I dip my pen in ink and scribble hastily on the page in my notebook in front of me. I've become so used to writing in code that I only have to pause once or twice to remember the symbols we use . . .
"We're leaving tonight." I scribble down these last words of Shigeru's. There is a bit of grumbling from his companions, particularly the red-haired girl-- I gather she wanted to do some shopping --but no one disagrees.
"Merril!" My pokemon's ears twitch. Someone is approaching. Well I already have all Sakaki-san wants to know . . . I tuck my notebook into the folds of my kimono and pick up Merril. Silently we step back into a room I know to be empty and then slip out the window. We leave the hotel grounds unnoticed by an old gate and a side street and then make our way through the Viridian streets. Although I don't think we have been noticed I am careful, often doubling back or pausing to see if I have been followed. I am not, and in this way arrive at the poison-clan fortress.
Sakaki-san himself would never speak to me but his deputies accept my report.
"Leaving tonight?" Yamato does not look pleased.
"Still, this provides us with an opportunity to get the brat and recover all the Pokémon. Can we afford to pass it up?" Kosaburo says.
"No." Yamato frowns, then turns to fire orders at a nearby guard. "Summon squadrons 1 and 2. Tell them to be ready to leave in one hour." To me she frowns. "Go back to their hotel. Wait until they leave then come and tell us which route we take. We will be waiting for you at the broken willow. Do you know it?"
I nod. It is a distinctive local landmark.
"Very well, you have your orders. You are dismissed."
I bow than leave.
I am not glad to be back in Viridian. Once I am told, this city flourished, the centre of commerce and fashion. Now . . . is it my imagination or is everything in this city muted, poisoned by the dread that seeps from that great stone fortress . . .
"Merril?"
"Oh nothing," I reply absently. "Just thinking." I sigh. My errand tonight gives me no joy. I feel regret for what I am about to do . . . allow Shigeru-san and all the rest of them, cheerful Hiroshi, willful Kasumi, even the reserved Takeshi who only joined them yesterday and that pretty girl who managed to steal the Pikachu, to walk into the trap set by Yamato and Kosaburo. They . . . don't deserve this. I sigh. Maybe it's because I'm young, or because I'm not really a poison clan member, but I don't want to do this . . .
I buy Merril and I some food which we eat while keeping a watch on the exit of the hotel. The food is strange. It's taken me a while to get used to it. Everything is so different here from my home in the Orange Islands. The food, the Pokémon. Even the people-- I'd thought the stories about inter-clan warfare were over-rated, tales designed to scare off the gullible traveller or sucker him into employing body guards. I never dreamed I'd be taking part in one myself.
It's been almost a year now since it happened. I was wandering through Viridian trying to peddle my drawings . . . I'd left my home to try and become a famous artist. I'd heard Viridian was once a great city of art and had come . . . only to find my dream had fallen to the same drugs as the rest of this place--fear and terror. Oh everything's all right on the surface but the city lacks the peace that breeds freedom in the arts . . .
Anyway, I was trying to sell my pictures. I was cold and hungry, and Merril shivered beside me.
"That's an unusual Pokémon," the man said.
I gasped as I realised from his clothes and the guards beside him that he was a Lord.
"Forgive me, daimyo," I said, falling to my knees. "I did not see you."
"Rise," he said impatiently. "Now tell me, what are it's qualities?"
"Merril is a water type but she is at home in almost any surrounding. She has also got some of the best hearing I've ever seen in man or Pokémon."
"Interesting," he looks at my sketches, pausing as he spots one of a pair of reclining Scyther. "This one would have been hard to do," he said. "How did you manage to get so close to them without . . . " He looked me over, "Loosing any major body parts?"
"I've developed a technique of watching Pokémon, daimyo. I am able to approach most without them even knowing I'm there."
"I see," he nods. Then pauses. "Tell me, has it ever occurred to you that people might be watched as well as Pokémon?"
"People?" I murmured. "Why would I want to . . . "
He withdraws a heavy pouch from his robe. I recognise the clink of gold coins. It is more money than I've seen in my life!
"Most people would consider this adequate reason," he places the pouch inside his robes again.
"I'm an artist!" I say hotly. "My work is . . . "
"Even as artist needs to eat," he smiled at me, and I decided I mistrusted that smile. "Think what you could do with the right equipment? Right now your sketches are good. But if you got the equipment you deserve, you could be great . . . "
A great artist . . . it's all I've ever wanted. But spying . . . I hesitate. He's right. I need the money . . .
"I'll do it."
