Kaze's Story-Chapter 1
Call Me Anything You Like, Except Late for Dinner
Kaze's Story, Chapter One
"Mama!!"
"What is is now Yikomi?"
"Can me an 'suru go out on the dock? I wanna go look at the ocean!"
"Hmm..I suppose there's no harm in that, but you two stay close!"
"Yes mama."
"And be back before eight-o-clock, we can't be late for dinner tonight. "
"Yes mama"
"Dont get dirty"
"Mama...."
"And behave yourself"
"OKAY MAMA!! can i go now?!"
"*sigh* Thats fine dear, but-"
"Great! C'mon suru!!"
"Boof. *yawn*"
"Yikomi one more thing--"
"Bye bye mama!! *SLAM!!*"Yikomi quickly ran away from the door before her mom had
the chance stop her. She turned around a corner and leaned against the wall, stopping momentarily to catch her breath.
"That was close!" she giggled, and scratched her Houndour behind its ears,"Now whats say
we go see that ocean!" Hogosuru barked his agreement, and the pair set out to the dock.
It was a much longer walk than either of them had anticipated, the cruise ship Yikomi's family
was on was of astronomical size. She was the most famous ship in johto, there wasn't a place you could visit that didn't know the name S.S. Orion. She had been built with the vision to surpass the
speed and power of the S.S. Anne, which sank to her watery grave in Kanto14 years before Yikomi
even knew there was a spot of water bigger than the bath tub. Though it's immense size and beauty
were pleasing to any adult who cared, for Yikomi, she would've liked a shorter walk.
"Wow! D'you think they could've built this stupid boat any bigger 'Suru?" Yikomi laughed
as they finally emerged from the depths of the ship. The dock was large and stretched out in every direction, speckled here and there with trainers and their pokemon.
A few heads turned as Yikomi and her houndour weaved their way to the railings, as most little
girls prefered to be in the company of cute pokemon. A foolish trainer noticed this, and offered to trade Yikomi's " Ugly houndour" for his "sweet little pichu". Yikomi however demonstrated that she
was not all ashamed to have a friend like hogosuru by ordering him to " Flame wheel!!" the trainer.
This earned the pair of them a round of applause from the bystanders, and a peaceful day of playing
out in the open.
It turned out to be a very pleasant time, one of the trainers had released a dancing bellosom
that they had watched for most of the afternoon. Even the sea seemed in in a good mood, calm and quiet. Once the pair of them had had their fill of the " fresh sea air" they retreated back to
their cabin, once again enduring the ridiculously long trek through the ship.
"Mmmm...." Yikomi pressed her ear against the door, " I don't hear anyone! maybe we can
relax awhile before mama gets back!" She grinned at her houndour, pushed open the door and walked in, oddly enough, though, someone was in fact already there.
Hogosuru began barking and growling, the stranger shrieked and ran behind the curtain. "'Suru,
stop!! it's okay, hey...suru.... SURU STOP THAT!!" Yikomi yelled over the barking, which abruptly ended. The only sounds heard in the cabin were the terrified sobs of the stranger.
Yikomi took a brave step foreward, checked nervously to see Hogosuru behind her and ready
to attack, and threw open the curtain. A small girl about her age was crouched on the floor.
"Oh!" Yikomi exclaimed.
The two of them stared for a very long time, observing each other carefully. Nobody spoke
until Hogosuru yipped very loudly making the two of them jump.
Yikomi hushed her Houndour and turned her attention back to the stranger. Her face split
into a grin and she laughed.
The girl blinked, "What's so funny?", she stood up and wiped her eyes with a confused look.
" Nothing, I'm just happy! You really scared me!" She smiled at the girl and bowed her head
briefly "I'm Yikomi Li-chan, who're you?"
The girl blinked again,. " Li-chan...?" her confused look changed suddenly into a mysterious
smile, "My name's Sara-Ni Raiu, but everyone calls me Sara!", she replied and extended her hand.
