Fu-chan: Nyehh... thank you. ^^; [Don't mean to sound rude or anythng... but it's really hard to read the small letters and purple ness. ^^;]
OCDUDE: I think so... XD I don't really know. It was an accident!
Grovyle42(Griff4815): It stands for 'it is' in Japanese. There's an odd reason why Ichigo says it, and you have to keep reading to find out why. ^^;
Chapter four at last. I know it's in past tense now, but it's because it's a flashback. Please enjoy...
Chapter 4
The Blue Orb
- Flashback -
She was only eleven years old. There, standing in an eerie grey fog graveyard full of dead Pokemons’ graves, stood Ichigo holding the one powerful orb able to control Kyogre. She looked at the swirling figures swimming around with amazed eyes. Not a Buizel nor a Pachirisu were with at her side. The only presence around her were the invisible haunting spirits of Pokemon and the terrifying cries Honchcrow and Murcrow in the nearby willow trees. The surrounding atmosphere was deep and grey, making it hard to make out objects far away. There was a strange rancid smell floating around graveyard as the cool breeze blew along. Depressing as her surroundings were, Ichigo, however, was not afraid. It was the last thing on her mind at the moment while holding the blue sphere in her hand. She didn’t seem to care that she was alone, surrounded by death; almost as if it was hypnotizing her.
Shaking with enthusiasm, she suddenly jerked and and blinked again, looking around through the fog. For the passed few minutes, she was staring into that blue orb like a lifeless zombie, breathing but not blinking. She snapped out her motionlessness and looked at all the graves, now remembering she’s supposed to be scared. She whimpered as she blindly backs up. She bumps into a something large, quickly she turned around to it to see a rat-shaped statue over the grave with its razor fangs pointed towards her. By only taking one glance at it, she started to panic, scream and run to nowhere. At a place like this, unless there is nothing there to distract her, Ichigo is a very easily sacred girl. As the younger little Ichigo panicked, running around the yard with the orb in her hands, dodging graves in the ground everywhere, a male voice pierced through the gloomy atmosphere.
“Ichigo!” he called. Ichigo dropped to her knees and the orb falls to the ground.
“Aaaah! A ghost, desu!” she screamed, though her pallor was making her look much like a ghost herself. As Ichigo cowered in fear with her hands over her head and the orb by her neck, two human figures emerge from the fog – a male and a female.
“Ichigo! What’re you doing?” asked the male voice. He bent down to the girl in pain and took the blue orb in one hand and touched her shoulder with the other. Ichigo tried calming down after hearing his voice and recognizing it.
Breathing heavily, she whispered: “Tate...?” and kept her eyes closed. Tate sighed.
“Ichigo, get up. There are no ghosts here...” he stood up with the shivering Ichigo clinging to his feet and holding the blue orb in his had.
~Tate and his identical sister Liza, own the Pokemon Gym in Mossdeep City, Hoenn. Pokemon Gyms are almost like Contests, but instead of the Grand Festival, trainers compete for the Pokemon League. They need eight badges from all the gym leaders in their rigion in order to attend. Trainers enter the gym and battle the gym leader–or in Tate and Liza’s case, gym leaders –for badges instead of ribbons. The battles are time-limitless and can go on longer than five minutes until one side loses. Most Gym leaders use a three on three challenge, but in Liza and Tate’s style, they use four Pokemon; two pairs of Pokemon for double battles.
Liza and Tate, the two identical siblings look so alike, if Tate didn’t talk, people would often mistake him for a girl. Like his sister, he wears his dark blue hair in a ponytail with a frilly white bow. The only difference between their hair styles is Liza’s longer hair. The two wear identical clothes as well, a light blue long sleeve shirt and long blue pants, almost looking like pajamas.
The twins and Ichigo used to hang out together on Mossdeep when Ichigo lived there. On this day, Liza and Tate took Ichigo on their boat to go Wailmer watching out in the sea for fun. Their fun disappeared when Liza spotted a strange helicopter headed towards west of Lilycove, a neighbor island to Mossdeep. That moment, she knew the helicopter belonged to a bunch of thugs called Team Aqua. She knew that Team Aqua was going to Mt. Pyre–a place not too far from Lilycove–to steal one of the two orbs. The three got there a little late to stop them, as soon as they arrived, a big, bulky, powerful hyena Pokemon, Mightyena, jumped down from the mountains with a blue orb in its mouth. It dropped the orb from the bump of the jump and lost itself in the thick fog. Ichigo was separated from the twins while they were stuck with the Mightyena. Ichigo found the orb at her feet and realized what it was as soon as she saw it.~
Still cowering in fear, Ichigo whimpered: “Tate...”
