We're Back... Again...

*Kaito Inaki, Shaker, Fus, and Aeolus were out of their balls, close to Kai. The young boy's hair and eyes remained the same ever since the fateful battle that took place within the mountain. No doubt the explosion was sure to have everyone riled and Kai at a literal loss for words. The words from Valencia lingered within his mind. "Asteroid Valley when the moon will be red with the blood of the righteous." What did it all mean? Was he embarking on one of the most dangerous journeys ever? He's witness death on a large scale, his heart has become frail, his emotions sporadic, but his will, his will is the only thing that is keeping them up, along with the friend's he has made including his own pokemon.*

Kaito: "We're home..."

*He said softly, his gaze turning serious. Kaito remembered how hurt Minami was, and couldn't leave her behind. He brought her back with him, so she could get healed up at the pokemon center. Hopefully her wounds aren't too bad. Even if they weren't, Kaito shared some blame for it. All he did was just take a nap through it all, and most of the people who fought alongside him got hurt.*

Kaito: "There, the Pokemon Center. We're almost there, guys."

Shaker: "Tar tar!"

Fus: "Cario!"

*Aeolus flipped her comb of feathers in response. The young fighters kept walking forward towards the door of the Pokemon Center. Entering it, they had some idea of what to expect.*

"GET OUT RIGHT NOW!"

Nurse Joy's voice was loud and precise, leaving no room for arguments. She pointed towards the door to indicate that she was serious.

"Oh yeah! Well I don't need you anyway! Who cares about this stupid pokemon center! I'll get my own someday!"

The voice that obviously belonged to Young Joy cried out as she stomped her feet away from her older sister, tears streaming down her face. She accidentally bumped right into Kaito, falling to her butt and bringing a fresh wave of tears from her eyes.

At the counter, the older Nurse Joy looked away from her younger sister, choking back her own tears.

*On second thought, no they didn't. That wasn't what they were expecting at all. The rage heard from between the two Joys' was scary, to say the least. Kaito looked in obvious shock, his eyes and mouth wide from hearing what he just heard. After Young Joy bumped into him, Kaito looked upon her crying face, then looked back up to Older Joy, who just turned away in that instance.*

Kaito: "Wha... What's... What's going on?"

*Kaito softly asked, Shaker moving over to Young Joy to help her up. Kai looked towards his own pokemon, they were just as confused as he was. His heart pounded slightly. Did they have an argument about something?*

"Aww! Come on YJ, you're not used to improvising yet?"

The older Nurse Joy suddenly called, not even the least bit showing the anger or sadness that had just filled the air of the center. Young Joy silently thanked the small Larvitar and giggled.

"Sorry sis! I wasn't expecting to walk into someone! We can try again in a bit. Let's take five!"

"Whatever you say imouto."

With there small back and forth, YJ would look towards the person she had walked into.

"Oh, hey Kaito-kun! Sorry to worry you! Me and sis are practicing for our auditions in Ms. Isis' next movie! We're going to be heading to Dawn City in a few weeks and we want to make sure we're completely ready! What brings you back to Luna Mountain Town so soon?"

*Anime tear-drop, obviously. Kaito was so done, he was really just so done. However, he couldn't help but burst out into an almost psychotic laughter. The situation was indeed funny, but the whole fact of the matter is that... You know what, no that needs no explanation. Kai teared up, he was laughing so hard that he started to tear up. Soon, though, Shaker kicked Kai in his shin, and that made him snap back into reality.*

Kaito: "Oh well you two did a stunning performance, you totally had me fooled."

*He'd say, then his own pokemon began to chuckle among themselves. However, that little moment of happiness changed a little when Kaito remembered why he was here in the first place. He remembered Minami was injured and she needed some medical attention. But the really startling part was that these two were completely oblivious to the explosion that happened some time back.*

Kaito: "Well... I'm sure you heard the explosion, right? Also, Minami received some injuries while we were in the Mountain Route, she needs some medical attention."