Yikomi shook hands with Sara and glanced over her shoulder at her frustrated houndour. "And
this's Hogosuru, my best friend!," she said, and eventually convinced Sara to pat him on the head assuring her that he wouldn't hurt a fly. Hogosuru tolerated this for a moment, looking as if he would
rather be beaten savagely with a baseball bat, and retreated to the corner with a disgruntled 'boof'.
Finally Yikomi asked " Why are you in my room?"
Sara looked nervous for a moment, but told Yikomi that she had gotten lost touring the ship by
herself. Yikomi thought it was amazing that Sara's parents let her out on her own, her parents would fling themselves into a raging inferno before letting her do any such thing.
Though they had only just met, Yikomi and Sara spent the rest of the afternoon talking like
they'd known each other for years. Mostly they talked about their favorite pokemon, and Yikomi was quite suprised to learn that Sara was already training one named Kyari.
Even more suprising to her was the pokemon, a blissful little creature called Jumpluff. It
hopped merrily around the room leaving a tiny white trail of 'poofies' behind it. One of them bursted on hogosuru's nose and made him sneeze so loudly it scared Kyari back into its pokeball, so ending
the rain of poofy like things.
Yikomi was having such a wonderful time talking with Sara she didn't realize how late it was
getting. Sara aparrently didn't either, for they both got the crap scared out of them when yikomi's parents suddenly burst through the door.
"YIKOMI!!" her mother cried and ran to her, throwing her arms around Yikomi's little neck
and squeezing her in a deathgrip hug. "Oh yikomi!! we looked for you out on the dock, and and--" she sobbed "Oh we found you, thank goodness your safe!!"
Yikomi shot an embarrassed side glance at Sara, who was shaking her head and looking about
like she was going to explode with laughter.
"Eh,.. Hiya mama! How's it going?" she looked over her mom's shoulder and saw her dad
shaking hands with a man in the doorway, "great," she thought, "Leave it to them to make a huge fuss out of this. I'll bet the whole ship thinks I'm dead or something!"
It took a long time to convince her mother to release her, but Yikomi found it didn't take
long at all for her parents to notice Sara, who had been sitting very quietly the whole time.
They weren't at all pleased with the story the girls patched together for them, her parents
would've kill her if Yikomi had said she had found Sarah in her cabin, After scolding her for letting someone in while they were away,they told Sarah to leave.
The two exchanged a bitter glance but Sarah nodded and trotted out of the room, leaving
Yikomi to be alone for the rest of the afternoon.
The evening passed in a blur, Yikomi found herself too busy to think about Sarah with all of
the preperation she had to go through for the dinner.
She hated the big fancy engagements she got dragged into, but it was always that way,
whether she liked it or not. Her parents were extremely wellknown throughout Johto and Kanto for their incredible skill and knowledge in training the nocturnal element. They were hailed by some as
the greatest, and there was always a big party to attend, always a massive battle to be fought, always
something that took them away from her.
"Yikomi, come on its time!" her father called to her right as she was putting on her shoes.
"Oh Yikomi, that should have already been done!"
She shoved her feet miserably into her shoes and trudged slowly to the door, Hogosuru
following faithfully behind her. "Well, at least i wont be completely alone."
The dining area was buzzing with people from all over the world and their pokemon. She had
never seen so many faces before, at least not all in one place, but one thing was certain: she wasn't having a good time with it at all.
From the moment they came into the ballroom, Yikomi found herself and her family
bombarded with people. Trainers she had never seen before in her life looking for a word of advice from her mother, a bit of praise from her father, what should they do with their nocturnal type
pokemon, oh Wise Master Li?.
Yikomi was used to this sort of thing, it happened all the time. People come, people
talk to mommie and daddy, they talk forever, Yikomi gets ignored, mommy and daddy tell Yikomi to go play. The only thing she liked about her family was getting away from it.