Slowly opening her eyes and moving her legs, she got up and sat kneeling near Tate’s feet and looked up to him with an innocent face.
“I thought I heard a ghost, desu,” she said quietly to him. Tate groaned and replied:
“That was no ghost Ichigo, that was me calling your name!”
Relieved, Ichigo smiled and giggled a little. She got off her feet and brushed her grass stained jeans and looked around for the ord at her feet.
“I’m afraid of ghosts, desu...” she said, chuckling nervously. “They’re so creepy and mysterious. I never saw one, but if I ever did, I bet I would...”
“Okay, Ichigo!” yelled Tate. His voice sent echos through the mountains. He grabbed Ichigo’s hands with one of his and looked into her eyes. Sparking like rubies they were, she looked back into his eyes with her face turning red. Tate kept staring with a serious look while holding the orb in his other hand. The more the two stared at each other, the more Ichigo got nervous and her eye twitched.
“Ichigo,” Tate was saying. “I need to ask you something very important.” Ichigo’s knees started to spaz and she faintly started to fall over. Tate groans and pushes her back up with his shoulder.
“Urgh, you freaking...” mumbled Tate. Ichigo looked up to him with another innocent face, this time burning red, and replied with her eyes sparkling:
“Yes, I’ll go on a date with you, desu.”
“WHAT?!” yelled Tate. “NO! I mean... here!” he turned around and smacked the blue orb in Ichigo’s open hand.
“Ow!” she cried, looking at the sphere in her palm. Tate faced away from the girl in her stupid mode, turning towards his sister Liza who had been listening and watching for the passed few seconds. He looked to her, sighed, and shook his head while pointing a gun to his head with his fingers.
“This is a risk I’m willing... well, Ichigo is ought to be taking...” quietly said Tate.
“We can trust her,” Liza told him. “She’s a very trustworthy friend. Sometimes...”
Before Ichigo had time to be hypnotized by the orb again, she just looked to it to see if it were real. The Blue Orb...able to control the mythical beast Kyogre, the ability to raise waters, summon storms, dangerous floods, and pouring rain. The holder of the Blue orb is able to calm and tame the monster, if lucky, even to catch it. Ichigo’s dream of catching Kyogre was already in reach with the orb in her hands... all she needed to do was find a Pokeball and the Pokemon.
“Kyogre...” Ichigo said quietly, holding up the orb to her eye. Tate turned back around to Ichigo, looked to her in the eyes and said:
“Be very careful with that.” He didn’t care that the girl wasn’t even looking at him. “That’s the Blue Orb. That thing is what Team Aqua is looking for.”
“This is... this is really it, desu? This is really real? Th-the Blue Orb, de...?” Ichigo asked, starting to shake of excitement.
“Yes it is Ichigo, the important thing I needed to ask you was...” Tate was saying. He paused and looked away from Ichigo’s ruby eyes over to his sister again. Liza sent him a ‘yes’ mouthing the word. Tate sighed and looked back to Ichigo, but this time, the girl had a rather sad expression while still holding the Blue Orb to her chest. She could’ve been disappointed about Tate not wanting to go on a date with her.
“Can you watch this please?” asked Tate. “Can you take the orb and protect it from others while we stop Team Aqua? It’s a big responsibility and all, but Liza and I think we can trust you.” Ichigo’s sad expression vanished instantly and turned into a very surprised one.
“Really...? I’m okay to watch this, desu?” she asked with her high pitched voice breaking.
“Yeah. We know how much you love Kyogre, and for the brief amount of time you have with this orb, you’ll be closer to it than you’ll probably ever be. But, it’s not meant to be fooled around with. The powers it possesses could take over one’s mind.” explained Tate. Ichigo’s wide excited eyes started to turn glassy after she heard Tate speak.
“Tate...” she whimpered. Tate watched a tear roll down Ichigo’s soft cheek from her right eye. Calmly, he smiled and sighed, putting his hand on Ichigo’s shoulder.
“Trust is probably the best quality you can find in a friend.” he told her. “And Lady Ichigo, you are a good friend.” More tears started falling from her eyes after hearing this.
“Aaah, desu!” she squealed, tackle hugging the poor Gym Leader to the ground and crying on his chest. She held a lump in her throat and replied: “You’re a good friend too, desu...” Tate sat up immediately and pat Ichigo’s head, and Ichigo responded back to hugging him. Tate winced the moment she hugged him, but she was very gentle. Tate slowly blushed and hugged her back, not even caring his sister was still watching.
