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If asked, he would say that he could no longer remember exactly how long he had waited. She told him later -- much later -- that Her brother bred his parents, used a scanner on his egg and was disappointed by what he saw in the results. No one knows why. His egg went into storage and if it had been up to Her brother, he probably would have stayed there forever, stuck in a limbo that meant that he was neither alive nor dead.
But then She was there. Just a child at the time, She found his egg and kept him warm, talked to him, sang to him. Before long, the egg hatched and he was born: a little Horsea with adoring eyes. He could fall in love with anyone; he had so much love to give. She was just the first thing he ever saw, so it seemed a given to love Her the most. Over the years, She only encouraged this and more than once it would occur to him that this had been fate. It wasn't that he decided to love Her most; in fact, he had had no choice in the matter whatsoever.
And so it was that Lorelei obtained her first pokemon. Then, much like how children tend to name their cats Fluffy and their dogs Buddy, She named him Hajime, a name that meant "first", for he truly was the first of many things for Her, as much as She was the first of many things for him.
"Be yourself," She had said to him. Though the furthest thing from Hajime's mind for years had been to contradict Her, to even hint that he had a problem, Kazuya had encouraged him to speak his mind. After all, the Roserade reasoned, Lorelei would not want a mindless drone for a team leader. If Hajime really loved Her, he would be honest. Of course, Kazuya hadn't said that this was all conjecture, that he was secretly hoping Lorelei would actually get angry at her heretofore favorite Kingdra. Kazuya always failed to mention things like that to Hajime, though the latter forgave him every time because that was what best friends with no common sense did.
"I know that I'm supposed to be strong since I'm your primary pokemon and I want to be, but I don't want to pretend to be someone I'm not anymore, either," Hajime told Her, completely out of the blue. "All this time I've just been pretending to be tough and unfeeling. That's not me. I want to be more open."
She considered him for a few seconds, staring up into his eyes. Naturally, She couldn't understand a word he was saying. They had just been sharing a quiet moment after an intense gym battle and suddenly Her Kingdra had started blowing noisy bubbles in a somewhat depressed-looking way. How would any other trainer respond? Hajime had no earthly idea.
For Her part, Lorelei gently rubbed one of his fins in a reassuring manner and said simply, "Whatever you're worried about, don't be. We'll be okay if you just be yourself." Hajime didn't know if She really understood his dilemma, but he took Her at Her word and when he became much more energetic, bouncing around and showering his teammates with affection (much to their annoyance), She didn't object or even look surprised. "I always knew that you were the type to love everybody, Hajime. I just wondered why you didn't show it more often." A laugh, a smile, and then Hajime blew happy bubbles in Her face. Expecting some friendly retaliation, he was surprised when She instead wrapped her arms around him. "You'll always be my little Hajime, you know that?"
If Hajime had known that this would be the last time he'd see Her, he probably would have done things differently. He probably would have tried harder to explain how he felt about Her, his life, everything. Because he hadn't known, the last thing he did was to be playfully irreverent. He brushed Her off when She said he'd always be Her baby, going off to be with the rest of the team. He didn't think twice; he could always be with Her later, after all. They had plenty of time.
But then She was gone.
The last thing Hajime remembered was that the entire team had been recalled. It was time to go to the next town and She had wanted to give them all a rest. He didn't know how much time had passed since then -- all he knew was that when he awoke, he was completely alone. The world around him was eerily silent. He appeared to be in a desert, but he didn't recognize the area at all.
"Lorelei?" he called out. It was the first word on his mind and so, of course, the first word that escaped his lips. ...lips? Hajime bolted upright. The fact that he could bolt upright, that his back bent in this way, was already a surprise. He looked down and saw legs. Human legs that were bare and seemed to be attached to his also-bare human torso. Tentatively, gingerly, Hajime lifted his arms and stared at those, too. As he tilted his head, long blue hair tumbled forward, as well. He had human arms and human legs and a human torso. Pretty human hair. What was the phrase? If it looks like a Psyduck and quacks like a Psyduck--
Oh no, he thought. Oh no no no. Many times, admittedly, he'd dreamed about what it would be like to be a human, to be able to speak with Her and be like Her. Yes, he'd thought about it, fantasized about it. But there was no way this could be real. Either he was dreaming or he'd gone insane. Hajime slapped himself in the face with his newfound hands a few times to try to wake himself up, but he got nothing except stinging cheeks. "Lorelei?" he tried again. "Kazuya? Raja?"
