Show Me Your Smile | Pokémon Fanfiction

22 | winds will rise

Music in media: Wind By Koda Kumi

Early December pays a visit with rising winds and a frenzied stream of snow in tow. The air grows chillier by the minute, with the occasional warmth when the air teases us with a stop motion for a couple of seconds before going on its way. No one can predict the mood of a season like winter.

This time, winter is slow with its moil, footprints remaining for minutes on end in the snow pooling in the streets of Enju till a new flock of white takes over. The years before made winter so fleeting and full of death instead. Children could be heard crying when their snowmen were demolished, cars honked at each other with a rise in accidents, Pokémon vulnerable to the cold were often chided for using the fireplace or electrical heater. So unlike nowadays, charged with infectious laughter, patient drivers and trainers who are reprimanded by their Pokémon for using the fireplace or electrical heater.

Meta presses his face against the frosty window every once in a while, other times morphing into a keyboard for some jingles, prompting Otousan to strum his guitar in harmony. Rae has defeated the League with flying colours and Okaasan was so happy she aired montages of Rae's battles for three consecutive days despite the protests of both viewers and her colleagues.

Hayato's interpretation of "flying colours", on the other hand, gifts us new excitement. One day after Rae's Pokémon are registered in the Hall of Fame, he decides to take us on a soaring session where we can have a Delibird's eye view of Johto in winter. Kaspar's congratulations are in order and doesn't go unnoticed either, though they are sidelined by Matsuba's present, a colour-changing necklace he made from scratch, definitely not from the various emotions Mismagius devoured.

Speaking of Kaspar, he's making progress in his healing, one step at a time, and Rae's success has helped him a little too. Not that it stops him from grumbling at Matsuba when he hops onto Gaiety's body, the Togekiss's charming smile directed at Matsuba's Drifblim making Kaspar nauseous. Rae rides her Noctowl while Hayato sits atop his Pidgeot. Everyone cocks their heads sideways at Meta and I, and I pull out my pockets with an elongated sigh.

"I'll be great," Meta convinces me as he Transforms into a Jumpluff.

"You're killing me," I mumble. I'm so not going to be dropped midair while being carried by a Cottonweed Pokémon that's less than one metre. I might consider if there's a parachute involved, though this doesn't discount the riskiness.

"Fine." Thy shall repent, Meta the Ditto, and become a Gliscor! "More like it?"

"You do know not all Flying-types learn Fly and both Jumpluff and Gliscor can't Fly?" Hayato supplies.

Meta snaps his pincers and drags his tail through the snow. "I am Ditto. I am capable of anything and everything."

"Capable of not being yourself," Kaspar comments at the side and screeches when a Poison Tail hits him.

Meta giggles. "Gliscor is cool. We will glide! Right, Kyo?"

I nod, uncertain of what more to say. A Gliscor's significantly better than a Jumpluff, for sure, and beggars can't be choosers, except I'm not begging, and I'm merely given the illusion of choice.

"Let's take to the skies!" Hayayo leads us into the clouds. Snowflakes pelt on our clothes, skin and hair, crystalline structures melting fast and seeping through our now temporary warmth. The temperature rises a little the higher we go, but each passage through the clouds sends a shiver through our frames.

In contrast to the white landscape below, the magnolia clouds seem like a poor imitation of scoops of Vanillite ice cream, so mystical yet deformed as though a Mega Alakazam or two dug through the clouds with their multitude of spoons prior to our visit. A higher altitude also equates to a closer look at the sun in all its radiant glory, also the migratory flocks in V-shape formation. Our aimless glide in the skies lulls us into a state of relaxation dearly missed. A tad higher and we are engulfed in Feather Dance and Tailwind, perhaps the source of the recent feathery rain, shimmering in all hues and shades imaginable and unthinkable, from burning crimson to ocean blue, from the colour of Mt. Chimney's igneous rocks to Chargestone Cave's sparkling crystals.