"Explosion? No, what explosion?"

Young Joy would ask as she rushed to start checking Minami for any injuries. However, as she checked her, she couldn't really find any at all.

"Umm...there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with her."

The older Joy would move from around the counter to double check the younger girl as well.

Kaito: "Are you sure? I mean, we did fight an ugly looking Venasaur and Ninetails..."

*He'd say wondering if he had been wrong. No way, though. That can't be right. Something happened to everyone in that battle. Kaito had hoped that both of them would be able to figure out if something had happened to Minami. But furthermore, Kai was surprised that they didn't feel or hear the explosion.*

Kaito: "The generator, its explosion. You guys didn't hear or feel anything from that? The explosion was so large it blew a hole into the mountain itself. You can see Dusk City from it... Ugh, I'm so tired."

*Kai would say, smiling. His hair still remained different and his eyes also remained heterochromatic, whether or not those two noticed was of no importance, but he did convey his tiredness through a big sigh.*

Minami silently let the nurse's check her. She hadn't said anything earlier, but she was sure that Rena girl had healed everyone without them noticing. While they were walking away she had oddly started feeling better. She knew even as a Medic herself, she wasn't advanced enough to heal everyone over a set distance. It made her wonder just how strong those three, Rena, Selty, and Valencia really were.

"Um, I'm fine. I'm just stopping in to see if the bridge to Stardust City is down yet?"

She asked with a timid undertone. The way Young Joy was looking at her made her a bit worried.

Young Joy had indeed been looking at Minami funny. It seemed a lot had happened between her and Kaito on their journey.

'Something smells fishy about those two...'

She didn't know what it was coughjealousycough but she was going to get to the bottom of it eventually.

"No, we didn't hear or feel anything. We know that the pokemon have stopped rampaging recently though. Does the generator you're talking about have something to do with it?"

Before they could answer, the door to the pokemon center would open and in would walk another girl. She would pause for a second before smiling warmly, obviously controlling her emotions.

"Kaito! Otouto, what are you doing here?"

Kaito's elder sister would ask as she briskly stepped towards him and wrapped him in a warm hug. She would pause again however and take a step back from him with a gasp.

"YOU'RE AN AURA USER??"

*That was the darnedest thing. He was sure Minami took a couple of licks during the battle, but here she was fine as ever. The oddity of it all made Kaito question whether it all really happened or not. However, the reality of it was that it did happen, he couldn't deny it.*

Kaito: "More than likely. I hope that Steelix is doing well, though. But I'm also glad to know the pokemon have started to calm down."

*He'd say, and right after, his older sister came in. She managed to hug him from behind only due to him not turning around quick enough. But when he felt her embrace, he couldn't help put take his hands, and hold them onto her hugging arms. But she soon let go and noticed his change in appearance. Kai turned to face her, and when he did so, he smiled. In fact this is just like when their older brother, Gemini had come back to the town a long time ago. The same turn and smile, the same eye color change, but different hair style. Kai looked upon his big sister, then rushed forward and hugged her once more.*

Kaito: "I think so! Why? Does it look like I've become one?"

With things starting to get crowded, Kaito's sister would pull him outside, of course after all the healing was done and over with. Minami remained behind to talk to the Joy's, giving Kaito time to do whatever he wanted. (Free roam) :3

*Kaito was smiling at the gathering crowd, but was soon pulled away. His own pokemon quickly picked up on this, and followed him out. Shaker, Fus, and Aeolus took their places next to him, and they all looked at his sister. Shaker, walked over to Kai's sister after a moment and hugged her leg, Fus bowed slightly to her, and Aeolus merely flipped her comb.*

Kaito: "Haha, guess we're going to have our little heart to heart, huh?"

*Kai's sister, crouched slightly, and petted little Shaker. She returned the bow to Fus and giggled slightly at Aeolus. After the little pleasantries were done, his sister turned towards him, and looked right in the eyes. Shooting her little brother a soft smile, she went back over to hug him.*

Sis: "I can't believe how much you've changed. Its only been so little time, and yet look at you! An Aura User, just like Gemini and I."

