might be about? Like, what do you think’s going to come of this?”
He was forced to look away from her. “I’ve been trying to figure that out.” He wished he had the answer. He wished there was something to it besides his instincts talking. They often weren’t wrong.
“Did you feel that with Anthony?” she threw a suggestion forward with an open-palm gesture.
He leaned back and smiled at her. “What sane person wouldn’t think something bad was going to happen there?”
Emi snorted and rolled her eyes, giving him a smirk right back. At least they both could find their sense of humor at that moment.
“I don’t think it’s that,” he stated. A lot of other people thought that a Pokemon was going to walk away from this badly hurt, if not worse. But this felt different from before to Chad. “Do you ever get a hunch you can’t explain?”
“Yeah, I getcha.” She nodded. “I’m not going to worry about it too much. I’m ready for anything. His fans hating me, an unlikely injury, whatever.”
Chad shut his eyes. “I hope you can.” It was one thing to say that. It was another to follow through. He could only hope that their lives didn’t change too much tonight.
This was it. There was no escape. In Yumi’s dream world, today would mark the start of something she had wanted for two months, and arguably for even longer than that. Instead, it was the end of everything she had known and cherished for fourteen years.
When the final bell rang out, that marked the death knell. What she wanted to do was meet with Nori, walk with him to Mynwest Court, get checked in, and be right by his side for the entire battle. Maybe that last part could still happen. It would be a ray of light on a dark day. Even that seemed folly; she wasn’t the girl he liked. The weight of reality had crashed down on her. It was like she had been body slammed and paralyzed.
What should she do? What could she even do? These two questions burned in her mind hotter than a Magcargo. There were what felt like a dozen others, and all of them had no answers.
“Ms. Takao?”
She jerked upright, her vision unblurring and revealing that most of her peers had already left.
“Is everything all right?”
“No, it’s nothing.” A part of her thought to tell her homeroom teacher. But this was between family. It should be settled between them. “Thanks for your concern.”
With this, Yumi picked herself up and hurried to the front of the school. The cold air assaulted her as she burst through the doors and craned her head around looking for mom’s car. No, it wasn’t in plain sight. Was dad’s? She ran forward, trying to scour the parking lot for either a blue Rondo Civic or a red Suzaku Alto. No sign of either. Grandpa’s van? It was a boxy white behemoth big enough to fit the entire household into. She would have seen it right away, but Yumi still could not help but check to see if someone had come to escort them after all. Her hopes scattered like a Drifloon on a windy day upon seeing none of those vehicles.
She stood with her head hung low. What now? What could she do now?
“Yumi.”
Her skin crawled as a monotonous yet low voice called to her from behind. She slowly turned around to find her brother standing there. He was scowling intently, his face was redder than a Charmeleon, and quite literally shaking with rage.
“You were talking with mom last night to drive us to the place and back.” Yumi glanced aside at the accusation. Touya started shouting. “I thought I could trust you with this! You know how long we’ve been planning this and how we were waiting for just the right moment! And you tried to screw it up!”
Everyone was noticing their argument. She yanked him into a huddle. “I was trying to stop you from making the biggest mistake of your life, Touya,” she rasped, trying to fight off tears. She couldn’t get over that fact. No matter what happened, she couldn’t get past it! She wanted to stop him without telling their parents what he was doing!
“You’re making a mistake, Yumi,” Touya growled. “Our parents want to control everything we do! I can’t stay here. We can’t stay here. We need to draw a line in the sand with them the only way we can.”
“You know that isn’t true, Touya!” she cried, tugging at her hair. An ache rose in her throat as she breathed in and out heavily. “Our parents love us.”
Touya curled his lip and shook his head vehemently. “It will be true soon enough if I know where things are going. I’m not going to take that chance. It’s now or never to do this. And if I’m wrong and they really do love us like you say, they’ll welcome me when I get back. I’ll make it up to you when I do. I don’t know how. I just promise I will.” With that, her brother looked her square in the eyes. “Don’t ruin this for me, Yumi,” he warned. “Do not try to screw this up again. I will never forgive you if you do.”
Yumi nearly crumpled, and would have had Touya not been there to grab onto for support. She wanted to believe that he was right. Maybe he was right about their parents welcoming him back. Yet that voice in her mind was screaming, no!
Still grasping at his jacket, she looked up. Tears streamed down her eyes, feeling like they were about to freeze in the chilly air. “You haven’t even tried asking mom and dad about this! They might say yes! At least give them the chance! Please, Touya! That’s all I’ll ask!”
