1.Ash's Story (Part 2: Johto)

Chapter 72: Rainbow Light

The road away from Goldenrod felt lighter and heavier at the same time. The city was behind us, the Grand Festival was behind us, and the Radio Tower was finally free from Team Rocket's broadcast. Still, every time the wind brushed the Silver Wing and Rainbow Wing in my bag, I felt like Johto had handed me two promises I was not allowed to open yet.

Lillie walked beside me with Togetic floating near her shoulder. "It feels strange to leave Goldenrod after everything that happened there."

"It does," I agreed quietly. "But if we stay there too long, it starts feeling like the whole region stopped moving."

East checked the road ahead, studying the ridges and the thinning trees. "Route bends toward Mahogany first, then Route 44. Ice Path comes after that if the old maps still match the current road."

Kris adjusted her notes while Ethan stretched his arms behind his head. Reisa walked near the back, listening more than speaking, her eyes following the dry channels beside the road. The ditches looked like old streambeds, but only pale stone and cracked mud rested at the bottom.

Pikachu's ears twitched from my shoulder. His meaning came through clearly: "The ground remembers water, but the water is gone."

I looked down at the dry channels again. "Pikachu says this place used to have water."

Reisa slowed beside me, her voice soft. "It feels like a song with the melody taken out."

The further we walked, the worse the silence became. Trees had been cut from the lower slopes, leaving stumps and raw ground where forest should have held the soil together. A mountain rose ahead, but instead of sounding alive with streams, it waited in a dead hush.

A man sat near the broken riverbed with a canvas propped before him. His brush hovered over the blank surface, but he was not painting. He stared toward the mountain like someone trying to remember a face he had only seen in a dream.

Lillie stepped forward carefully. "Excuse me, are you all right?"

The man startled, then gave us a strained smile. "Ah, travelers. I am Gan Gore, painter of light, water, and impossible moments. Or I would be, if the light would return."

Ethan tilted his head. "What light?"

Gan Gore stood and pointed toward the mountain. "The Rainbow Light. When the sun strikes the flowing water at the right angle, the entire mountainside glows with colors. Remoraid used to fill these streams. Their water shots made spray, and the spray caught the sun. It was like the mountain breathed rainbows."

Kris knelt near the dry riverbed and touched the cracked mud. "But the water source dried?"

"Not naturally," Gan Gore said, sadness turning his voice rough. "People cut the forest to build a city nearby. The roots stopped holding the water paths. Then something froze the upper source, and the rivers vanished. Without water, the Remoraid left."

Lillie looked toward the mountain with a troubled expression. "That means they lost their home because people changed the land too quickly."

Reisa's hands tightened around her strap. "A water Pokémon place without water sounds lonely."

Togetic drifted lower beside Lillie. Its meaning reached me and Lillie like a small bell inside the chest: "Something is still waiting up there."

Lillie met my eyes. "Togetic feels something near the source."

"Then we should check it," I said. "If the water can come back, maybe the Remoraid can too."

Gan Gore's eyes brightened, though he tried not to hope too quickly. "You would look for it?"