He was truly panicked now. Suddenly hysterical, Hajime attempted to rise to his feet and run, but this body was completely foreign to him. He'd never had legs before, never had to walk before, and he stumbled over his own feet, falling to the dusty ground. "Tenma, if this is your idea of a joke, I'm not finding it very funny! I'm a Kingdra! I don't want to be--" He cut himself off, knowing if he said he didn't want to be a human at all, it would be a lie. He thought a bit more and decided that even Tenma wasn't powerful enough for this kind of extended illusion.
Hajime didn't think for a second that Lorelei or his other teammates had abandoned him. If he was stuck in this state, chances were that the others were, too, and probably against their will. They were probably confused and panicked as much as he had been. He knew now that he had to find them. It was his top priority. Lorelei would not be happy if he was too single-minded and tried to find Her at the expense of everyone else's well-being, so the team had to come first.
Now significantly more calm, Hajime crawled to a nearby boulder (fully aware of how pathetic he looked and glad no one was around to see it) and used it to brace himself as he tried again to get to his feet. He was quickly able to stand -- as long as he held onto the rock -- and tried to get a feel for the balance of this new body. He had been almost six feet tall as a Kingdra and was about the same height now, but weighed almost half of what he used to. Humans were such fragile creatures.
He scratched his head and felt while doing so that he had retained his horns even though he was now human. Hajime felt that this was silly -- what purpose could his horns possibly serve for him now? Looking at the rest of his body, he saw that he had also kept his fins but not, curiously, his tail. He wondered who had decided what body parts he could and couldn't keep and if they knew how ridiculous their choices had been. If he ever encountered the person(s) responsible, he'd surely give them a piece of his mind, he thought.
After a time, Hajime was finally able to stand and, after more time, able to walk. He was keenly aware that he was naked and that normal humans frowned upon such things. He'd have to find some clothes to wear. Fabulous clothes, of course. There was smoke in the distance, so Hajime decided to head in that direction, hoping to find civilization.
Thus far, Hajime had believed himself to be in a strange and unknown place. The more he looked, however, the more familiar everything seemed. When he finally arrived at Mt. Chimney, he didn't know what to think. This wasn't another world -- this was just Hoenn, a place he knew rather well. So why had he been turned into a human? Where was everybody else?
ZAP! A spark of electricity hit Hajime in the back and on his new, softer human skin, this was rather painful. "I'm too beautiful to die!!" he exclaimed, wincing in pain. He kept his eyes shut for just a little while before he realized that the bolt hadn't been at all fatal. Opening his eyes now, Hajime whirled around and saw a girl standing just a few yards away. She was fairly small in frame, with purple hair that gradated into yellow at the tips and two glowing orbs that hung from hair that stuck up from the top of her head. Strange, Hajime thought, the orbs reminded him of someone. It was vague at first, but then he saw her tail and fins. "Raja!!"
The girl's eyes narrowed, though it was clear she recognized her own name. When she spoke, it came out as a snarl. "You stay back or I'll--"
"It's me, Raja! It's Hajime!" He hadn't known that they'd still be able to use their attacks in this state; he'd been careless not to try. Still, Raja was a nice girl. He wasn't worried that she wouldn't understand. He wanted her to stop looking so predatory, however, and tell him where she'd found the dress she was wearing.
ZAP! At least, he hadn't been worried, but then she attacked him again and Hajime now began to wonder. He'd never seen Raja like this before. Lorelei had always called Raja "angelic" and she was one of the nicest pokemon that Hajime had ever known. "Raja, why are you doing this? It's me, remember?" Suddenly, he began to shake and then collapsed to the ground in a heap, unable to move his body. "No... You used ... Thunder Wave ... on me? ... Why?"
"You abandoned me!!" she screamed at him. In one swift motion, she was by his side. She grabbed his arm and it made a sickening cracking sound as she broke it. Understanding how alone and confused she felt, Hajime refused to make any sounds, as painful as this was. "You and Lorelei and the others... left me here alone ... like this!!" Her voice got quiet now and she gently ran her fingers down his other arm. "You don't need your arms, do you? You got by fine without them before." There was another sound as this arm was also broken. "Well?" She zapped him again with a Thunder Bolt. "ANSWER ME!"