He firmly brushed her away. His brow was excessively furrowed. “I’m not going to take that risk. There’s a saying.”
She blinked at his expression, then lowered her head. “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.” And more than likely, trying to do it anyway.
Yumi wanted to argue. Yet it made some sense. If their parents knew he wanted to plan a journey, they might go far enough to make sure he didn’t try to sneak off. The truth was, she didn’t know how they would take this. Neither of them had ever done anything like this in their lives. But what if she was right and the worst happened?!
She sniveled, unable to hold back her crying any longer. “Touya, what about me? What about…” Her voice shook, and her legs finally gave out. She fell to her knees and sobbed into her hands.
Maybe she was being selfish. Yumi was deathly afraid, not for Touya, but for herself. How was she supposed to move on from this?! Would she even be able to? What if her parents really did take it out on her? What if she was right?
A hand pressed into her shoulder. “I know you’ll be fine on your own, sister,” Touya encouraged, giving her a steely look. “You’ll find a way. You always have for me. For now, I’m asking you to do that one more time. Sorry for being selfish about this.”
Yumi tried to laugh as he held out a hand to help her up, but she couldn’t. He just said he was selfish. They both kind of were. That irony did little to ease her fears, however.
“I should go meet with Sanae. Her parents know, they just don’t know ours don’t.” Touya turned to walk away, and gave some parting words while glancing over his shoulder. “I’ll email you when I can. Bye.”
Goodbye. A pit rose in her stomach as a realization finally set in. As twins, Yumi and Touya grew up together. Until Sanae entered the picture, they were inseparable. They liked the same things, they watched the same things, and wherever one of them went, the other followed. He knew everything about her, and she knew everything about him. That was why Yumi was so surprised at herself for not seeing this sooner. Her brother was as worried about this journey as she was. He was acting too tough.
For now, Yumi could only watch helplessly as her brother left her, maybe for the last time. There was still a chance to turn this around. She could save Touya from this ill-conceived journey if she went and called their parents. If she did that, things between them would never be the same. If she let him go, the rest of her family would never see her the same way. Tonight, one way or another, her life was going to change forever.
This would not be the first time they would be observing a battle that involved Nori together. The first was his initial test with the Demon Nidorina. That was back in the infancy of their friendship, when he and his Pokemon were a pair that the gods had guided her to. Here they were a year and two months later. The circumstances had changed, yet it managed to invoke a feeling of nostalgia in the priestess.
That is, if he was not having second thoughts. “Father, are you ready to head out?” she called to him. “Maiden Kaede is waiting for us.”
There was no answer, not at first. The sound of footsteps in the hall shortly followed. Prema nodded at Priestess Satomi. She was there to assist.
“It’s now or never, Haruto,” their elder urged.
Prema took a small step forward. “Father, unless you see this Qwilfish with your own eyes, you will not be able to make a proper judgment,” she said, unsure where the words were coming from. Yet there they were in her heart and mind. “Furthermore, this may be your only chance to see her under the context of battle. In other words, you will be able to judge for yourself if she truly is cruel. It is…” While the words caught in her throat, she swallowed her hesitation away. “One of your responsibilities as Master of the Kannagi Shrine, Father. All people and Pokemon deserve a fair chance.”
Priestess Satomi flashed a radiant grin. “I couldn’t have said it better myself, Lady Kannagi.”
Prema could only turn away slightly. It was out of necessity. She was hardly proud of saying that.
“We won’t blame you if it’s too much, Haruto,” their mentor added. “But if you can’t bring yourself to do this, we only ask that you accept what we see.”
“I will only be a moment longer,” her father begrudged. Prema could hear the fatigue in his tone, and it weighed upon her heart.
“Soon, Father…” she whispered. This would all be over soon. After tonight, their lives would be back to normal.
##########
The day had come. Granted, Emi didn’t exactly give them a lot of time to react, which she had privately confirmed to him was part of her plan. At this point and after what Chad had said to the team yesterday, the general consensus had shifted to reluctant acceptance.
They had gathered to support their teammate. And on top of that, a good battle was about to happen. They all enjoyed watching those. The coach had been generous enough to arrange transportation to Mynwest Court. They were outside in the parking lot in front of the bus. The driver was taking his time getting ready.
Chad stepped in front of the group to address them: “Is everyone who wants to be here, um, here?”