“Aww, look how cute they are! I knew Ichigo would someday show her affections to Tate. I better not disturb them.” Liza thought, showing off a big grin. “Wait...” she said out loud. “Hey, wait, I’m her friend too, I want hugs!” Liza started running towards them with her arms open for a hug. “Hey, give me some love t...”
“Migh-yaaa!” A harsh growling sound blared through the silence, the big black hyena Pokemon appeared again. It jumped in between the two huggers and Liza.
“Oh my God... Tate!” yelled Liza. Another figure appeared from the fog, a human shape.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” asked the human figure. The voice was definitely feminine, and then it was revealed she was female once she stepped out of the fog. She stepped in wearing a blue bandana on her head, blue baggy pants and a short striped shirt. Her hair was down, a light purple color, and neatly cut to her shoulders. The color of her eyes seemed to be the same color as the grey fog.
“You have something we want, don’t you?” she asked in a stern voice. Tate instantly let go of Ichigo and got up to tell the woman:
“We have no idea what you’re talking about.”
The Aqua girl scoffs and lowers her head. “The orb fell right around here. It couldn’t have gone anywhere far, my Mightyena sniffed it out.” she was saying. Mightyena growled. “We know one of you twins have it, so cough it up.”
Ichigo quickly got up and hid behind the two Gym Leaders while hiding the Blue Orb in her sleeves. She wiped tears away from her eyes and held the orb chose to her chest, making herself look like a innocent, scared, little girl lost in the graveyard.
Tate looked to Liza and glances to Ichigo and back.
“It’s obviously not here,” he said. The Aqua Lady grunts.
“What am I to do? Do I need to battle you two to get what I want?”
“Look, lady,” Liza spoke up. “We all ready told you we don’t have it. If we’ve seen it, we wouldn’t lie.”
“Oh, but she is lying, desu” thought Ichigo. Liza turned her head to Ichigo and gave her an angry look while holding her fingers to her lips. Ichigo had forgotten that Liza and Tate could read minds.
The Aqua girl started to grit her teeth. “Liar!” she yelled. “Kids these days, they seem to get away with everything no matter what. You should respect adults! This is serious business kids, give it here!” As the Aqua lady’s voice rose, Tate kept getting more nervous.
“It’s not going well...” he thought as he gulped. “Liza, should we,”
“I think so, Tate.” responded Liza in her head. The two were communicating through their minds.
“Stop standing around! Aurrgh... if you’re not doing what I tell you, I’m... er... Mightyena, Shadow Ball!” yelled the Aqua Girl.
“Migh!” the big dark Pokemon howled, opening its jaws and summoned a large purple ball. The ball shot straight at the ground in between the twins.
“Whoa!” Liza cried. Her and her brother jumped to opposite sides, dodging the Shadow Ball attack while a puff of dirt explodes around them. Liza landed on her hands and knees as Tate painfully landed on his right arm. He got up quickly and looked around for Ichigo through the fog and dust. Struggling to get up, he caught her with the corner of his eye and called Ichigo’s name. Ichigo heard him, but she kept still like a deer in front of a car. Tate gets onto his knees, pushes himself up and runs to the eleven year old blue haired girl. Again, he put his hands on her shoulders, but Ichigo’s face remained pale.
“Ichigo! Please leave now...” he said.
“What?”
“Leave now with the Blue Orb and don’t let anyone know you have it.” Tate told Ichigo.
“L-leave, desu?” whimpered Ichigo.
“Protect that orb with whatever you have. We can’t let Team Aqua take it. If it’s anything Team Aqua wants, it’s the Blue Orb.” said Tate. “Leave us now, tell the ferry driver to take you back to Mossdeep. You’ll be safe there.”
“But what about you and Liza, desu?” she asked sadly.
“I’m not sure... we’ll stay here and fight these guys. Liza and I will find a different way back.” said Tate.
“But... please be careful, desu!” Ichigo warned him. Tate let go of her and pointed to the ocean, faintly visible through the fog.
“Don’t worry, just go.” he informed her and turned away from her. Ichigo started to run nervously in the mist and stopped after only two steps. She looked to Tate who had looked back at her at the same time.
“Um...” she said, poking her two fingers together in her sleeves. Her face started to turn red again but she looked really worried.
“GO!” Tate yelled. Ichigo’s feet responded quicker than her mind. She took off before she could say anything. Holding the Blue Orb carefully in her hands under her sleeves and yelled out:
“I’m going! I’m going!”