HOME | DD

Description
CHAPTER 14-2: LOOKING INTO AN INVISIBLE MIRROR__________

Kinichi:

Everywhere I went I was surrounded by flames. I could feel the heat coming off of the rock walls surrounding me (or maybe that was the fire again?) at every turn. Nothing was chasing me, that's not why I was running. I was running because I didn't want to get engulfed in the fire and die. Why this would be my subconscious is anyone's guess, but I don't like it. There was only one trail to follow in this volcano-looking place, so that was the trail I followed. The space between the walls is large. I could fit a row if three of me with my wings fully extended and with every corner it seemed to get larger. Of course, there was also a lot more fire, so more of a chance to get burned the farther I got, but I wouldn't stop following this trail. Maybe I wasn't running from the fire, but to something? But what would I be looking for in my subconscious.
Duh! I thought to myself, the telepathy skill! With confidence I kept going to the ability that was undoubtedly at the end of this trail. I charged full speed ahead and found a huge wall of fire blocking the way. I didn't slow. I ran even faster towards the flames. I was a fire-type, fire should not affect me at all. I passed through the flames and instead of just a wall, it was an entire hallway full of fire. I still didn't slow, however. I knew that this should be no problem.

Monferno:

I was inside a huge building made of a weird material that I have never seen before. In this building are these hollow towers of wood filled with books. I think one one of my friends explained these buildings to me. I think it was Ken. He said that these buildings were called libraries. I picked a random book titled “humans part X” and flipped through it. It explained the history of the human race from the years 1000 A.D. To 1500 A.D. I went to another book, part 50, and this one explained the humans in the current day, how they are all separated and their cultures are so different from each other. This was something that was never explained to me about humans (that and some other irrelevant things). Saori said that they all came from Japan, a country in the continent Asia. In total, according to a map, there were 7 continents, each with their own subsections called countries and some of those countries were separated further, like the U.S, which was separated into separate territories called “states.” I couldn't believe the difference in lives between the humans and pokemon. Us pokemon did live separately, but only a few pokemon claimed territories and that usually had something to do with a certain blood-line, so it was their rightful place. Other than that, we all lived together, with all of the conflicts that went with it. It doesn't seem like the ideal living style, but it works. Ken, Kinichi, and Saori don't seem like the people who would agree with all of this separation. They immediately adapted to the new living and lived their normal lives here instead of the human world (except for saving the world, of course). This was probably a touchy subject that not even they would know much about. I kept randomly walking through the library, picking up books as I went and skimmed them. I learned a lot of human history and the different ways they all live. There were even books specifically on certain countries an hobbies. I eventually came upon a book that was mostly blank with no title. A few pages into it was writing and then the next page caught me by surprise. The book was being written right now, recording the everyday events in Japan. It was talking about how Ken and Kinichi's parents were worried about them since they have not come home in a few days. I knew there was a huge time difference between here and there, but it has been quite a few months since Kinichi first arrived.
I put the book away and heard a voice behind me. I jumped and turned to see a human in front of me. I was shocked to see a human in my subconscious and before I could talk, he repeated himself.
“I said 'hi!'” the human said to me.
“Who are you?” I asked, very suspicious.
“I'm you, of course.”
“What? I'm a pokemon! You're a human! You can't be me!”
“Yes I can, I'm you as a human.”
“When did I get a human half?”