This time she hung around a little while longer than usual, hoping someone would notice her
existence, but there seemed to be no end to the
talking.
"Why wait for them to say so," she thought to herself, grabbed her houndour, and left
the party. After all, what good was hanging around if you were just going to be ignored the whole night?
Nothing never seemed to change. Life was always this way for her, stupid and boring, just like
the trainers and their petty little problems, except usaully she couldn't just walk out of it.
The only place Yikomi could think of going to was the dock, her feet seemed headed in that
direction anyway. Perhaps it was also because it was just outside the dining area, and she could keep an eye on the party in case it ended early or something odd like that.
"You can never tell with grown-ups," she told hogosuru, "They're always changing
their minds right in the middle of whatever they're doing."
She pushed open the great doors and stepped out onto the moonlit dock. The night air felt
wonderfully cool and breezy on her face as she made her way to the railing. She balanced herself upon the rail and watched the horizon, swirled with dimly flashing clouds.
"Storm clouds," she suddenly felt a freezing sensation in her chest. She wasn't afraid of
storms, but what on earth was that? She looked down at the sea and felt it again,"What the-?"
"Beautiful night, isn't it Yikomi?" a voice said, making her jump out of her skin. She whirled
around to see Sara.
"Sara!" she leapt off the rail, forgetting the sea and smiling for the first time since that evening,
"What are you doing out here?"
"I came to find you."
She walked over to stand by Yikomi. Someone else was with her, a boy with messy white hair
who seemed a year or two older than her. He followed Sara slowly, watching Yikomi with a pair of bright blue eyes. Hogosuru advanced foreward a few paces and growled softly at him. He yelped and
fell backwards.
"Suru, Stop that!" Yikomi walked out in front of her houndour and rubbed him behind the ears
reassuringly.
"That kid isn't doing anything wrong, what's gotten into you!"
She sighed and turned around to face the boy, "I'm really sorry,"'Suru isn't acting like
himself."
His expression stayed fearful as he said,"Th-that's yours?! Sara, y'weren't kidding!?!" he stood
up shakily and walked very cautiously towards them.
Sara laughed, "Nope! That's Yikomi's pokemon all right! Yikomi, meet my good friend
Yoshi!"
Yoshi shook hands with Yikomi, "My full name is Raiu Yoshiyugi, yoshi's just what everyone
calls me. Sara's been talking about you and er...your houndour-"
"Really??" Yikomi blinked a few times,"Well it's nice to meet you Yoshi, I'm Li Yikomi,
and this's my buddy 'Suru!" Hogosuru sat up tall at the sound of his name, trying to look as intimidating as he could.
Yoshi's eyes went wide, " Li?! you're the Li family's daughter?!? That's incredible,
I've heard a lot of things about your family!"
Yikomi's face fell, "You don't say," she was starting to wonder if there wasn't a person
alive that didn't know she existed.
Fortunately before Yoshi could ask too many questions, Sara stepped in, "Well now that you
two have met, what say we get down to business."
Ignoring the confused look on Yikomi's face, Sara continued, "Yikomi, first I want to say
that I really like you and 'Suru, you two are really the first friends I've ever had other than Yoshi."
"You mean it Sara?" Yikomi smiled as Sara nodded her head. "I've never had any friend other
than 'Suru... my parents move around too much and I dont get to meet other kids who arent poke-snots." she stuck out her tounge and the three of them laughed.
"Wow," Sara giggled, "I guess this'll be alot easier then." She stopped laughing and suddenly
looked very serious.
Silence fell between the three of them and Yikomi began to get nervous, "What are you
talking about Sara?" she turned to Yoshi, "Do you two know something I don't?"
Yoshi swallowed hard and nodded, "We're not allowed to reveal ourselves to other trainers,
Sara if you tell her, she's going to have to come with us. Or we'll have to get rid of her!" He looked scared, and that was when Yikomi realised exactly how serious they were being.