Kaito: "Yeah, its been a weird journey so far, but I couldn't do it without the help of my partners."

*Kaito gave smiles to all three of his pokemon, then finished the embrace with his sister. However, his sister's smile began to fade within a few moments, and her eyes started to glisten a bit.*

Kaito: "What's the matter, sis?"

Sis: "Those eyes... I've seen them before."

Kaito: "What's wrong with them?"

Sis: "Not only has the color change, but the way how they view the world..."

Kaito: "What do you mean by that?"

*Instead of getting an answer, his sister's eyes started to water. In that moment, she closed them for a few seconds, opened them again, and her eyes too had changed color. In contrast to Kaito's red and blue eyes, his sister's eyes were green and yellow. Tears soon began to stream down her cheeks. Kaito grew shocked and quickly went over to her and began to dry her tears.*

Kaito: "H-Hey! What's wrong?"

Sis: "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I couldn't protect him... Please forgive me..."

Kaito: "Sis!"

*Still no answer. She just continued to cry and cry. What had triggered this? This was troubling to Kaito, and caused him to be alert. Even his own pokemon had no idea what was going on.*

After being told the bridge to Stardust City was still drawn, but she would be able to surf under the bridge to reach it, Minami prepared to go and let Kaito know that she would need to catch some water pokemon all the way near Crescent Town, but as she approached, she overheard a bit of the conversation. Taking a moment to hide her presence, she stayed out of sight and listened.

*His voice broke through her own sadness. She choked up almost immediately, and forced the tears to stop. Taking her hands, and wiping the tears away, she looked Kaito in the eyes, and could no longer see her little brother. No, he had changed in just a short amount of time. Seeing that saddened her, because little did Kaito know, a voice from the grave told her to keep him safe from harm.*

Sis: "Kaito... I'm so sorry. Its just... You share the same eyes as He did. The same eyes as I do. You've been exposed to it. Both sides of the coin, both sides of life... Death."

*It didn't make sense to him. What she just said was all too confusing. He was just kid and being exposed to all of this still seemed like a fantasy to him. However, he knew it wasn't. Deep down inside coupled with the emotions from his sister, and the words of Shinta, this was all reality, every single bit. Kaito cringed as all the memories started to flood back. His started to hurt a lot, and his pokemon soon came to his side to give him comfort.*

Kaito: "You said 'He,' who is he?"

Sis: "Our older brother... Gemini..."

*Gemini? Could it have been that he'd seen the same? Whatever it was she was talking about, did it all happen to them? Tears started to well up into his eyes, and he bit his lip to keep himself from crying out.*

Kaito: "Big brother? Big brother is... Big brother is..."

*He remembered it all too well. The day Kaito went out onto the Mountain Route to find his sister there, crying. In her hands was the long bloodied scarf of their brother, Gemini Inaki. He went missing several years ago when Kaito was around 9 or so. Jade embarked on her second journey, searching for him, only to return with terrible news. His pokeballs were found crushed, his pokemon nowhere to be found. The only thing left was a broken dagger covered in blood, and his torn bloodied scarf.*

Kaito: "Big brother is dead!"

*There, it happened. He started to cry. Kaito fell to his knees almost immediately, but was soon helped up by his fellow pokemon, and his sister who held him tightly. Kai cried out, remembering how he ran and ran, trying to find Gemini, but his tiny body couldn't keep up with the pace he was putting it in. He soon collapsed, but not before his sister could save him, and bring him back home. Years after, Kaito aspired to become a pokemon trainer, still thinking that his brother was merely missing. But now, his denial has been broken, and there he was, in the arms of his older sister, crying to himself.*

Kaito: "No no no... No! He's... He's gone!"

Sis: "I know... I know, I'm so sorry Kaito, I'm so sorry..."

