Harmonia | Pokémon Fanfiction

26 | What Makes A Hero

Music in media: What Makes A Hero from "Z, The Masked Musical of Zorro"

15 January, Saturday, 3 a.m. | Winter

Rae was shivering. She was shivering from the coldness of the moonlight flooding the room whenever the curtains fluttered. Perhaps it was the mocking wind, a remnant of the storm, picking at the windows like a burglar. Perhaps it was merely her dreaming of Mareep as she once did five years ago when she was still following her older brother Kyo wherever he went till he decided to be a homebody.

In her dream, the Mareep was reading a book bound using Caterpie silk, in which each letter was woven into the page using wool. It was another lonely night for the Pokémon, another night of failing to leap over the fence. Unlike the Mareep from five years ago, this one was studious, seized by a hapless curiosity.

It read aloud to the elm tree outside the barn, "You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity. At some time, every creature which lives must do so. It is the ultimate shadow, the defeat of creation; this is the curse at work, the curse that feeds on all life. Everywhere in the universe."

Rae recognised the book. Her mentor and friend, Kaspar Wolfram, had brought it to the Trainers' School once. For a moment, she saw, merging with the Mareep's head, Kaspar's fine features: his silver-grey hair, the Mega Houndoom tattoo on the back of his hand, his scowl...

"Dun! Dun! Dun!"

The drumming crescendoed till she gradually took the Mareep's perspective, the book nestled in her fluffy limbs, the words unspooling themselves around her, swathing her with each passing "Dun!" till she was gasping and heaving.

Gasping and heaving she did as she awoke at last, her eyes adjusting to the yellow tint bumping her forehead for the umpteenth time.

"Nngh... Noko-Noko?"

Rae rubbed her eyes as she set aside her blanket and stared at the Dunspace, then scanned the room. Everyone else was sound asleep after a long day and they were the only ones awake.

Noko-Noko tilted her head and somersaulted twice. Rae understood and checked on her Pokémon.

"Eh?" She yelped before reducing her volume to a whisper. "Where's Zorozoro?"

She leapt out of bed and rushed out of the room on her tiptoes, Noko-Noko in tow. The hallways were empty and the only person awake, Nurse Joy, admitted she glimpsed a tiny, nimble Pokémon zipping by the counter, though she was uncertain where it was headed.

"I'm sorry I can't be of much help, but you could check out Lostlorn Forest," offered Nurse Joy, "For a Pokémon unaccustomed to the modern world, the natural world might be the best choice of respite."

Rae thanked her and they left for the forest northeast of the city, Nimbasa's music fading fast behind. As they entered Lostlorn Forest, a soulful series of staccato piano dins and duns welcomed them amidst the sprawling trees. Past the bark overgrown with moss they went, before turning corners and climbing over a ledge, before reaching a suspicious white caravan parked in the middle of the forest clearing, the only marker of civilisation in a place otherwise inhabited by Pokémon who could not give a hoot about them.

"Latch onto me." On Rae's words, Noko-Noko siddled up to her shoulder. "I hope Zorozoro's in there somehow."

"Dun!" cried the Dunsparce in encouragement.

Rae knocked on the door twice. It swung slightly open, letting slip a slit of light to drape over a lone purple flower about an inch away from the caravan. A nonplussed squeak followed after. She widened the gap and squeezed through before shutting the door gingerly as if the faintest click would startle the forest, as if the forest would cease to be a forest now that the boundary was drawn clear, and she had entered a whole other dimension.