"What are you talking about? Sara?" Yikomi took a step back,"What's up guys?"
"Shut-up, Yoshi!," Sara took a deep breath and sighed, "Yikomi, the Orion is gonna
explode tonight at midnight."
"WHAT?" Yikomi shouted disbelievingly, "Are you sure?! Thats impossible, How? who?!"
"SHHHHH!," Yoshi quickly hushed her, "We just know. She's going to the great shipyard in
the sky," he made an upwards guesture with his finger.
"That's horrible, we've got to stop it from-"
"No Yikomi!!" Sara interrupted her "We can't stop it, its an essential part of our plan!"
Yikomi shook her head, "I DONT BELIEVE YOU!!" she cried, hugging hogosuru around the
neck.
"What are you guys talking about? These people are all gonna die if we don't stop this from
happening!!"
"You think we like the idea? Do you honestly think we're that heartless? Listen kid, none of us
want to do it, but we've got to follow orders," Yoshi said.
"But, but, who is we? What kind of plan involves killing all of these people?, orders?"
Yikomi's voice shook with fright.
ago when that kid beat the boss!"
"They were," Yoshi began, "Everyone figured with Giovanni gone, the Rockets were nothing,
they didn't count on us to get a new leader. The Rocket Empire is back, bigger and badder than ever. All the old school rockets are back and there are hundreds of new members too, they even took
Sara and me off the streets! And with the world's best trainers are out of the picture, Team Rocket
WILL rule the world. The annual masters cruise was the key to it all!"
Yikomi shivered. How on earth was she going to keep this a secret? She hated her family, but
she couldn't just let them die, she would die too!!she was one of those people! Why were they telling her these things? There was only one way to find that out, " Why do you want me to know this if I'm
gonna die too?"
"That's really why we came to find you." Sara sighed. "Yikomi, you really are the best
friend I've ever had and so is 'Suru. I-I don't want you to die!" she cried and threw her arms around Yikomi in the same way her mother had.
"Sara..."
"I'm serious, you're the only friend I've
ever had! If you died I'd be all alone again, I dont want that!!" she sobbed. Yikomi threw a confused look at Yoshi, who shook his head and smiled.
"I don't have any friends either Sara but.." Yikomi choked, "but I don't know what to do.."
Sara pulled away and wiped her eyes with a sob, "I do,*snf* I know exactly what to do."
She looked up at Yikomi and sniffled again. "Yikomi, come with us! get out of here, you don't belong with these people!"
Yikomi stared,"You want me to-"
"Join team rocket! We could be friends forever Yikomi! you, me, Kyari,Hogosuru,and Yoshi.
We'd be like a family!" Sara pleaded, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Yikomi was faced with a hard decision. She could either stay with her family, in the
life she loathed, or join Team Rocket and be with her only friends forever. She had never been given such a choice!
But she didn't want her family to die or any of the other people, and she didn't want to
stay stuck in the life she had. Sara was right, she didn't belong! How could she choose?
Yikomi thought for a long time and finally came up with an idea that would work both ways.
"Sara, Yoshi," she said, her heart beating hard, " I want to go with you guys, but I don't
want these people to die. Now, you guys said you don't like the idea of killing off the worlds greatest trainers right?"
"Yeah, I really admire alot of these people, especially your family Yikomi," Yoshi
admitted.
"So let's stop the ship from blowing up! How do they plan on doing it?"
Yoshi looked absolutely terrified at the thought of disobeying their orders, but nevertheless
he replied,"There's a large network of time bombs located around the engine room. They're all hooked up to a computer thats programmed to stagger the detonation sequences. Every member of
Team Rocket is on this boat, and we're meant take the pokemon after the first string of bombs go off,
during the first delay, which will last 2 minutes. While we're doing that, helicopters will be landing on
the deck to take us away before the second wave hits."
