#phantomflower

Late afternoon sunlight streamed across the tanned brunette's face as she laid back on a hammock near the ocean, one leg bent at the knee and the other hanging off the side, hands sifting through the sand beneath her. A hibiscus bush grew nearby, and she picked off a beautiful, large bloom from one of the small branches and began to silently play with the petals, being gentle at first before ripping one from its base, leaving a tattered, uneven section of petal behind. She threw the larger section to the ground and groaned, wondering why things couldn't just be easy for once. Just thinking about that period of time was difficult for some reason...

She remembered how it’d all started fairly well. It had been a warm spring day when her sandaled feat had sauntered up to the gateway entrance of the Hoenn Pokemon League, her bright eyes filled with courage and charisma, ready to meet any challenge that passed before her. Fuyo had been young - only fifteen years old, and was of the mindset that the world was her oyster, that absolutely anything she wanted could belong to her if she only tried hard enough. It was only months before the death of her mother would occur - she’d already been ill for quite some time and although Fuyo had been worried about going on her Pokemon journey, her sweet mother had insisted that the girl fulfill her dreams. The first night on the road, the child had cried. She’d never been away from her family in her life, and missed them greatly. However, because she had always seemed to display a great proficiency in Pokemon battling, particularly with ghost-types, Fuyo was encouraged to challenge the regional gym circuit. Honestly, she’d never expected to get -too- far, and yet... now she was here, ready to enter the first Elite room in Hoenn. 

The fluorescent lights of the lobby made Fuyo’s stomach feel sick. She knew that she must look completely awful under them - they always gave people a sort of sallow look - sickly and anxious. Sighing loudly, having just healed her Pokemon, she sat on a chair near one of the tables on either side of the room. It was so quiet...there was only one other person in the room apart from the nurse and Pokemart worker. He sat, seemingly deep in thought, not saying a word, obviously mentally preparing himself for the task ahead. Steel blue hair covered his hair, and similarly colored eyes sat staring straight ahead. His arms were crossed on the table in front of him, his feet were planted firmly on the floor, and he didn’t give Fuyo a passing glance. He seemed somehow...familiar, appearing to her to be of wealth and importance. She gulped, desperately not wanting to make a fool of herself were he to get farther in the League than her...

After waiting for quite some time, an official finally appeared at the entrance to the first Elite and called out a name. “Stone, Steven,” he said forcefully, “Please enter. Abide by all League rules else face removal of all Hoenn Pokemon League badges and forced forfeit from your match. Good luck.” Fuyo watched as the other stood silently and walked to the door, nodding at the official before entering. Steven Stone, she thought to herself....the name even sounded familiar. Regardless, she had more important mental tasks to attend to than attempting to remember where she’d heard this guy’s name before. 

The young woman waited for what seemed like an eternity, and she found it difficult to stop watching the clock on the wall. What on earth was taking so long? Over an hour had gone by when the official finally reappeared at the door to call out “Akua, Phoebe”. Of course they’d used her real name, as it was how she’d registered when she began her League journey, and when it was said aloud she became even more nervous...it all felt so serious, and in reality, it was.

The official repeated what he had said to Steven, then allowed Fuyo to enter into the first room. Her heart pounded loudly in her chest as she walked inside, confronted with darkness. Her eyes attempted to adjust, but when they finally had she became nearly blinded as a row of backlights lit up, and there before her stood the first member of the Elite Four. He was tall, outfitted in a waistcoat and striped tan pants, and wore a unique red mohawk upon his head. Fuyo had done her research, and instantly knew who he was - Sidney, the dark-type master. With her team of nearly all pure ghost types, she would have to be very careful with this battle. She knew she was at an obvious disadvantage, and began to question if attempting this was even a good idea any longer...

The first battle went by quickly, and through careful selection of moves and effective dodging, Sidney was soon defeated. The excitement that crossed Fuyo’s face was short-lived, knowing that there were still four more trainers to battle, including the Champion of the region. The last challenger was the only one whom she knew nothing about - she had no idea what to expect if and when she finally made it that far. Nevertheless, she soldiered on.