"We didn't ... we didn't abandon you. ... I'm sorry. I'm sorry ... you were alone." Silence. Hajime fought against the paralysis as much as he could, turning his head so he could see her. Raja was crying. Her orbs, which had been glowing, were now dimmed. She pulled Hajime upright, wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and sobbed uncontrollably.
After the paralysis wore off and Raja calmed down, she apologized profusely for what she had done. "I don't know what came over me." she hiccuped. "I was just so scared that something in me just snapped. I don't know why. I'm so sorry." Hajime, as always, waved off her apologies, saying it wasn't a big deal and anyway, she was right. He'd been fine without arms before. Still, it was pretty inconvenient not to have use of his arms now that he was human. Raja helped him up and into a set of clothes she'd found for him. ("Five-finger discount, I'm afraid. The house was abandoned so I figured the humans wouldn't mind.") The clothes were nothing special -- a pair of jeans, a white shirt, a navy blue jacket, and a gray scarf -- but Raja insisted to Hajime that they looked "distinguished" and, as usual, he believed her.
"Of course, I would look distinguished in anything, wouldn't I?" he beamed. Raja only smiled and nodded. Hajime decided that he didn't care for such a low amount of enthusiasm regarding his awesomeness, but kept it to himself. Now both dressed, they made their way to the Lavaridge Pokemon Center in order to get his arms healed.
Even without people, the Pokemon Center was still operable. Raja had Hajime lay down on one of the beds and she used the different machines and sprays to heal him as she'd seen the nurses do for him in the past. On their way out, she collected some of the potions and other sprays into a handbag in case they needed them later. The town was deserted, so the two of them decided to head for the next town of Fallarbor. "If all of us pokemon were turned into humans and the humans have disappeared... shouldn't there be more of us around? Where are all the wild pokemon?" Raja asked. They were both trying to make sense of things, but it was hard when nothing made sense.
Hajime shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe the wild pokemon are confused and secluded themselves somewhere, but it's hard to say. All I know is that we have to find everyone. Lorelei raised us to be smart. I'm sure the others have found shelter, so we just have to seek them out." Raja nodded. "Don't worry, everything will be okay."
A silence passed between them as they walked. After a time, however, Raja questioned him quietly, "But what if Lorelei really did abandon us?"
"She would never do that," he snapped in a tone so harsh he even surprised himself. He hadn't hesitated for a second. Raja was silent and they continued to walk without saying anything to one another. "And if for some reason she did, it was our fault, not hers." he thought, though he would never say this aloud.
Fallarbor Town loomed on the horizon. It wasn't much of a walk since it was so close to Lavaridge, but if there was a chance that the others might be there, it was worth taking time to check the place out. The town was fairly small, but it was still eerie to see it completely devoid of people. Hajime and Raja called on Professor Cozmo's house just in case; it was completely empty, as were all of the other buildings. Seeing that the sun was beginning to set, they decided to rest for the night. Rustboro City was probably the closest town to Fallarbor, but there was no way they could make it before it got dark. Sure, they hadn't seen any wild pokemon yet, but Hajime still had his reservations about wandering around in the dark. Besides, he needed his beauty sleep.
Both of them being water pokemon, they had their reservations about sleeping on a bed. Walking was one thing, but they'd gone the whole day without being submerged in water at all and they were beginning to feel rather dry. (did humans ever feel this way?) Luckily, every pokemon center was fully equipped with an indoor spa to accommodate water pokemon. After stripping down to his boxers, Hajime quickly dove into the water. It didn't feel nearly as refreshing as he'd expected it to. While his fins helped a little, it was very awkward trying to swim with his human body. His movements lacked grace, finesse, efficiency. The worst part was, when he dove underwater and tried to breathe, his throat burned and his human lungs screamed for air. Hajime kicked off from the bottom of the pool and took a gasp of air, coughing up the water he'd inhaled.
He could no longer breathe underwater. Hajime was saddened by this, and then annoyed that he felt saddened. This ordeal reminded him of the long dark period he spent as an egg. He was stuck between worlds -- was he a human or a pokemon? Suddenly feeling stubborn, he insisted to Raja, who apparently had no problem staying in the water even if she couldn't stay under for a long time, that he would try to sleep as humans did. He put his clothes back on after drying his boxers, but found a sleeping spot near the pool despite his declaration. Even if he couldn't be in it, being closer to the water brought him a bit of peace. Hajime fell asleep with one of his arms dangling in the water, the feel of it making him feel just a little bit better about this whole situation.
