Rainbow's Promise on the setting Sun

After our greetings and small talk, we acknowledged the fact that we were in a pretty precarious situation. We were out in the woods, with only Cynthia's backpack, that didn't have much apart from a first aid kit and some candies. Well, it was shown in the anime that Cynthia had quite a sweet tooth, and seeing all those candies just cemented that fact. Heck, there wasn't even a sleeping bag and a rocky cave definitely isn't something you can sleep in without some sort of cushioning.

Me-"Guess we need to get something for staying here. The sun's about to go down and getting back to the camp in dark will be dangerous. It'll be difficult to see and I am not familiar with any of ghost type pokemon which roam the forests at night and could lead us to the camp. Growlithe, Pichu we're up for some foraging of food and sleep gear."

Telling the girls to stay inside the cave, I moved out of the cave and began foraging for food and other things to make our stay in the cave comfortable. As it would get quite cold at night, we needed some covers as well as a source of the fire.

Girls POV

Serena-" Miss Cynth....."

Cynthia-"You can call me Cynthia."

Serena-"Why were you kicking the Pokemon...what's his name?"

Cynthia-"Gible. I kicked him because he failed at using Draco-meteor."

Serena (puffing her cheeks and making an angry expression, which only made her look cut to Cynthia) -"You can't beat your pokemon like that!!!! He was fighting for you. When my mom's pokemon make mistakes, she just asks them to practice harder, but still praises them for the effort. They work hard for my mom. They love her you know! You need to love your pokemon as well..."

As Serena's rant went on, with Cynthia feeling that the little girl was trying to act quite mature for her age, couldn't help but giggle before grabbing onto Serena's cheeks and pulling them-" Hai!Hai! I was wrong. Sorry, Princess!"

Serena, a little 6-year-old girl, was quite impressed by Cynthia calling her Princess, puffed her chest, and claimed- "Don't worry! I and Ash saved you and Gible! Want to be friends with me. I'm very powerful you know. I kicked off one of those red pokemon and Ash took on another. He needed my help to rescue you...." and the rant began again.

Cynthia, who couldn't take any more of the cuteness overload and exaggerated facts put forth by Serena just grabbed Serena and started rubbing her cheeks with Serena's before interrogating Serena-"Why were you unconscious?"

Serena, who was enjoying the feeling of getting spoiled by a beautiful elder sister, replied without thinking-"I saw you get attacked by the pokemon and the next thing I knew, I woke up seeing you introducing yourself to....."

And she realized that all of the buildups of her power and majesty had been blown away ber herself and then she suddenly remembered the horror of the attack she had seen, with blood being splashed from Gible.

She turned pale and started tearing up before Cynthia gently hugged her and said," Don't worry! Even big sis here lost against that pokemon. It's ok to be afraid. Besides, I and Gible are safe you know! I don't want to see my little princess crying over something like that. Cheer up!"

After some soothing by Cynthia and remembering the playtime with Venusaurs, she calmed down. Under Cynthia's coaxing, she started to tell about herself to Cynthia and how she wound up with Ash.

Cynthia-"So you're telling me that Ash talked with a Venusaur and he had you play with the Ivysaurs and Bulbasaurs that attacked you before. "

Serena- " Yes! The Venusaur was like a Grandpa, he gave me berries." and she fished her pockets for berries. Taking them out she found out she had a lesser amount of berries now. Seeing the number of berries lessened she turned sad again, "My berries got stolen..."

Cynthia asked her if she dropped them and Serena replied saying that the pockets of her garments were closed ones so the berries shouldn't fall out. Cynthia pondered some more when something clicked in her mind, "You said I and Gible were attacked right and Gible was seriously injured. How injured was he?" Remembering the scene again, Serena replied with a pale face, "He was bleeding like a pressure cooker."

Cynthia herself paled after hearing the extent of injury Gible had received and found out how much Gible had treasured her, if what was told my Ash true, that Gible had acted like a meat shield for her. With a lot of thoughts still going through her head, she calmed down Serena, " Maybe your berries were taken by Ash."

Before she could complete her sentence. Serena expressed her displeasure, "Why? I knew it. The girls were correct about boys. They're just a bunch of bullies and thieves. I got the berries from Grandpa Venusaur. How dare he take them?..."