*Her tears and sorrow soon joined his.*

Minami held her hand over her mouth as she realized she was listening in on something very private. With a swift turn, she rushed away from the area, however, she forgot to tread lightly, meaning her foot steps could easily be heard. As tears fell from her own eyes from hearing Kaito's and Jade's powerful emotions of their lost elder sibling, her vision blurred a bit and she ended up entering a building without any thought to whom's place it was.

*Seemingly in a simultaneous manner, Kaito, Jade, and the pokemon turned in alert to the footsteps. Their tears still streaming down their eyes, Kai immediately noticed it was Minami, and shook lightly in his sister's grip. His sister on the other hand, wiped his tears, immediately let him go, then pushed him forward.*

Sis: "Go."

Kaito: "B-But..."

Sis: "Go!"

*With that, he was urged to go forward. Kaito ran towards the building of where Minami went. Shaker and the gang followed after him, and Jade stayed behind to watch as they left. She was wiping her tears, but not nearly as fast as they were coming out. She reached behind her head, and placed her hands beneath her second and third layer of hair. She was unwrapping something from it, and once Kaito and them had disappeared, she'd start to shadow them slowly. Continuing to unwrap something from her hair.*

Sis: "Gemini..."

*On Kaito's end, he had entered the building Minami had. He was looking around quickly, wiping the tears from his eyes to stop them from blurring up.*

Kaito: "Minami, Minami! Where are you, Minami?"

Kaito would spot Minami as soon as he entered the building. It was the first floor of the abandoned radio tower, the main entrance, besides the waiting area where they resided, still boarded off. Though looking closely, one could see a hole in the boards, indicating someone or something had been traversing there uninvited.

"Kaito-kun..."

Minami called his name as she turned to face him, a single tear in her eye as she tried her best to wipe them away.

"I...what are you doing here...?"

*Kaito saw Minami ahead, and smiled only lightly. There was an unnatural light flow coming in. The boards were missing? More like vandalized. Kaito quickly took not of this, but figured it was probably a Raticate or Ratatta that gnawed its way out of the building at night. Stopping just in front of Minami, Kai started to pant after stopping. Shaker and the gang soon came in afterwards, and stayed at the door.*

Kaito: "I could... Ask you the same thing... Seems as though you had overheard everything. Sorry you you did, we should have went somewhere else, that was inappropriate of us."

*He'd say looking down a little. The radio tower sure was dusty. In any case, he felt bad for putting her through that. She had shed a small tear. Kaito went over to hug her, and boy did he do it tightly.*

Kaito: "Don't scare me like that..."

Minami didn't respond to him, at least, not right away. She sighed and finished wiping the tears from her eyes. She would have told him it wasn't his fault, but their relationship remained neutral for the moment, and she viewed him as little more than an associate still...

That is until he hugged her.

A strong blush formed on her face as she felt his arms wrap around her and she went as stiff as a board from the contact. Her breathing hitched in her throat, as the emotions from such a simple movement sucked the silent 'ah' right from her chest.

Only after standing stock still for several moments did she finally lean her head slightly against Kaito's shoulder and wrap her arms around him as well, giving him just as warm a hug as he had given her.

"I'm sorry Kaito-kun...I've been cold to you recently, just because of an accident. You've done nothing but look out for me this whole time when it should be the other way around. I'm sorry if I've hurt you..."

(Relationship Status: Neutral => Good)

*Kaito felt his action to be a little bold. His own face blushing after realizing it. Kai reacted out of care for Minami, which what caused him to do what he just did. He was hoping she wouldn't hit him for it, but she didn't. Instead, she leaned her head on his shoulder, and hugged him warmly. The hug made him smile, and a few tears dropped from his eyes. Sniffling a little, he listened as Minami spoke to him.*

Kaito: "You haven't hurt me one bit, Minami. Don't worry about who should be protecting who, just know that I'll always be there to have your back. You're my friend. We can do this, together."