And, of course, he dreamed of Her.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Hajime awoke to a sweet smell that he knew all too well. Fully awake in seconds, he jumped towards the source of the fragrance and, as expected, landed on a human Kazuya, hugging him fiercely. "Kaaaaaaazuuuuuuyaaaa~!! I missed you! Where were you? How did you get here?" his questions all jumbled together as he asked them much too quickly, shaking Kazuya back and forth. Strange, wasn't Kazuya a little ... small?
He finally stopped his onslaught of hugs just as he heard Kazuya say "I ... wouldn't do that if I were you." His friend sounded rather far away. The truth dawning at last, Hajime looked at who he was hugging and saw that it was a young boy with brown and green tattoos. Julian. While they looked somewhat similar, there was no mistaking him for Kazuya, who sat glumly next to him and looked more like an adult. The blue and red rose tattoos that adorned the back of each of Kazuya's hands made it fairly clear that he was a Roserade.
If Hajime had known better, he would have realized long ago that Julian hated him with a passion and that the best course of action in this situation would be to let go of the boy before he unleashed a merciless ice attack. But Hajime was still oblivious to Julian's distaste for him and so, decided to start hugging him again. "Julian! Aww, you two were together! Did you miss me? Everything will be alright now that I'm here!" he exclaimed passionately, sure that the Snover would understand his brotherly love and concern.
He was rewarded with an Energy Ball to the face for his trouble and went flying into the water. When he surfaced again, Julian had a bored, disdainful look on his face as if he'd just been forced to hug a Grimer. He gave Hajime a swift thumbs down, which was more or less Julian-language for "get away from me, I don't want whatever disease you're carrying".
"Good job, Julian," Kazuya said brightly, ruffling the kid's hair in an affectionate manner clearly meant to make Hajime feel bad, though the latter couldn't tell, of course.
Raja, however, did notice. "Don't encourage him, Kazuya," she frowned, though somewhat playfully. "Honestly, you spoil Julian rotten." She was squeezing water out of her hair and stopped for a moment. "Ah, Hajime. Good morning. The two of them got here in the middle of the night, but you looked so tired that I thought it'd be best not to wake you."
"Did either of you run into Tenma?" Hajime asked as he got out of the water. He walked toward the towel rack and began pulling off his clothes to let them dry.
Julian shook his head as Kazuya answered, "Nope. But knowing him, he's probably nearby and just planning an elaborate prank to freak us out even more than we are already. That jerk. Lorelei let him get away with far too much." Noticing that Julian was staring at him pleadingly, Kazuya sighed. Tenma was Julian's best friend. "I know, I know. He's not as bad as he seems, but he's still an annoying pest most of the time and I'm not budging on that point."
"The time period where he still knew Hypnosis and Dream Eater was the worst," Raja agreed with a shudder. "Where did you two meet? How'd you end up here?"
Kazuya shrugged. "I woke up in Rustboro, kept walking, and found Julian hiding in Meteor Falls. Then we both decided to head this way. Our plan was to keep going until we met someone else, but we didn't run into anyone until we saw that the lights at this Pokemon Center were on. We went inside and found Raja."
A silence descended upon the group. Finally, Raja spoke up, her voice tinged with despair. "Why ... did this happen to us? Where is everyone?" she sniffled. Julian walked over to her and put his hand on her back in attempt to console her, but she started to cry. "You guys, I don't want to be alone. What did we do to deserve this?"
Hajime remembered how distraught she'd been when he encountered her earlier, how she thought that Lorelei had abandoned them. Of all the explanations he could think up for their current situation, he had never once considered that they'd been abandoned. Hajime had known Raja for so long, yet why hadn't he ever noticed how insecure she was? Had her kindly, easy-going face been a front? He felt as if he'd failed as a team leader. Perhaps this was his just desserts for wanting something he could never have, for dreaming even once that it would be nice to be human and be equal with Lorelei. He'd had an easy life, but dared to complain to Her that he was uncomfortable pretending to be unemotional and stalwart? Perhaps it was no coincidence that this had happened so soon after he'd tried to be honest.
"It's my fault," Hajime said, suddenly sure that it was. "This is because I told Lorelei I wanted to be more open with my feelings. I was insubordinate."
"You did what?" Raja gasped, but Kazuya cut her off.