Realizing that her hypothesis could lead to a complete breakdown of the boy's image, she clarified herself, " I'm not saying he stole it. You see, I and Gible were injured, so maybe, he took berries from your pocket to give to Gible and me to heal us. So he took them to help us. I don't think you can call him a thief for that."

Serena-" If you say so!"

Changing her mood instantly she started bombarding Cynthia with questions, who had become something like an elder sister figure to her, while Cynthia, who hated babysitting brats, found herself enjoying the company of the little chatterbox who was sitting on her lap. The time passed by rather quickly with the girls enjoying their time together, chatting until Ash came back with a bunch of things.

Ash POV

As we moved out of the cave, my first concern was food. We looked about while asking some grass pokemon about the direction of berry trees and some edible plants. Thanking the pokemon, we proceeded to collect a bunch of different berries and a few other veggies we could identify. I would like to take the opportunity to explain how I discovered the identity of Pichu. We found some tomatoes and the joy in Pichu's eyes was something like finding the greatest treasure. Yes, he loved tomatoes, because he absolutely adored ketchup, just like the Pikachu in the original. I had previously studied Pokemon food habits and found that it was almost impossible for Pikachu to love ketchup to such a degree. All electric type pokemon tend towards extreme numbing tastes like extremely sour or numbing spices and concluded that this Pichu was definitely the Pikachu I would have gotten, had I not met him before. Well, we found a lot of foodstuffs so one of my worries was ticked off. Now we needed to check out the things we could get to cover ourselves. There wasn't much time left and I decided to take a risk. We moved towards the area of Beedrills and found some discarded cocoons of Cocoonas which on touching were soft on the inside. We hurriedly, but silently collected a few of them and rushed out of the area, before being forcibly chased out. We found a few large leaves and with the help of a few Catterpies, made them into sleeping bags, after bribing them with berries. I collected some extra berries as I had to return some to Serena. I had purposely used her berries to give to Scizors so the girls would think that the injuries were cured due to berries. Secondly, I had nothing against the Scizors, they were cruel but as far as I could think, they were attacked by Cynthia. She was ok before she was attacked. If the Scizors had attacked her, she should have had some injuries before getting knocked out. Getting everything for the night I returned to the cave as the slowly setting sun had started giving a slightly orange hue to the sky.

In the cave, I found both the girls chatting like long lost friends with Serena occupying the lap of Cynthia. I returned the berries to Serena and told her that I used her berries to give to Gible and Cynthia. With that settled I prepared for dinner by huddling the wood collected into a bundle and setting fire to it, thanks to Growlithe. I then prepared veggie skewers and added some seasoning which I 'accidentally' had in my pocket.

As the skewers were put near fire for cooking, I took out a flute from my pocket.

Cynthia-"What's that?"

Me-"A flute?"

Cynthia-"I know its a flute! Why do you have it?"

Me-"Because the camp allows us to bring stuff like that?"

Cynthia-"Arrgh! Why did you take it out now?"

Me-" Ask straightly, why such a long winding path? I've nothing to do before the skewers are done so I decided to play the flute. You have any better options?"'

Silenced by my reply, Cynthia still looked at me curiously, while Serena, for some reason had stars in her eyes.

Not paying attention to their reactions, I started playing the flute. In my previous life, I had a passion for music, but unfortunately, I had no talent for it. Thus, I had to contend with listening to different kinds of music, like anime background music and some other instrumental music. Now, that I had the talent for music, thanks to the skill book for music and upgrade scroll, I started to play one of the music soundtracks I loved on my flute which was named 'Healing'. Before I could realize myself, I was up on my feet, moving my body with the music while playing the flute. Truly, music is something that resonates quite easily with the heart as I could feel myself getting calmer and in harmony with nature around. After a few moments, I started hearing sounds that complemented my flute and I got lost deeper into the depths of music. Letting myself flow, I moved from one music to the other and sometime later I started hearing an ethereal sound accompanying the flute. The sound had something which felt something similar to Bodhi. I didn't pay much attention to it as it was my first time experiencing such a feeling and I absolutely loved whatever I was feeling. Listening to music did help wonders, as I had observed in my previous life, however, I was realizing why the practitioners of traditional instruments like flute or violin or even the traditional drums were able to play those instruments even late in life while drummers, guitarists, and keyboard players often had short lives. Those instruments, which were made from nature, brought you closer to nature. I kept myself immersed in the feeling until an intoxicating aroma that made my stomach growl tickled my nose. I stopped playing after completing the piece I was playing and opened my eyes. I observed that I was standing on just one leg in a certain pose and looking at the girls, I found them looking at me with stars in their eyes. But on closer observation, they weren't looking at me but behind me. Thinking that there's some pokemon behind me, I turned back to see a lot of pokemon gathered inside the cave. It wouldn't have been much if there'd been only pokemon as even on earth, animals would be attracted to the soft and beautiful music. But in front of me, someone who's supposed to be a source of inspiration for a lot of trainers, a grand Ho-oh, the rainbow pokemon was standing in all its majesty. From behind hm peeped a group of Mews who kept giggling seeing my and the girls' reaction. Meeting the legendary who was looking at me straight in the eyes, I didn't know what to do. However, I could somehow feel that I should take out Bodhi, before doing anything. Without minding the girls' presence I took out Bodhi and eyes of Ho-oh expressed glee seeing Bodhi, while she just had a curious look. Being an elephant has its own perks. They are intelligent but innocent, hence taken by those who love them as symbols of purity and sincerity.