The next three battles were grueling, and Fuyo found herself having to use nearly all of the full restores and hyper potions she’d just bought upon arrival to Evergrande City. She passed through the rooms of fire, ice, and dragon-type trainers, respectively before finally coming to the room of the Champion. She was incredibly tired by this point, but the fact that she’d just beaten the four most powerful trainers in Hoenn gave her an extra needed boost, and she clutched her fists as she walked inside. 

A raised platform stretched out before her, rose-colored lights providing a somewhat relaxing ambience. This was the first thing Fuyo noticed. The second was that the Champion was nowhere to be found within the room. She stood in front of the door, waiting, rocking back and forth in anticipation. Several minutes went by before the door on the other side of room was opened and the silhouette of a person became visible.

Well, Fuyo, this is it....the girl told herself. It’s now or never...you can do this. 

When the Champion finally appeared, the young challenger gasped. It was...him?   It...couldn’t be...

The handsome trainer she’d been sharing the lobby with - Steven Stone - stood before her, a smirk upon his face. Fuyo’s eyes grew large...was this really how it was about to go down?

A battle was underway. The challenger was putting up a decent fight against Hoenn's second Elite Four member, and his enthusiasm for the fight was rubbing off on Fuyō, a wide smile gracing her face and her eyes large and wild. 

"Cradily!" the challenger shouted, the fight within him growing, "Use acid, quickly!"

The colorful Pokemon shot forth a spurt of sticky acid from its mouth, aimed directly at Fuyō's Dusclops, Maka. Fuyō thought immediately of her next move, shouting at Maka to use "protect" in order to defend itself from the acid that had been launched in its direction. Though she had absolute faith in her ghost Pokemon and knew the move would work, she still held her breath as the acid rained down upon Maka and simply ran off of its body. Fuyō turned her attention back to the challenging trainer.

"This is the big leagues, now, kid! If you really think that's going to work, you've got another thing coming!" She smiled. It was true that the young woman was typically kind-hearted and polite, but in the case of battles, she loved attempting to psyche out her opponent with words. Even better than words, though, was her small stature and "cutesy" appearance. Nearly 100% of the time, when a challenger entered the doors of her chamber, they were taken aback by her appearance, not expecting much at all in comparison to the other Elites. How wrong they were, as they'd soon find out that Fuyō could definitely handle whatever was thrown at her and give it right back to them. Not only that, but her special ability to communicate with her ghost Pokemon gave her a great advantage indeed. She could always tell how they were feeling during battle and reacted in response to those feelings, making the team quite strong. 

Looking on at Maka, Fuyō sent forth a question, "Doing alright then?" and felt the Pokemon respond within her soul: Yes. Let us go on. 

She grinned, ready to give the next call, "Okay Maka, use shadow ball!" She knew this was it - the final attack. And as though a premonition, she had been right. The attack hit the opponent's final Pokemon, Cradily, and it fainted on the spot. Visibly upset and confused at having been beaten by this tiny woman, the challenger simply stared open mouthed at her for a moment before running to tend to his passed-out Pokemon. Without saying a word, Fuyō retreated to the darkest corner of the room and watched silently as the trainer exited back through the door in which he'd entered. The Elite was exhausted and thankful that he'd been the last opponent of the day. Silently, Maka picked up her trainer and the two exited the room through the same door. 

Once outside of the league, Fuyō dropped down from Maka and called her back into a Pokeball, starting down the hill towards town. She was absolutely famished, and decided to visit her favorite restaurant in Ever Grande, a tiny ma-and-pa joint with the kindest owners and the most delicious food. After making the short journey to the restaurant, Fuyō opened the door to find only a handful of people, one of the owners kindly talking to her patrons and waving at the Elite as she entered. Fuyō sighed happily, glad to be in a place where she was familiar with everyone and felt safe - the people here in Ever Grande knew her and cared for her, and those things meant the world to the young woman. As she took her seat and looked around once more, smiling at friends and acquaintances, Fuyō's eyes suddenly became set on the back of a woman, her hair long and dark in color...someone the Elite had never seen. It could have simply been any ordinary trainer, and yet...not many people outside of the city knew of this place. Even from the back, Fuyō could sense something special about this woman, could feel an intense sort of power issuing from her. Curiously, she stood up and walked over to where the other sat, slowly placing her hand on the stranger's shoulder and beginning to speak.

"Hello, I've never seen you around here before..."