"When the time's up, we should be finished rounding up the pokemon and the second set of
bombs will explode. Once that happens there's another time delay, this one lasts longer, about 3 minutes. By the time that's up we'll be about 2000 feet in the air, with about 20,000 new pok'emon,
and the story of the Orion will be the sequel to Titanic."
Yikomi gawked, "That's a really complex plan! You said it's gonna happen at midnight?"
Yoshi nodded, "The only possible way of stopping it would be to disarm the main bomb's
computer. That would shut down every bomb on the ship, at then all we have to worry about are the attack squads."
"I don't think they'll do much, if the bombs dont detonate," Sara smiled, "There's no chance
they'd attack so many high leveled pokemon at once without panic on their side. It would be suicide!"
"So thats it then!" Yikomi said with a confident grin, "We'll disarm the bombs, and then
we high tail it out of there before anyone realizes what we did!"
"GAROOOOO!!" Hogosuru howled his support for Yikomi, "little master need hogosuru"
he thought," hogosuru save ship, little master be happy, hogosuru be happy too!"
Sara clapped, "I can't wait, we'll be the perfect family!"
"Hold on with the celebrating, guys" Yoshi interrupted, "We have to do something first.
Yikomi needs a new name."
"WHAT?!" Sara and Yikomi both shouted together, knocking him over. "Why?!"
"Because!" he got up rubbing his backside, "We can't risk someone finding out Li
Yikomi, the most famous little girl in Johto, is with Team Rocket. They'd think we kidknapped her, and then we'd have a war on our hands! What we need is a snappy new name for you, Yikomi-chan,
and quickly, we dont have too much time."
"She's gonna be our little sister, so her name has to be Raiu!" Sara beamed,"Raui Yikomi!
How's that sound?"
"Like crap," Yoshi snorted,"Yikomi would still be too obvious, people would know enough to
match her looks with her name. Yikomi, you pick a name."
Yikomi once again had a hard decision places in front of her. How was she supposed to name
herself? A loud crack of thunder errupted from the sky, which had become thick with ferocious storm clouds. A very cold wind blasted over the dock, screwing up her hair and making her shiver, "Stupid
wind."
"That's it!" Yoshi shouted making her jump, "How about Kaze?"
"BLAH!" Sara stuck out her tongue,"What kind of name is Kaze?"
"You dope, it's japanese for 'wind'! Besides, Raiu Kaze is a cool name!"
"That name sucks major ass, yoshi, and you know it!" Sara argued.
"Well I dont see you coming up with any other ideas, Sara."
Sara growled at Yoshi and turned to Yikomi, "Yikomi, what do you think?"
They were disrupted, once again, by a clash of thunder, followed by an earth shattering
blast of lightning. Waves crashed into the S.S. Orion's hull, forcing it to rock in a nausiating fashion.
Again Yikomi felt frozen, as if there was a shell of ice around her heart. She had a very bad
feeling, something about the sea was affecting her karma.
"Wll?" yoshi had to shout over the wind.
"Ummm... what do you think, 'Suru?" Yikomi looked to her houndour for an answer.
Hogosuru shifted around on his paws whimpering, Yikomi guessed he sensed something as well. Something was bad wrong.
"Ahem? Earth to Yikomi!" Sara waved her hand in front of Yikomi's face, causing her to snap
out of her thoughts.
"I think Kaze is a good name!" she replied.
"WHAT?!?" Sara cried, "but it-it... why on earth do you want to be called Kaze? Why not
something better, like Crystal?"
She thought about it for a moment, "I guess it's cause I like storms, and storms are very
windy."
Sara's jaw dropped, "Dude that's so weak."
"Then it's decided!" Yoshi declared, "From this day forward, you are Raiu Kazi, a member
of Team Rocket!"
"Now lets go disarm some bombs!" Kaze shouted happily, and the four of them set off for the
engine room.
Written by Raiu Kaze