Ho-oh- "So you have an Arceus in making under you!"

Me-"She's not under me! She's with me! My family!"

Ho-oh- "And what was that before? It felt close to, no definitely stronger than Oracion! Who taught you that?"

Me-" You mean the music? It was just a piece from my memory! You like it?"

Ho-oh-"Yes! It's been a long time since I heard it. Oracion used to sing like that."

Me-" Isn't Oracion a piece of music that calms you down?"

Ho-oh-"Oracion was a bird pokemon who didn't like fighting. She just used to sing. Just for the love of singing. She sang until her last breath. Her singing used to calm down anyone, including the raging Giratina. She loved her singing so much, after her death, she became an eternal symbol of music. She wasn't a pokemon with a long life like us, she was just a Swallow, born without powers, just her love to sing."

As Ho-oh explained, I could see a tear forming in his eyes. She must have been someone important to Ho-oh. However, such a mood definitely wasn't something we wanted. I moved to the fireplace, took some skewers while putting new ones near the fire, and offered them to Ho-oh and the Mews.

Me-"If you want I can play the music for you again."

As I distributed the skewers, I found that a lot of new veggies and berries had been collected in the cave. I could sense the happy emotions of the pokemon and proceeded to make a bigger fire to cook all of the stuff for everyone. I noticed a lonely Ekans jumping quite cheerfully with its small body. I remembered when I was playing the flute, I had heard an occasional rattle accompanying my music. In my previous lives I had been afraid of snakes due to their abilities, but seeing the Ekans, who looked like a kid enjoying a treat, I just had the urge to pet him. When I touched its head, he changed directions and climbed onto me and coiled softly around my neck. I was still a small kid so I fell down but I still didn't blame him. I saw a pair of Arbok and a group of Ekans looking at him. I couldn't make out the expression in their gaze but it wasn't anything negative so I didn't think much about it. The girls showed different expressions. Both of them didn't belong to Kanto, so definitely didn't know about Ho-oh. To them, he was just a big beautiful bird. They were just eating the skewers with joy, as I could tell, they felt were quite tasty.

Serena-" It's so tasty Ash. Even the pokemon are enjoying it."

Cynthia-" That was beautiful music Ash! So awesome. I feel recovered. Gible looks active too, seems like it's recovered. Btw, who's that beautiful bird pokemon? Will you catch it?"

Hearing her talking about Gible, I saw that he really had recovered and a single scar remained on his chest. I was quite amazed. However, hearing the last part of her sentence I facepalmed. She was planning on catching Ho-oh!!!

Me-"He's Ho-oh, the rainbow Pokemon, the guardian of Kanto and the source of the rebirth of legendary guardians of Johto Suicune, Entei, and Raikou. He's here to listen to the music."

The girls then went passive. They were still conscious but became mechanical in their movements.

As all of us finished eating I arrived at the exit of the cave and saw a beautiful scene of a rainbow arching over the sun. The sky had a deeper shade of orange now, but there was still some time before sunset.

Me-"Did you like the food uhhh? How should I call you?"

Ho-oh-" Just call me Rain. Yes, the food was great."

Me-"Ok! I wanted to ask something. Did you heal Cynthia and Gible?"

Ho-oh-"It wasn't me. It was your music. I told you Oracion became an eternal symbol of music. Your music brought her to life through you and healed everyone around you. She doesn't just heal the body, she heals hearts!"

