Pokemon - From the Brink

Chapter 6 - Red Eye

It was the day of our flight. Later on, we would make our way to the airport and board a plane headed for Liocott Island, where we would properly prepare ourselves for the Continental Cup.

Now, though, it was fairly early in the day – our flight would be a late one, so there was no rush to get up.

Nelly and I were laying in bed, watching an episode of an anime through my phone. She was curled up right beside me, and we were facing the same way. With a pillow in front of our heads, I held my phone in place as we watched, whilst my other arm went under her head. We had been there for a while, but my arms weren't tired yet. I was too absorbed in watching the story unfold that I didn't really notice. We thought it best to get it out of the way before all of our time was taken up by training for the Continental Cup, and then the actual tournament itself.

Eventually, the credits came on, accompanied by an ending theme which had quickly become my favourite song. The rock song faded out over a beautiful final image of a seaside path covered in a young man's footprints at sunrise, before the video ended.

"I never get sick of that song." I smiled, shifting to sit up.

"Yeah." Nelly came up with me. "Especially with that imagery."

"Well, I guess we'd better make sure we've got everything packed." I yawned, looking at our suitcases on the floor.

"Mm-hm, but, breakfast first?" She suggested.

"Sounds good."

*

The day seemed to pass by extremely quickly, despite the fact that we spent it doing very little. But before we knew it, we were at the airport, unloading our bags from the boot. Alexis had driven us here so that she and Maruki could say goodbye. Darragh bid farewell to his wife and son, and they hugged him tightly.

"We won't be far behind." Alexis told us as she wrapped her arms around our shoulders. "We'll fly out to watch you."

"Right." Nelly smiled. "Goodbye, Maruki! See you in a week!"

"Bye-bye!" Maruki beamed, seemingly accepting of the fact that he would see us again soon.

We said goodbye and made our way through the airport, dropping our suitcases onto the conveyor belt when we made it to the right queue. The best thing about our flight was that it was just us on it, so there were no lines except for security where everybody in the building seemed to trickle through at once.

Eventually, we made it through to the lounge within our terminal. Outside, the sky had turned orange and I could see the Sun slowly setting over the horizon. There was still about an hour before our plane would be ready to board.

Already waiting in the lounge were Kudou, Xene and Jordan, as well as Yu and Hikaru.

"Hey!" Hikaru got up from her seat came over to us. "Coach said you'd be coming!" She said to Nelly. "Congrats!"

"I'm happy to be here." Nelly smiled.

"Glad to see you're on time." Kudou remarked.

"As if we'd be late." Darragh scoffed. "You wouldn't leave without your assistant manager."

"True."

"What about everyone else?"

"Most of the members from outside Japan chose to travel separately in the end." Kudou revealed. "That said, we're still waiting on a few."

"Skyra, Victor, Caleb, Midorima and Shu-ling are coming with us." Jordan clarified.

"Oh, so those guys stayed in Japan?" I asked.