Show Me Your Smile | Pokémon Fanfiction

26 | we used to know

Meta shakes his head. "Sacred Fire cannot be extinguished easily unless it's done by another Legendary Pokémon. What about Rock Tomb?" When I protest, reasoning that Satsuki-han's Flareon is in the tower, he tries again. "Whirlwind?" I tell him the specks of fire will scatter across the city and burn all combustible buildings. "Origin Pulse?" I remind him he's no Legendary and even if he Transforms into Celebi he can't turn back-

Meta squeals. "That's it! Get everyone to back off! Give the place some space! Tell Satsuki to grab her Flareon and go!"

"Right..." I shout as told and the bois help round every Pokémon and person up and take them towards the city square. Just before they leave, Matsuba smooches my cheek and warns me to be careful, that he trusts me and Meta to solve things our way. He's not the only one with words for me, however, as Satsuki-han shrieks that she has lost connection with Flareon, which makes me wonder if the bond between trainer and Pokémon is like the terrible wifi connection every Pokémon Centre boasts for the sake of the rarely used online trading, and that she needs me to get Flareon out. Oh, let's not forget my whimpering mother whose colleagues still consider the burning of the Ivory Tower is a celebratory affair, fighting for their rights to blaspheme against the righteous "living fossil bitches". Their words, not mine.

I turn to Meta once it's only us and Ho-Oh. "So, what's the plan?"

"We'll head in, you take Flareon out, and you wait outside."

"What about you?"

"I will kill the fire."

"But-"

"No more hesitating! In we go!" Meta, in a swift motion, dumps a wet towel over me like the magician he is and pulls him into the building. The nearer we get, the more sweat reaches my brows, blurs my vision, and spins my world.

The Ivory Tower isn't so tall a building, just ten floors discounting the basement and the rooftop where the ladder to the carillon lay. Good thing Flareon's just somewhere in here or I'll be melting my way to isekai land. After an incisive nod, Meta parts ways with me, going for the roof to supposedly contact Ho-Oh. I scurry up the emergency stairs, exiting on every floor to check for the Pokémon.

It's been three floors without Flareon, three floors of dodging burning beams and sizzling wires. If someone told me I was just a protagonist in their new film called The Floor Is Lava, featuring Aomine Kyo who is as agile as the slowest bolt of lightning, I'd laugh it off because no way is the floor lava. Except it is, when I reach the fourth floor. And of course a bushy white tail the shape of a flame has to peek at me from behind a corner, compelling me to exit despite the risk.

"Flareon? It's me, Kyo. Can you come over?" My holler chases him away. Just great. What did I do to deserve this? With the wet towel wrapped around me, I grit my teeth and burst through the doorway, into the hellish corridor.

Smoked walls, chipped ceiling and scorching crumbs unleash a fervid greeting unto me, and I reciprocate with a weak wave of a hand and a shy smile like I'm meeting a nonexistent someone I swiped right on a nonexistent dating app. The sprinklers, far from being futile, soak my shoes and protect them from the blazing tiles.

If Sacred Fire is hellish, I don't want to know what Elysium will be like. My heart races faster than my feet can, my ears almost deaf from the incessant thumps. Each time I swerve, Flareon disappears from sight, testing my patience, wearing me down. How many corners are there on this floor? How is he always turning and turning?

A faint cry slithers into being, coupled with an explosion of what sounds like glass. I make one final twist and face a shattered glass wall, its few fragments sticking to the edges of the ceiling and floor like a clingy ex. A flicker of orange dots the verge.