There were some goodhearted laughs. No one spoke up, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kiara approaching.
“Ah, did you change your mind?” There was plenty of extra space on the bus.
She turned up her nose. “No, I wanted to say some things.”
The captain of the team raised a hand. “Could we not do this in public?”
“No, I want everyone to know!” Kiara stated. She balled her hands into fists and gave a tooth-filled scowl. “I think you’re giving her,” and with this she pointed accusingly at Emi, “WAY too much leeway. Plus you’re playing nice with the Demon Tamer. He’s why we’re in this damn mess!”
He shook his head. “Kiara, I told you my stance before. I am not going to stand in Emi’s way. It’s her decision to make.”
“Then goodbye!” Without a further word, she spun on her heels and stomped away. Chad frowned, only able to harden his heart.
“Stupid petty bitch,” Emi grumbled. It was all anyone initially had to say on the matter. Everyone else really wasn’t sure what to say, or from their expressions, tacitly agreed with Emi.
“We lost another member?” Aki finally asked, their voice and knees both quavering.
“We’ll give her time,” Chad said. He hoped that she simply needed to cool off. If she changed her mind, he was willing to welcome her back with open arms.
There was no further time to discuss it as a group, because the bus door opened. With a nod and gesture from their captain, the team started to board. Chad motioned for Emi to sit with him; she went to the back in response. After a pause, he followed. He wanted to talk. He supposed it didn’t matter where they spoke.
“Emi, two things,” he said as he was sitting down.
She leaned back and replied, “Yeah?”
Chad huffed. He knew she wasn’t going to like him saying this, but it needed to be said. “I still can’t shake the bad feeling I’m getting from this situation.”
Emi only stared back. She averted her eyes for a second. In a way, it was more distressing to him than an explosive or sarcastic reaction would have been. “Chad,” she started with a shake of her head. “It’s way too late to back out now. Especially on a hunch.”
Chad frowned. “I suppose not,” he relented. It would not reflect well to go through all this only to cancel at the last second. Especially with so many people looking forward to this. Chad was still amazed at how quickly the news spread. There were even likely several out-of-towners who had come by, and they wouldn’t take kindly to hearing the trip had been for nothing.
She leaned in a little. “For the record, what do you think this might be about? Like, what do you think’s going to come of this?”
He was forced to look away from her. “I’ve been trying to figure that out.” He wished he had the answer. He wished there was something to it besides his instincts talking. They often weren’t wrong.
“Did you feel that with Anthony?” she threw a suggestion forward with an open-palm gesture.
He leaned back and smiled at her. “What sane person wouldn’t think something bad was going to happen there?”
Emi snorted and rolled her eyes, giving him a smirk right back. At least they both could find their sense of humor at that moment.
“I don’t think it’s that,” he stated. A lot of other people thought that a Pokemon was going to walk away from this badly hurt, if not worse. But this felt different from before to Chad. “Do you ever get a hunch you can’t explain?”
“Yeah, I getcha.” She nodded. “I’m not going to worry about it too much. I’m ready for anything. His fans hating me, an unlikely injury, whatever.”
Chad shut his eyes. “I hope you can.” It was one thing to say that. It was another to follow through. He could only hope that their lives didn’t change too much tonight.
##########
This was it. There was no escape. In Yumi’s dream world, today would mark the start of something she had wanted for two months, and arguably for even longer than that. Instead, it was the end of everything she had known and cherished for fourteen years.
When the final bell rang out, that marked the death knell. What she wanted to do was meet with Nori, walk with him to Mynwest Court, get checked in, and be right by his side for the entire battle. Maybe that last part could still happen. It would be a ray of light on a dark day. Even that seemed folly; she wasn’t the girl he liked. The weight of reality had crashed down on her. It was like she had been body slammed and paralyzed.
What should she do? What could she even do? These two questions burned in her mind hotter than a Magcargo. There were what felt like a dozen others, and all of them had no answers.
“Ms. Takao?”
She jerked upright, her vision unblurring and revealing that most of her peers had already left.
“Is everything all right?”
“No, it’s nothing.” A part of her thought to tell her homeroom teacher. But this was between family. It should be settled between them. “Thanks for your concern.”
