Pokémon Azurite | An Orre Fanfiction

Chapter 46: Mother

Dorothy lived alone with her Flying-type Pokémon on the Ancient Poni Path. She was raised by her grandparents in the nearby Seafolk Village, but since their ship sank with them onboard, she enjoyed the silence of the ruins left to her by the previous kahuna, Hapu.

Her Mudsdale was still alive. It happily nudged Dorothy awake whenever Tapu Fini called for her, but that night, it was nervous. She was already awake. She tried to smile when she stroked its coarse mane. It trudged after her regardless.

So it was a premonition. Dorian isn't seeing things. Dinah is dead... and a child will be, or already has been kidnapped.

The Misty Terrain that protected the Ruins of Hope seeped out onto the Poni Breaker Coast. It was suffocating. Most tourists stayed away, or left as soon as they snapped a photo of the famous blowholes. It didn't bother Dorothy at all. Tapu Fini despised humans, but she knew that if she hadn't earned its respect, she wouldn't be kahuna. It watched over her in return for her loyal service to the guardian and the island it protected. She found the enveloping fog comforting. Whatever happened, as Hapu always reminded her, the tapu was beside her in her Z-Ring.

Stepping into the Ruins of Hope, the fog stifled every sense until it felt as if the outside world was sealed off forever. It was rare that the guardians revealed themselves directly, even to the kahunas. Tapu Fini itself awaited Dorothy at the shrine. She knelt and bowed her head, but a damp webbed hand reached to turn her face so she stared directly into the guardian's blue eyes. The fog was so thick that the shrine was no longer visible. Mudsdale's frightened footsteps no longer thumped against wood but the fog itself. It was afraid, but it didn't run. It knew from both Hapu and Dorothy that Tapu Fini meant them no harm.

Dorothy experienced something like this once before. Ancient stories said that Tapu Fini's fog had the power to temporarily connect the living world to the afterlife. Nowadays, so few people actually met the tapu, it was mostly forgotten. Those who did remember dismissed it as mere psychological manipulation, either to trap those with ill intent or, on the rare occasions Tapu Fini trusted a human, to make them feel better. Whether it was exactly as the legends described or not, Dorothy believed it was more than an illusion, just as the images Tapu Lele shared with the kahunas who served it were real.

The last time, when Dorothy became kahuna, Tapu Fini summoned the foggy image of her mother who died in childbirth. It didn't fade until Dorothy stopped crying, finally coming to terms with all that led her to that moment as the ghostly arms holding her let go. This time, multiple silhouettes materialised. She instantly recognised her grandpa's long strides, her grandma's curly hair and the image she never forgot of her young mother. Hapu's kind smile appeared beside her. There was someone else, a child she didn't immediately recognise, but the green hair gave it away. Dinah was indeed dead.

Tapu Fini is showing me everyone I care or wonder about, except... one person. As if to tell me... he isn't dead.

'Grandma, Grandpa, Mom... Hapu... is... is Zenko with you?'

Her own voice sounded as distant and ethereal as her mother's reply.

'No.'

'...I understand.'

Dorothy looked up at the guardian who hovered over them.

'I'll... I'll... I'll take the first flight... this time...'

She was determined to steady her cracking voice.

'I was weak, then... I was a victim... not a survivor. I'm not that person anymore. I'm an island kahuna. As long as Tapu Fini is beside me, so are all of you. I won't be afraid. This time... I will not abandon my son.'

'Dorothy.'

She took the pale hand her grandfather offered.

'Tapu Fini hasn't just called you here to tell you that Zenko is alive. This may come as an unpleasant surprise, but the guardian called you so we can tell you the ship was not "attacked by Dhelmise." No ship built by the masters of Seafolk Village could be sunk by wild Pokémon. We were murdered by the criminal syndicate Cipher. They used a vicious Pokémon we had never seen before.'

'A Shadow Pokémon, I expect,' Hapu added, 'If only I had seen the Pokémon then, I might have known. But they escaped immediately.'

'...It's not a surprise. I was so distraught when it happened, I didn't even think... but... I started to question it after Hapu died. And since Zenko was attacked... I was 99% sure that was Cipher and that it's all linked.'

'Do you remember, Dorothy?' her grandmother asked, 'What we were planning to do before we died?'

'You were going to report Tance for... what he did to me.'

'When we looked into it, we learned that he revived the syndicate in Galar to impress his biological father, Ardos Luvaro, but became obsessed with its mission himself – which we also planned to tell the authorities. That is all the proof you need to know we were killed by Cipher. Not that anyone will accept proof from a ghost, or even a kahuna, these days...'

Dorothy could wonder if she was hallucinating later, though she would inevitably come to the conclusion that she couldn't be. Mudsdale saw it, too. Its eyes welled up when it was hugged once again by Hapu. Dorothy knelt to speak to little Dinah.

'Dinah, is there something you want to tell me?'

'My uncle isn't seeing things... I let the Frillish take me away when my mom said I had to marry an old man. Please tell him.'

'I will. I promise.'

With that, Dinah disappeared. She had nothing more to share with a stranger she never met when she was alive. Dorothy glanced back. She could discern the shape of the painted doorway. The ethereal figures faded as the fog suddenly began to clear.

'I will be cheering for you, Dorothy.'

Hapu was gone as if she was never there, alive or dead. Dorothy scrambled to hug her grandparents one last time before they faded. One hand remained on her shoulder. The faint image of her mother, frozen at 13, was more youthful than 37 year-old Dorothy herself.

'Know that I love you, my baby... that I'll always be watching you... and I am and always have been proud of you. I'll see you again, one day... but I hope that will be many, many years from now...'

She was gone. So was Tapu Fini. Dorothy's surroundings were in perfect clarity. It was as if nothing inhabited the ruins at all. That was the moment when she wondered if she hallucinated the entire thing, but Mudsdale's stunned eyes told her otherwise. Her face and collar were damp. She wiped her cheeks with her sleeve and turned to leave. Once she took her last uncertain step out of the ruins, she ran. Mudsdale thundered after her.

She stuffed a few pairs of clothes into her camping backpack that already contained her tent and survival gear. After reaching the semifinals of the World Championships and inheriting Hapu's farm, she wasn't short of money, but she suspected she wouldn't find her son anywhere near a motel. Before she pulled on her helmet to fly to the airport, she called the kahuna she knew would be yet to sleep, Acerola. There was no need to explain. Tapu Lele had already shared the events with Dorian. Only Hau was yet to check his phone. Tapu Koko wasn't interested in what the other guardians had to share with it unless it involved battling.

'Good luck, Dorothy! We'll look after Poni Island for you!'

'You might need to, if Cipher are tracking me...'

'Cipher don't scare me! I've fought them once before and I'll fight them again!'

Dorothy sent her Oricorio to Poké Pelago so she could take Mudsdale. It was old and she didn't want it to be harmed if Cipher ransacked her home. She took the first flight from Malie City International Airport to Phenac City.