*As he said that, he hugged just a little tighter. His pokemon couldn't help but smile themselves. From one of the closed doors in the front, Jade stood there, listening in on them, and smiling herself. In her hands rested an extremely long scarf. There were two colors that mixed together like the sunset in the setting dusk, orange and purple. There were two initials on the tails; JI and GI. Trailing her fingers along the scarf, was another initial in the middle; KI.*

Sis: "The torch, has to keep going..."

*She said softly, wondering just how far those two are willing to go with each other.*

Minami wiped her tears and smiled at Kaito, a smile that she had never given him before. It solidified the fact that they were indeed close to each other and that from that point on, their relationship would most likely only continue to grow. However, Minami did recall a startling fact that Young Joy had told her, and because of it, she slightly took a step back from Kaito, though the warm feelings between them didn't diminish a bit.

"Let's get going Kaito-kun. I was going to head off to get my fourth gym badge, but since you're going to be going to Crescent Town anyway, I might as well tag along with you for a while longer. I may have to go after that though, because I have something to do in Stardust City before I can get my badge from Dawn City."

*Kaito continued to smile at Minami after the hug, and the blush on his face was evident. His red and blue eyes twinkled a little, and after hearing that she was going to journey with him a little more, he couldn't help but feel a whole lot happier. Kaito excitedly gripped Minami's hand, and started to run off with her out the radio tower. Kai's pokemon cleared a path for him, but before they could run off elsewhere, he saw in front that his sister was there, smiling warmly at the two, and holding out a scarf.*

Kaito: "Jade..."

Sis: "Kaito... To think that when you were smaller, you had no interest in becoming a pokemon trainer. Now look at you, champion material and quite possible husband material right here, haha!"

*She giggled softly, and Kaito only responded in a blush once he realized he was holding Minami's hand. Taking it away, and using it to scratch his head, Kai just nervously laughed at the thought of being with Minami in that way. The gang all came out and circled the three. Shaker, Fus, and Aeolus all did their cries as they felt Kaito's new resolve.*

Minami blushed slightly as Kaito pulled her. She was happy being with him, yet, she couldn't help but feel that a distance should still be in place for both of their sakes. So when Jade made a comment about being husband material, Minami looked at the ground, though she had a small smirk and blush.

*Jade continued to giggle, then walked over to Kaito. She took the scarf, wrapped it around a two times, then tied it into a knot. This the middle part of the scarf showed KI, and the tails had the remaining two initials. Hugging Kaito, then patting his shoulders. Looking at both Kai and his pokemon, Jade placed a finger upon her lips, frowned a little, then nodded her head.*

Sis: "Your pokemon are looking good, BUT they're not beefy enough. You won't be ready for your second badge, unless you do some more growing. Get some training in, and talk to your pokemon whenever the chances arrive. I'll also suggest to come back and battle Granite, she'll be more than happy to see how much you've grown since she's last seen you, now get to it!"

*His sis shot him a big smile. Looking over to Minami, Jade winked at her, and shot a smile to her as well. Shaker hugged her leg one last time, Fus bowed, and of course Aeolus flipped her comb and smirked. Nodding his head, Kaito was just about ready to go. He decided to keep all three of them out for a time, allow them to enjoy the hometown air.*

Kaito: "Got it, sis. I'll be back once my training is done. I'll also try to keep in contact with everyone here more often."

*Kaito was just about ready to go. Checking everything in his messenger bag, it all seemed to be in order, save for a few Christmas items that made their way into the bag... Somehow. Kai hugged his sister one last time, looked down at his pokemon to see if they were all good, and looked back towards Minami to see if she was doing alright.*

Kaito: "Let's get going then, we have a long road ahead!"

Just as Kaito and Minami began to move forward, a person would collide right into them on accident. The woman would stumble back a bit without a word from the collision.

"Oh, I'm sorry!"

She would call out.

"I wasn't really watching where I was going, forgive me."

The woman was strikingly beautiful, and pretty tall. Her black outfit resembled that of an Umbreon.