Work Text:
JANUARY 28TH, 2010.
It was the last night she ever went to bed as Hikari Yukimura.
Her back was turned against the nightstand next to her nice, plush bed, as she scrolled through her phone. Photos of tonight's events pop up on her feed, and her thumbs click away, using hashtags and liking posts. She doesn’t know it’s the last time she’ll get to see the Twitter or Youtube logo ever again. She thinks that she’ll fall asleep to a nice slow pop song playing on a loop, then wake up, brush her hair, and live her lavish life as usual.
She’s still just a kid, some think too young to be going out this much. But her age is never acknowledged as such unless it’s convenient to, unless it’s to diminish her, despite the grown up burdens that she carries. At fifteen, she’s done more than any adult could ever dream to accomplish in their lifetime. And yet, she still dared to dream of September. It was a silly little girl wish to celebrate her sixteenth birthday, a dream that paled in comparison to the price she has paid, in exchange for her much grander feats in life.
There was a flute in her bag, resting among her things with such a heavy sense of responsibility. She used it once recently, it was some months ago, she summoned Arceus and demanded them a favor, but it didn’t quite work out for her. Their response was that they had a much different destiny in store for her, and that she’d come to find out in due time.
Instinctively, she looked across the room where her bag was, the end of the flute stuck out of the zipper, and she found herself wondering why God would let her go so easily after such a treacherous battle with her team. There is a part of her that feels like she faced down the wrath of God for nothing, a part on her that dwells on what she could’ve said and done to prove herself further, but then she quickly reminds herself that Arceus was more powerful than she could ever be, and that it was better to sleep off this feeling, and try again for a better day tomorrow.
But the tomorrow she’s thinking about is no longer in her reach, as her eyes come to a slow close. Her silly little dreams are long forgotten, the grip she has on her phone loosens, and for the last few seconds before her phone screen auto-locks, there is a picture of her and Cynthia posing together, and she has a dazzling, movie-star smile, while Cynthia throws up the peace sign. Caption: #BestNightEver.
Fireflies is the last song she falls asleep listening to, as golden spheres of light surround her in the dark.
Her mind is wiped clean when a holy voice speaks to her, an echo in the blackness, faint, welcoming rays shining around the source of sound.
Nothing feels familiar to her– except for the phone that she somehow finds herself reaching for desperately. She can’t tell if it’s her body or the world that is spinning. And just when she thinks she’s about to have her phone returned to her, she is blinded by a screeching, white light, and falls unconscious once more..
Three Pokemon hover over her body when she finally wakes. There is a man that asks her many questions as soon as she gets on her feet. She struggles to answer any of them, except when he asks if she knows what Pokemon are, which took her by surprise for that to even be a question.
She thinks to herself that maybe they were getting somewhere.
But then, he asks her, “What might your name be?”
All thoughts turning in her brain stop in their tracks, and her mouth freezes. She doesn’t let it show on her face that she feels a complete and utter loss, so she thinks it’s best to look him in the eyes with confidence as she searches her own mind for the answer. And there are a few syllables in her mind that give her comfort, and feel like home, so she decides to penn herself as whatever feels right, or at least the closest to it.
“Akari… I think.”
He doesn’t hear the last part, but when he repeats her name back to her enthusiastically, she knows there’s no going back.