"So, what, you think she abandoned us?" His voice was soft, but it was obvious that he was angry. Kazuya almost never raised his voice, yet his annoyance now was palpable. "You think she had us turned into humans and then left us here just to get back at you for being disrespectful?"
"N-no, I--" Hajime bit his tongue. He didn't know what to say. Lorelei would never do that. He knew this, yet he couldn't help but feel guilty for some reason. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Julian frowning and giving him another thumbs-down. "Well, what do you think happened, then?"
Kazuya sighed again. "I don't know. But ... I don't like this. I think she might be in danger. We have to find her. Even as humans, we can still use our attacks. We can take care of ourselves. But Lorelei... she's just a normal human and now she doesn't have any of her pokemon. If someone were to try to hurt her, she wouldn't be able to defend herself."
Hajime's blood ran cold, but he couldn't help the nagging feeling in his gut. What if it was better this way? Lorelei didn't need insubordinate pokemon. What if She'd already replaced them all? He was beginning to feel insecure and it bugged him because he also felt it was disrespectful to think that Lorelei would leave them, and yet...
Before he could say anything, the sounds of arguing could be heard from just outside the Pokemon Center. There were others. Despite the fact that they were still quite damp, Hajime threw on his clothes and motioned for the others to follow him as he headed for the entrance. The sliding doors opened and Hajime came face to face with ... another Kingdra?
This one looked somewhat like him (Hajime had gotten a peek of his reflection in one of the Pokemon Center's mirrors -- well, okay, an hour-long staring contest with his reflection) but he had short, curly hair that contrasted with Hajime's, which was long and straight. Still, there was something that seemed familiar about this fellow.
"...Hajime?"
And then he just knew. "Takumi!!" Hajime cried happily. He leapt towards the other Kingdra and tried to hug him, but Takumi grabbed Hajime's hair and held him in place a good foot or two away. "Owwwww... Takumi, is this any way to treat your esteemed older brother?"
Takumi snorted. "Who's an esteemed older brother?" He turned back towards the other person he was with and continued to converse with him as if Hajime didn't exist (though he kept his hold on Hajime's hair). "Anyway, as I was saying..."
"Blaze?" Raja said quizzically, looking at Takumi's companion. Hajime reluctantly turned his attention to the other person; judging by his unkempt appearance and familiar way of speaking to Takumi, it could be no one else but Airi's Ninetails.
"...Raja! What a surprise!" Blaze looked around and noted the rest of the party. "You're all here, too? Is your trainer missing, as well?"
"So Airi is..."
Takumi frowned. "Yes. She's gone. Vanished. And now we're stuck in this ... this irritating form. Something fishy is going on."
"Hajime thinks that Lorelei abandoned us," Kazuya called out, still annoyed from their earlier argument. He wasn't going to let this go.
Blaze tilted his head and looked rather suspicious. "Abandoned you? Your trainer? Come on, she loved you guys. And Airi certainly didn't abandon us. They're probably both in danger."
"But..." Hajime still wasn't quite convinced.
"Brother. If you don't quit your wallowing in self-pity -- and I know that's what this is -- right this second, I will never speak to you again," Takumi quipped.
That did the trick. "Ah~ I know how difficult it would be for you to do so, Takumi, so I suppose I should cheer up." Hajime beamed and now turned to Kazuya. "You're right, don't say a word. It was wrong of me to think that way. What we need to do now is band together and figure out what has happened." Kazuya nodded, relieved.
The last thing that She had told him was to "be himself". Hajime was someone who believed in his trainer wholeheartedly, loved his teammates, and wanted to keep them safe. He was not a pathetic fool who entertained the notion that his beloved trainer had abandoned him. If Lorelei needed him to be himself, that's exactly what he would be.
That night when he dreamed of Her again, his dreams were happy.
『TITLE』 and so it begins
『RATING』 PG-13 for violence and stuff
『CHARACTERS』 Hajime-centric + Raja, Kazuya
『WORDCOUNT』 4,558
『NOTES』 While this is mostly a story about how the team reacts to their trainer's disappearance (hint: not well), it also shows the first appearance of dark!Raja (oh she'll be back) and sets the scene for how the team interacts. I haven't written fic in a while so let me know if this sucks or something.
『SUMMARY』 Hajime awakens to a quiet world devoid of his beloved trainer and teammates -- oh, and he's also suddenly human.