“When Saori, Ken, and Kinichi gave parts of their human spirit to you. When that happened, I was born.” He was tall and lean with a decent build. He had flame-red hair that spiked up and towards the back. It was red at the tips, orange in the middle and a lighter red at the bottom. It looked like his head was on fire, but it looked very cool. He was wearing a piece of cloth on his mid-section that covered his stomach, his back, and his shoulders, its color was randomly placed colors of fire in a style that Kinichi explained to me called tie-dying, where you dip shirts in colored water and they come out in very cool and sometimes unexpected ways. The shirt cut off at just above the jeans, which were placed exactly on the waist and ran down to the bottom of my shins and the ends were folded up. I was bare-foot. I guess even human-me can't completely let go of the pokemon inside him.
“So do you have or know what I'm looking for?” I asked hopefully.”
“Yes I do, actually. Just come here and stay still no matter what.” I did as I was told and stood right in front of him. I could feel his breath on me as he bent down and fell forward. A warm sensation filled me in my heart and the library vanished to be replaced by a lab-looking place with nothing but four containers and a small pedestal in the middle. Two of the containers were open and when the warm in my heart disappeared my container opened and I stepped out. After a few minutes, I started to hear some voices. At first it was just one, but then another one started and they were talking to each other. I couldn't hear it too well, but there were talking about accomplishing something. They sounded familiar. One was a boy's voice and the other a girl's. I knew who they were. Ken and Saori had figured out how to use telepathy and were talking to each other.
I concentrated hard and before long was in a black space with a single beam of light traveling the floor ahead of me. I followed it, calmly walking towards my friends, letting them hear my footsteps and know that I was here. I saw them a little away ahead, but they heard me and Ken was confident that he knew who it was that was approaching them.
“I guess it is finally time to see you as a human.” Ken said to me as we could see each other clearly. I looked down and realized that I was a human. My bare feet were replacing my paws and my flame-hair was on my head instead of my curly point. Everything was there, my shirt, the jeans, the build, everything. I looked up to reply.
“Yup.” I said with a smile. “Is this what you two look like as humans, too?”
“You guessed it.” Saori said. Her black hair was all the way down her body. That was the most noticeable part for me.
“Your hair is very long.” I blurted out without thinking. She laughed and smiled at my embarrassment.
“I like it like this. I'm not one for being a girly-girl, but it is entertaining to brush it every morning. How does it feel to be walking with human feet?”
“Not too different. At least I was already walking on two feet instead of pokemon with four or no feat. I probably wouldn't have made it here if that were the case.”
“In case you didn't know,” Ken came in, “I think the pedestal is for clearly connecting us and taking us out of our subconsciouses.”
“I figured that. Have you guys seen Kinichi? I don't think she made it out yet. Her container is still closed.”
“I haven't seen her.” Saori said without worry. “But knowing her, it will be obvious when she does get out. There should be another trail of light in here leading to her when she gets out.”
“Good point.” I said, worry leaving me. As if on Que, a streak of light on the floor slowly stretched into the darkness and disappeared out of sight. “She's here.”
I heard footsteps echoing through the black, never ending. A figure started coming into view. The footsteps started becoming clearer and clearer as Kinichi approached. She saw us all and ran towards us with a huge grin on her face.
“You guys wouldn't believe what my subconscious was! It was incredible! Scary, but incredible!”
“Let me guess,” said Saori playing along, “it probably has something to do with your fiery personality so I would say someplace full of fire?”
“Oh my god!” Kinichi said flabbergasted, “How could you have guessed so quickly? You just destroyed my happy spirits Saori! Thanks a lot!” she huffed and turned with her arms crossed. Saori giggled to herself and we explained to Kinichi what to do. “Is that what that's for?”
“Yup and once we do that we should all be out of here in no time.” Ken said confidently.