The next day I'm given my first job. Merril and I are accompanied by two poison clan ninja, as we sneak into a hotel where an insect clan messenger is staying. I note down the information Sakaki-san wants--the time of the clan's next Celebration--then we sneak out of there. More jobs follow . . . eventually they trust me enough to do the job on my own. I'm in too deep, I suppose. But . . . I couldn't spend the money I've been given on the brushes and inks I so desperately want. I guess I'm afraid the evil that I've done will taint them . . . I haven't drawn for months. I can't . . . I go home and stare at a blank sheet for hours . . . I miss my home, my family, my friends, the sunshine, being valued . . .
"Ne, Shigeru, we don't have to be in that big a rush. Can't we just look for a little while?"
"Please Geru-chan?"
Hell! While I've been out of it, they've left. I hastily summon Merril and we traipse after them as if we too are travelling to the forest.
"No, no and for the last time NO! Ye gods, wasn't Kasumi bad enough?" Shigeru looks irritated. I've been watching him enough to guess that this is his way of concealing anxiety. He really is concerned for the safety of his little group even if he doesn't show it well. I think Hiroshi has guessed, but the rest of them probably are fooled by the famous 'Ookido-pride.' We've even heard about that back home in the Orange Islands.
"But Geru-chan, it's so pretty and this is our last chance to see it. We don't have to stop but it would be nice to walk slower . . . "
Maybe that girl . . . Akeiko? knows too . . . she has calmly ignored his angry comments and put her request to him simply. I wonder again where she really came from. She obviously knows Shigeru well . . . a fact that is not going down well with other members of the group. I see Kasumi frown and grin to myself. Am I detecting jealousy here? It's going to be interesting to see how things develop . . . and then I realise they won't.
Because in a couple of hours they will be dead.
"These streets are some of the oldest in the town. You see theses buildings? Some of them were built in the time when Pokémon masters still existed."
"You mean there really was such a thing?"
Takeshi has turned out to be something of a historian. Hiroshi's interest leads to a fascinating conversation . . . I find it hard to remain on the edges of the crowd, and not too close. I can't let the fact that I'm following them be too obvious.
"Oh! Look! Pokemon dolls!"
Well, who would have guessed fearless samurai Kasumi liked toy Pokémon? I'm a little amused. She gets teased as she buys herself a little Seel.
"Anyone who tells me off for acting like a girl gets hit repeatedly," Kasumi says, cuddling the little toy happily. "Isn't it gorgeous?"
"You know I bet Mei would like one of these," Shigeru muses as he looks the stall over. "The Charmander please."
"You think she'll like it?" Hiroshi asks.
"Oh, girls love this sort of junk," Shigeru says then gets hit by Kasumi.
"They do?" Takeshi says, giving the store a second glance. "Akeiko-san you don't see anything you'd like, do you?"
"That's very sweet of you, Takeshi. But I prefer the real thing. Isn't that right?"
"Merril!"
Oh no . . . Akeiko has not only noticed Merril but she's patting her. I step up to claim my Pokémon before things can get any worse.
"Such an unusual Pokémon!" Akeiko exclaims. I blush as she smiles at me. If she knew what I'd done-was doing at that moment . . . "I bet it didn't come from anywhere around here, did it?"
"No," I say. To leave without answering her question would be rude and worse, I've got a feeling Takeshi wants any excuse to defend her honour. I'm not slightly built but I'm not in any way equipped to match a warrior of his standing. Besides, I've never trained to fight. "She's from my home, the Orange Isalands."
"You're a long way from home," Akeiko says. "That must be hard."
She says it like she can imagine it. I find myself answering honestly, "Yes, it is. Sometimes it's very hard. I'm trying to become a great artist but sometimes I think I'll never see my home again and . . ."
"Don't give up. No matter what, don't give up," Akeiko looks me full in the face. "I know what's it's like to be far from home and feel like you're never ever going to see the people close to you again. I used to think that it'd always be grey and lonely and that I'd never find a place to belong to . . . but I'm going home, now! I sometimes didn't think it'd happen but it is! And if it can happen to me, it can happen to you . . . just don't give up."
"Thank-you," I whisper.
"Akeiko!" Shigeru calls sharply and she returns obediently to his side.
I'm shaken. I really don't know if I can do this. Her faith in life, her joy at going home, it's just so touching . . . wait a minute, she's going home?
"Merril?"
"No we're not going to follow them," I murmur and we take an alternative route out of Viridian. Akeiko . . . going home. Somehow I know she told me the truth. But she told the others she was running away from her home, the Poison clan. Obviously she isn't who she says she is . . .
"No time! We have to get to Viridian forest fast!" I say.
Sakaki-san is going to reward me immensely for finding the elusive Satoshi. And maybe it'll be enough for me to get home. Home . . . I think of the sunshine and the clean air and the voices of my family . . . I think Satoshi would understand . . .
