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The eighth year that Red was missing, the police declared him dead by law. Like how a Pokémon would be ruled extinct. In a similar manner, his last sighting had been on a security camera, where he walked into a supermarket, then walked out without buying anything. The footage had been grainy and little could be discerned from it. After that, it seemed that he’d simply vanished.
It wasn’t that they hadn’t tried. It could be envisioned the type of endeavour that was made to locate their national hero and their champion. For months every city had SWAT teams swarming the streets and the sounds of search helicopters would drone on for weeks. They discovered six other missing people, but couldn’t find a single trace of him. Slowly, as their hopes burned away, the searches diminished and almost a sense of normalcy was restored, as the famed ten year old boy began to fade from history.
Pallet Town never was quite the same again. His mother ached for him every day he was gone. The woman developed a kind of chronic illness only possible through grief. Blue and Leaf were not better. The death declaration did nothing to them, one of them was in firmly in belief that Red would always be completely okay, and the other wrote him as dead since the moment he disappeared. Being in each other’s company rendered them silent, the third person in their group’s absence made even clearer. And so they stopped hanging out with each other as much, the pain too much to bear. Red had been one of their closest friend, but now they dully wondered whether he ever thought of them with even a crumble of that sentiment.
Like most fanciful conspiracies, a rumour arose of him wandering Mt Silver for worthy challengers. But the truth was, Red was closer to home than they could have ever imagined. In a little cottage by the edge of a forest that was situated between Viridian and Pallet, the missing champion lay in the lap of a small woman.
“How much longer are you going to stay here, Red?” Yellow stroked his hair softly, small fingers untangling the thick crown of hair as her hand ran through it. When he didn’t respond, she cupped his jaw with one hand and gave a coaxing squeeze until his eyes fluttered open. He gazed up at her with his warm eyes, nothing in them except the weakness of a boy with no weaknesses. Yellow didn’t suppress her concern, genuine and always softly delivered. “Hasn’t it been long enough?” she asked. Her voice never grew louder than a fervent murmur, as if anything more could shatter him entirely.
Red turned, and sat up from her lap. He had only gotten taller every year, and she had never grown since he met her. He towered over her now, and she would reassure him that he hadn’t quite finished growing yet. He shook his head, then lowered himself so he could rest on her shoulder. It was not a comfortable position, he had to bend at a difficult angle, and he would probably ache afterwards, but it was nice to be so close to her, smelling her, which would always be something earthy and sometimes fragrant.
She sighed. Red, there was something he couldn’t overcome. Since the day she met him. She didn’t know what it was, what could possibly be driving him away from his fans and friends and family for so long. He hadn’t left this house in years. His Pokémon had become so fed up confined to this small house. But he didn’t leave. She wondered, if there was something he was scared of. If there was something to be scared of as a champion. And if it wasn’t fear, maybe it was self-directed spite, and to be trapped in a tiny cottage prison was his punishment to serve.
She patted his leg. “Well, you know you’re welcome to stay for as long as you need to.” His leg shifted, then slid over to bump hers. Pitiable, the way he acted around her. Defenceless. Yearning. She wasn’t his mother, but the way he’d curl up against Yellow could fool anyone. His real mother, she could imagine, was probably at her wit’s end over him, but she couldn’t make him leave. Too soft. She was too soft, but she couldn’t help it around him. “Though, you can’t stay here forever, you know.”
He hummed agreement, without meaning it, and she didn’t have the heart to admonish him. It was alright, really, if he needed to be here with her, in the cottage of Viridian Forest, where the world wouldn’t find them.