Destiny [Pokémon]

❥ chapter XII

"Hm ... That idea actually is not as absurd as it seems," May mumbled, pondering. She seemed much calmer and more collected than Alex, but the sparkle in her blue eyes told you that she was zestful all the same. "I think she might be right. Encounters with Legendary Pokémon are always meaningful to some extent, aren't they?"

"I think so too. The most obvious explanation for Ho-Oh appearing before you is, in my opinion, that it blessed you. That's what the legends say, anyway. Like Kristie said before, it's rumoured that the ones who see Ho-Oh are promised eternal happiness," Lina said, and Kriste nodded along to her sentence.

"But it's also said that it only shows itself to pure-hearted Trainers, and the thing is that I wasn't a Trainer at that moment," you pointed out.

Not having let go of your arm once, Alex gripped it even tighter and shook you a little as her excitement grew and grew with every puzzle piece that fell into place (in her eyes, at least). "That was the prediction! You became a Trainer after that encounter! And we all know that you're pure-hearted, so it all makes sense now, right? Right?!"

You let out a long, thoughtful hum. Your mind was reeling, once more trying to make sense of this all, now with the help of your friends. And what Alex had said indeed sounded somewhat plausible. Better than nothing, at least. "Perhaps, yeah."

"Now all you've got to do is to go out there, live up to Ho-Oh's blessing, and find the eternal happiness it promised!" Kristie cheered you on, a bright smile stretched across her lips.

"Blessed by Ho-Oh, huh?" As you spoke those words, kind of liking the way they rolled off your tongue, a dreamy grin appeared on your face. "That'd be cool."

"I know, right?"

While your friends (including Katy) started gushing about how awesome it would be if Ho-Oh really had blessed you, you couldn't help but sink back into your pensive state. Grin faltering, you mumbled more to yourself than to your friends in a nearly inaudible whisper, "But still, why me?"

You knew very well that your friends couldn't give you an answer to this question. After all, they knew as much as you—and that was, frankly, nothing. All of this talk up until now had been nothing but speculations, theories, and assumptions without any kind of solid proof. You knew nothing for sure. But still, why you? Even if all of this was true and Ho-Oh had indeed chosen you, blessed you, declared you as a pure-hearted Trainer, promised you eternal happiness, left you one of its feathers ...

Why you, of all people?

As you felt yet another headache slowly coming up, you raised one of your hands to your face, the other still holding onto your PokéNav Plus, to massage your temples by turns and soothe the dull pain pulsating inside your skull. You had long stopped paying attention to the lively conversation of your friends, not even listening with half an ear, and went over to blankly staring ahead.

Ever since Ho-Oh had shown up, your (more or less) normal life had been turned completely upside down. The two Ralts, witnesses to the Legendary Pokémon's appearance, had decided to become a part of your Pokémon Party, you had decided to set out for a Pokémon journey ... And during all of this, you had been repeatedly pestered by headaches because you had been—and still were—trying to find out the reason for and meaning of everything. You were about ready to grasp at any straw and consider every possible explanation there was as long as it sounded somewhat logical.

So, what was the reason why Ho-Oh had appeared before you? You had been the only one to see it, and it had even approached you as though it wanted something from you ...

Could it be that this had something to do with your special talent? Was there some kind of connection perhaps? You didn't want to sound conceited or something along those lines, but you knew that, with that ability of yours, you were special—one of a kind even, since you hadn't heard of another person having the same ability before. Was it possible that Ho-Oh had chosen you because of this ability to understand and talk with Pokémon?

Maybe your parents and friends had been right all along. Maybe Ho-Oh had specifically revealed itself to you because it wanted you to leave your home and embark on a journey, because there was a specific Pokémon it wanted you to talk to. That made sense (at least a little), didn't it ...?

You were so absorbed in thought, trying to come up with an explanation for yesterday's incident that wasn't utterly ridiculous, that you failed to notice Raleia and Rineis trying to get your attention by tugging at your shirt and waving their little hands in front of your face. What you didn't fail to notice, however, was someone shaking you by the shoulder.

"Are you listening? [Nickname]! Hey, listen!" Alex shouted. "Yoo-hoo, Earth to [Nickname]!"

You blinked, once, twice, your eyes coming into focus again after having been staring into space for Arceus knew how long. A small, confused "Huh?" escaped your lips. But when you looked around and saw the worried faces of your friends and Pokémon, you quickly realized that you had just went and zoned out on them.

"Seems like she's with us again," Lina noted.

"Oh. Um ..." You cracked an embarrassed smile, scratching the back of your neck. "Sorry about that," you said and coughed awkwardly. "I didn't mean to ignore you."

A crooked grin tugged at one corner of May's mouth. "Well, we sure hope so."

"Is everything alright?" Raleia asked. Standing on your thighs, she and her brother were studying your face just like your four friends, concern evident in all their eyes.

"W-We could sense y-you getting w-worked up about s-something ..."

"What happened?" Kristie asked. "We tried to get your attention several times, but you just didn't react. You had us really worried for a second there, [Nickname]."

"I'm sorry. I got lost in thought," you answered truthfully, shaking your head to rid yourself of said lingering thoughts.

"What's bothering you so much that you zone out completely?"

Hearing Katy's voice reminded you that she was still there, and you realized with a sense of relief washing over you that she hadn't hung up while you had been engrossed in thought. It also made you aware of the fact that your PokéNav Plus was not only facing away from you, but also loosely hanging from your hand and threatening to fall onto the ground at any moment—cue a cold sensation zapping down your spine—your grasp on it dangerously lax. You hastily fixed that by properly pointing it at your friends and you again.

Katy uttered a quick, but genuine "Thanks" when her PokéNav's screen showed you again and not the landscape opposing the bench you were still sitting on turned upside down. "It's the whole deal with Ho-Oh, isn't it?" she then asked while trying to get a good look at you.

Forking a hand through your hair, you heaved a sigh. "Yeah. I just can't stop thinking about it. I know nothing really for sure. There are still so many open questions, and they keep bugging me. Not knowing anything like this is too hard for me to bear."

"Too bad you couldn't ask Ho-Oh yourself," Lina mumbled.

"Yeah, that surely would've saved me some headaches," you groaned, leaning back on the bench and closing your eyes as you rubbed over your forehead.

"Well, whatever meaning your encounter with Ho-Oh has," May spoke up, causing you to open your eyes again and look over at her to see her smiling reassuringly at you, "I'm sure it's a good one."

"If the legends are true, you've been granted eternal happiness," Katy remarked, grinning. "You should make the best out of that and not waste your time questioning the reason for this encounter, don't you think so too?"