This time I saw a clear stream of tears in Ho-oh's eyes.

This time I didn't talk about anything but just stood amongst the pokemon and started playing the flute. I don't know if it was Ho-oh's tears, but I started on an emotional piece "Are you the Queen of my heart?" I could definitely hear the different pokemon accompanying me in the music. I started getting deeper into a state of trance and started playing one piece after another. As I kept playing I started to see a projection of a yellow-colored bird, probably a Swallow ousted due to her color. I saw her singing to a small group of pokemon, then a bigger group of pokemon and the group kept steadily increasing as finally legendaries like Mew and Rayquaza started appearing, finally with the arrival of Ho-oh, she stopped for a bit, before starting to sing with even more energy. Then the image shifted to the bird singing while being watched by Ho-oh. I could see the special connection between her and Ho-oh. In Ho-oh's presence, it seemed like she sang her entire heart out. Then, the image changed to a scene where Ho-oh was persuading her for something with a Lugia. I started to get a hint of something tragic. The scene shifted to Dialga, Palkia and Giratina fighting as the world was getting destroyed into nothing. Ho-oh and Lugia lay down injured along with other legendaries. And in between of them, lay the Swallow, with broken wings and a bleeding beak. She somehow stood up and crawled away from the group. It looked as if she betrayed them and the look in Ho-oh's eyes was that of resignation as if he expected her to leave him now, as he lay down at his weakest. But everything changed when she started to sing. In a harsh voice brought out from her paining, broken body, through sheer will. Her voice started changing and a soft golden glow started to emerge. Ho-oh looked on with some hope that she'd return, but she kept her singing going on, the glow getting stronger and stronger until it started healing the legendaries. Realizing something, Ho-oh tried to get up but wasn't strong enough yet. The glow eventually changed into a huge golden bird that started to cover everything golden. The creation trio stopped their fight and started to get healed until the voice turned very majestic before emitting a powerful glow covering everything in existence, while Ho-oh, who was able to get up looked on, giving a roar which died down in her voice. The glow settled down to reveal the entire world remade. The creation trio had gone and in the place of Swallow, which I now recognized, was Oracion, lay a leaf which blew away, leaving a sad, lonely Ho-oh, shedding tears and roaring. The image then faded away and I opened my eyes to see Ho-oh in front of me, with its beak held straight up vertical and tears streaming down his eyes like no tomorrow. Seeing him I found that even my eyes were overflowing with tears. I looked around to see every pokemon crying while embracing each other. The girls were bawling their eyes out. Even Pichu was holding onto Growlithe's fur and weeping, while Growlithe himself, just copied Ho-oh, and stood with his snout vertical and had tears running down his face. The most comic reaction was given by Bodhi. She grabbed me in her trunk and just hugged me while giving out short trumpets. I didn't make fun of it as I found out that the music had touched the heartstrings of everyone present.

I asked Ho-oh-"Have you ever heard Oracion again?"

Ho-oh-"Never. The Oracion lies somewhere deep in Sinnoh, but I don't want to go there. The place has a deep connection with Dialga and Palkia and I don't want to go there. They have my respect as pokemon of creation, but they're gods who don't understand the value of their own creation. Mark my words boy! Don't depend.."

Me-" Don't depend on Arceus. Maybe Arceus depends on us."

Ho-oh-"Good! Take my advice, while training, use your music. A calm mind gives better progress."

Me-"Thanks! Can you do something else for me?"

Ho-oh-"Don't ask for a Mew's egg! I can't give it even if I wanted to!"

Me-"You know I wasn't going to ask for it! I want you to battle my pokemon once every year. I hope would agree to it."

Ho-oh-"Ok! But don't come for a fight before evolving your Pichu and Growlithe."

Me-"Ok!"

After that, there was a period of silence before I said, " Rain! I can come and play music for you whenever I'm free."

Rain (Ho-oh) looked at me, shocked-" You mean it?"

I went close to him and touched his face, who then bowed down to touch my forehead with him.

Third Person POV

Ash approached Ho-oh and touched his face. Ho-oh leaned down to touch Ash's forehead with his. As the moment would have it. They stood with a rainbow above their head and the setting sun halfway through the horizon in their background, everyone could hear Ash speak.

"I promise I'll go to Sinnoh and learn Oracion and I'll definitely have you hear her voice. I swear on my soul."

The setting sun marked the promise between the boy and the rainbow.