“Then lets do it, to it!” Kinichi froze and started walking again and stopped. When she did her hair and cloths started gently fluttering and rising up. I disconnected from them, without first waving goodbye, and stepped on the small pedestal in the middle of the science-y lab environment and my cloths and hair started to do the same as Kinichi's. I felt a rush as the pedestal glowed under me and sent a weird form of energy up through me. About 30 seconds later, a blinding light covered my eyes and I felt a sudden pull of gravity as I entered my pokemon body. I opened my eyes and there was everyone else, on top of Temporal Tower: Saori, Kinichi, Ken and Dialga.
“YOU ALL HAVE DONE WELL SO FAR. YOU HAVE GONE FARTHER THAN MOST POKEMON CAN EVER GO. SURPASSED MANY CHALLENGES AND DIFFICULTIES, BEEN THROUGH EVERYTHING FROM EPIC FIGHTS TO BETRAYALS TO INTERDIMENSIONAL TRAVELS. THIS STORY WILL BE TOLD BY ALL FOR MANY GENERATIONS.” Dialga was giving another speech. This one almost sounded like a goodbye, though. “YOUR STORY IS NOT OVER YET, HOWEVER. YOU KNOW, OF COURSE, THAT YOU STILL HAVE YET TO DEFEATE PALKIA AND FIND OUT WHAY HE STARTED THIS MADNESS. THERE IS A CATCH, UNFORTUNATLY, AND YOU MAY NOT LIKE HEARING IT SAORI.”
“What do you mean Dialga?” Saori asked confused.
“I MEAN THAT THERE IS A CHANCE THAT DARKRAI IS ALIVE.”
“How can that be?!” Saori jumped up with shock and grew suddenly angry. “I drove him through the tower and into the ground! There's no way he lived!”
“THAT IS JUST IT, THOUGH. THAT WAS PROBABLY NOT THE REAL DARKRAI YOU FOUGHT, BUT A CLONE. I THOUGHT IT WAS SUSPICIOUS THAT THE POWERFUL AND LEGENDARY DARKRAI BE TAKEN DOWN SO EASILY. THEN THIS HAPPENED. PALKIA IS ACTING STRANGLY MUCH LIKE I DID WHEN DARKRAI POSESSED ME. THAT IS MY REASONING.”
Dialga was right, Saori didn't like hearing this news. She fought a hard a while ago, taking out Darkrai and saving the pokemon world, only to find out month's later that the Darkrai she fought was merely a clone, in which case the main real Drakrai was much, much stronger than the clone Saori fought. I may be getting cocky, but I wasn't worrying very much, not as much as I should be. Saori beat a clone Darkrai by herself when she was a prinplup. Now, she is an empoleon and each of us has gotten tons stronger since then, on top of the fact that Saori won't be facing Darkrai alone this time. Again, I may just be getting over-confident, but we should have little to no problem taking out Darkrai.
As if he read my mind, Dialga responded to my over-confidence.
“GRANTED YOU ALL HAVE GOTTEN MUCH STRONGER THAN DRAKRAI AND ASSUMING ALL FOUR OF YOU BATTLE THIS TIME, YOU STAND A CHANCE AGAINST DARKRAI. THAT'S JUST IT, THOUGH. DARKRAI IS MORE THAN TENFOLD THE SRENGTH OF THE CLONE. UNLESS SOMETHING CHANGES DRAMATICALLY FROM THEN AND NOW, U ONLY STAND A CHANCE AGAINST HIM.”
“I'm not worried.” I stood up with my hand in a fist raised in a confident pose in front of my face, “We got this far working together. Suffered through our worst fears and nightmares, helping each other when we were down. I have total confidence in us. Mostly because if we don't have faith, then the rest of the world doesn't either. If we are the only ones who can beat Darkrai, then we will, no matter what.”
Kinichi looks at me and scoffs. “That was the cheesiest speech I've ever heard!” she stood up, too, and smiles the same grin I have on my face. “But you're right! We can and will beat Darkrai once and for all!” Kinichi looked at Saori, who never sat back down, and gave Saori that best-friend-we-can-do-this look that perks Saori right up and Ken stand up, mirroring everyone else's confidence. He also had a cautious look, like we still need to be careful and think before doing anything.
“VERY WELL.” Dialga said, knowing he can't stop us from going right now. “I CAN ONLY TAKE YOU BACK TO TOWN. FROM THERE, GO NORTH AND HEAD FOR THE MOUNTAIN CALLED MT. RIFF. STRAIGHT FROM THERE IS A GIANT MEADOW WHERE PALKIA WAS LAST SEEN. IF HE IS STILL THERE, THAT'S WHERE YOU MUST FIGHT HIM. I SINCERELY HOPE YOU WILL PREVAIL.”
“Have a little more faith in us, Dialga!” Kinichi said in her can-do attitude.
Dialga smiled and focused his power to form yet another portal behind us. On the other side, which you could see clearly, was the remains of the town across the sea from here. “GO IN AND MEET YOUR DESTINY.” Kinichi jumped in first, then Ken poked his head through, first, and walked through it. I was about to follow, but Saori stood where she was and looked at Dialga as if she was going to ask a question she almost didn't want the answer to. I decided that she would catch up when she could and went through the portal to town.