Shattered Dreams

Fading Memories

As night engulfs, the sun descends down the horizon of the Blueberry Academy. Many students gathered near the arena, exhillirated to see a clash between champions. A battle long awaited.

Juliana looked to the other side of the battlefield with a heavy heart. An empty hole in her heart as she gazed the once sweet and innocent boy. Kieran...

"I-I don't want to fight you. Please..." She pleaded.

Kieran looked at Juliana with an icy look. His whole body was shaking, a faint glimmer of tears running down his face.

"I worked so hard to show you what I can really do, Juliana."

"I put everything into studying and making my pokémon stronger..." Kieran kept his gaze down, not wanting to even look at her. Her sister, Carmine, looks at him in worry. "Kiki, what happened to you..." She whispered underneath her breath.

"I crushed the elite 4 here and became champion.. All of that hard work.. All of it.. just so that I could beat you-right here, right now!" Kieran yelled as he glared Juliana down.

Carmine knew something was wrong with Kieran. He'd never yelled like that before. He had always been a shy and quiet boy. What caused him to change so drastically?

Looking down at the ground, the boy curled his fists. Yelling again, louder this time:

"I WON'T LOSE!"

"Kiki..." Her sister looked at him with worry. It's true she'd been rough with him, quite a bit, in fact. But she never thought that it had hurt him this badly. She did this to take protect him, or so she thought. If only... if only she'd known sooner, maybe...

"Kieran... I-I'm sorry, I-I didn't mean to hurt you. I-I didn't mean to take Ogerpon from you..." A tear went down Juliana face. She didn't want this. She didn't even mean for any of this to happen.

Seeing Juliana cry and looking genuinely sorry made him a bit upset. There was a reason she did these things. She was protecting him. Kieran couldn't help but think back to Carmines constant abuse towards him and comparing their actions.

This battle was tearing Kieran apart. He wanted to keep battling, but he couldn't help but see Juliana as another Carmine.

How did things wound up like this... Juliana was his first real friend, all of those memories... spending time together... was it all... did she...

"I-I won't lose... I know I'm making the right choice.. you'll see soon enough, " the boy whispered to himself as he sent out his pokémon. Looking back, he hoped this was all just a bad dream.

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Two months ago, Kitakami

"H-hey, uhm… Juliana, what are you doing?"

"Ouh, I was just looking at these. I never seen anything like this in Paldea,” Juliana commented on the candy apple Kieran had bought for her. The apple had this beautiful red coat of candy covering it that just glistened with the festival lighting. Kieran watched her eyes lit up with joy as she took a bite of the sweet treat. Juliana placed a hand against her cheek, “Mmm! It’s pretty sweet mixed with the tartness of that apple!”

He lightly giggled. It was... cute seeing her like this. He gets a warm feeling inside of him when he sees her looking happy and is glad that he could be the one to make her smile.

“Y...Yeah! They’re pretty tasty, I don’t get the chance to eat them often either.” Kieran smiled, taking a bite of the candied apple that tasted exactly as she described it. "I usually eat the mochi my grandma makes for me and my sister."