Harmonia | Pokémon Fanfiction

23 | You're Beautiful

Music in media: You're Beautiful from the "Pretty Woman" musical

14 January, Friday, 1:15 p.m. | Winter

The subway bentos Ingo and Emmet provided were delicious, to say the least. The mentaiko cheese tamagoyaki was the best when coupled with fried gyoza and fragrant rice peppered with black and white sesame seeds, with a side of picked radish. The meal gave Rae the energy boost needed to face Elesa whom she was ready to meet, as Cheren and Lenora said.

"What about Icosa and Prof. Juniper?"

"Focus on the battle ahead." Cheren pointed at the glitzy building near the entrance of the amusement park.

Inside was a catwalk and fashion show, lit by spotlights of various colours. Neon streaks shifted about on the walls and the crowd beneath the stage would brush against each other, dance and sing along to the funky stereo music. It was like being in a kaleidoscope.

"Are we in the right place?" Rae squeezed her way through to the front, her four Pokémon tailing her swiftly. Each time she apologised, she realised the people and Pokémon in her way didn't seem to mind, for she was a child and couldn't see much from afar. She was glad the citizens of Nimbasa were accepting. Behind her, Cheren and Lenora were caught up in a flurry of fans who sought their autographs and haters who hurled slurs at them. She was happy to not be so famous after all.

A cough in a microphone fizzled throughout the space, followed by two slow claps. A lady wearing a tight crop top beneath an electric yellow coat that reminded Rae of puffy smoke. Her blue-yellow striped shorts gave her the impression this was one lady who didn't mind the judgment from the handful of salacious men and women in the crowd. She raised her chin a little and the long extensions tied in two diamond patterned braids from her short black hair swung like pendulums. Her fashion sense was unique. Rae had never seen anyone wear ballet flats, needless to say, a red and a blue one, intentionally mismatched to showcase the dual polarity of magnets, just like her headphones which had cone-shaped spikes protruding out of the ear pieces, the right spike red and the left spike blue. Even her nail polish followed the theme to the T, red on her right hand, and blue on her left.

She beamed at the crowd and winked. "We had a great morning with Ken and Karen, didn't we? They were such a Deerling couple! I wonder if we'd have a model of the hour for our 24/7 fashion show! Maybe someone Fletchling for a change?"

"That's Elesa for you," said Lenora before waving to the lady. "She's very self-conscious of her image. People were saying she's a cool, distant beauty so she's trying to be fun by making puns. They've... improved."

Cheren shook his head. "Skyla still throws shade on her for that, I believe."

"Now, that's a heavy phrase, Cheren. They're practically sisters."

"Even though one can zap the other to death?"

"That's not the point."

Rae broke their moment by asking if she should volunteer herself, though it wouldn't be fair as she wasn't exactly a fledgling Trainer. Lenora replied that she saw no issue with Rae going for it since the girl was participating in the Gym challenge with Pokémon she hadn't had. Her Unovan Gym run could be seen as a reset.

"You'll bedazzle them," Lenora added as a word of encouragement.

Rae checked in with her Pokémon. All of them seemed enthusiastic, save for Zorozoro. Perhaps it was because he was rather new to the team.

A pretty face bobbed down into her vision and she squealed. Elesa giggled. "I've not seen a young girl like you around here before. From the looks of it... You're Johtonian... You do look familiar, however... Magnemite you be Aomine Rae?"