With this, Yumi picked herself up and hurried to the front of the school. The cold air assaulted her as she burst through the doors and craned her head around looking for mom’s car. No, it wasn’t in plain sight. Was dad’s? She ran forward, trying to scour the parking lot for either a blue Rondo Civic or a red Suzaku Alto. No sign of either. Grandpa’s van? It was a boxy white behemoth big enough to fit the entire household into. She would have seen it right away, but Yumi still could not help but check to see if someone had come to escort them after all. Her hopes scattered like a Drifloon on a windy day upon seeing none of those vehicles.
She stood with her head hung low. What now? What could she do now?
“Yumi.”
Her skin crawled as a monotonous yet low voice called to her from behind. She slowly turned around to find her brother standing there. He was scowling intently, his face was redder than a Charmeleon, and quite literally shaking with rage.
“You were talking with mom last night to drive us to the place and back.” Yumi glanced aside at the accusation. Touya started shouting. “I thought I could trust you with this! You know how long we’ve been planning this and how we were waiting for just the right moment! And you tried to screw it up!”
Everyone was noticing their argument. She yanked him into a huddle. “I was trying to stop you from making the biggest mistake of your life, Touya,” she rasped, trying to fight off tears. She couldn’t get over that fact. No matter what happened, she couldn’t get past it! She wanted to stop him without telling their parents what he was doing!
“You’re making a mistake, Yumi,” Touya growled. “Our parents want to control everything we do! I can’t stay here. We can’t stay here. We need to draw a line in the sand with them the only way we can.”
“You know that isn’t true, Touya!” she cried, tugging at her hair. An ache rose in her throat as she breathed in and out heavily. “Our parents love us.”
Touya curled his lip and shook his head vehemently. “It will be true soon enough if I know where things are going. I’m not going to take that chance. It’s now or never to do this. And if I’m wrong and they really do love us like you say, they’ll welcome me when I get back. I’ll make it up to you when I do. I don’t know how. I just promise I will.” With that, her brother looked her square in the eyes. “Don’t ruin this for me, Yumi,” he warned. “Do not try to screw this up again. I will never forgive you if you do.”
Yumi nearly crumpled, and would have had Touya not been there to grab onto for support. She wanted to believe that he was right. Maybe he was right about their parents welcoming him back. Yet that voice in her mind was screaming, no!
Still grasping at his jacket, she looked up. Tears streamed down her eyes, feeling like they were about to freeze in the chilly air. “You haven’t even tried asking mom and dad about this! They might say yes! At least give them the chance! Please, Touya! That’s all I’ll ask!”
He firmly brushed her away. His brow was excessively furrowed. “I’m not going to take that risk. There’s a saying.”
She blinked at his expression, then lowered her head. “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.” And more than likely, trying to do it anyway.
Yumi wanted to argue. Yet it made some sense. If their parents knew he wanted to plan a journey, they might go far enough to make sure he didn’t try to sneak off. The truth was, she didn’t know how they would take this. Neither of them had ever done anything like this in their lives. But what if she was right and the worst happened?!
She sniveled, unable to hold back her crying any longer. “Touya, what about me? What about…” Her voice shook, and her legs finally gave out. She fell to her knees and sobbed into her hands.
Maybe she was being selfish. Yumi was deathly afraid, not for Touya, but for herself. How was she supposed to move on from this?! Would she even be able to? What if her parents really did take it out on her? What if she was right?
A hand pressed into her shoulder. “I know you’ll be fine on your own, sister,” Touya encouraged, giving her a steely look. “You’ll find a way. You always have for me. For now, I’m asking you to do that one more time. Sorry for being selfish about this.”
Yumi tried to laugh as he held out a hand to help her up, but she couldn’t. He just said he was selfish. They both kind of were. That irony did little to ease her fears, however.
“I should go meet with Sanae. Her parents know, they just don’t know ours don’t.” Touya turned to walk away, and gave some parting words while glancing over his shoulder. “I’ll email you when I can. Bye.”
Goodbye. A pit rose in her stomach as a realization finally set in. As twins, Yumi and Touya grew up together. Until Sanae entered the picture, they were inseparable. They liked the same things, they watched the same things, and wherever one of them went, the other followed. He knew everything about her, and she knew everything about him. That was why Yumi was so surprised at herself for not seeing this sooner. Her brother was as worried about this journey as she was. He was acting too tough.
For now, Yumi could only watch helplessly as her brother left her, maybe for the last time. There was still a chance to turn this around. She could save Touya from this ill-conceived journey if she went and called their parents. If she did that, things between them would never be the same. If she let him go, the rest of her family would never see her the same way. Tonight, one way or another, her life was going to change forever.
Last edited: