Family Back Together  

Shirona sat down at that spot. The wind was a bit strong. Tucking her hair behind her ear, she resumed the conversation.

"What do you mean?"

Oka seemed to have been smoking too, ignoring her question at first. But then Garchomp nipped off the burning end of his cigarette, causing him to flick away the entire thing.

Leaning his back against the railing next to he, he spoke, "Exactly what I said. Three times back, I think. Just before you first came. I got a perfect score for the seventh time. Obviously I chose the second, stronger weapon option. But when the Sanada aliens came, that 'weapon' I requested never showed up."

She understood his words one by one.

"At first, I thought it was just Gantz messing up as usual. Pissed me off though. But gradually, watching you, a different idea occurred to me. The timing matched up perfectly. The 'powerful weapon' I sought must have been you and the Pokémon."

"That can't be..."

Oka pointed at Garchomp. "In other words, from the very start, this thing and the other Pokémon were mine too. Making all those unnecessary detours was dumb."

"There's no way that's true."

"You'd better watch your attitude." He then turned his fingertip in Shirona's direction. "You're no exception either. You're mine too. Come to think of it, I'm an angel, aren't I? Brazenly defying the Lord, and yet he didn't punish you. You should be more grateful."

"That's enough with the jokes."

Shirona stood up. Letting out a long breath, she glared at Oka from the side. In the end, he was just stringing together facile rationalizations. She felt foolish for having any expectations whatsoever. Why had she thought she could find any relief? There was no way someone like him could offer any proper consolation.

"Well, there is another idea." Oka continued in a tone that didn't sound too serious.

"The fact that there are two of you is certainly true. The cause is a Gantz mistake. Gantz perceived you as having definitely died and reformed you. But in reality, you hadn't fully perished. It misjudged the situation. Sounds like an SF story, huh? You ended up simultaneously existing in two separate places."

Shirona didn't respond. No words came to mind.

"You seem to be having a hard time of it."

"...What did you say?"

"There's a possibility that every single idea I've voiced is mistaken. Conversely, parts of them could be correct. In other words, I don't know anything. You're really digging in over something with no clear answer, huh. If it were me, I'd have gone insane from it long ago and ended up hanging myself."

"If I could live as carelessly as you, I suppose no one would struggle."

Oka yawned and then looked up at the sky. "It's thin."

"What is?"

"You're not really thinking about anything, are you? If you were actually thinking properly, you wouldn't be envying the way of life of some stranger you don't even know."

"Are you okay? You react like that to every little thing people say. Seems like you're the one having a hard time living."

"..." 

"..."

Shirona was the first to turn her face away.

"Did you actually have a job back then?" Oka inquired.

"Huh, yes."

"What kind of work did you do over there?"

"An archaeologist. I studied these Pokémon creatures."

"I can see how that research would be interesting. To be honest, they seem more useful than any ferocious beast."

"There were groups of people who thought like you that we cooperated to take down."

"Oh? So the scholars over there played cop too?"

"Of course we did research too. Pocket Monsters. We even investigated the origins of that term."

"Someone probably just made it up on a whim. It's got English mixed in and all."

"That's exactly what we didn't know. One of the old noble families used to claim it originated from them, but that was exposed as an outright lie not too long ago."

"I guess there were idiots doing stupid things too."

After that, there was a brief silence.

Shirona found herself puzzled. At some point, the weight on her shoulders had vanished. Of course, the issue still loomed unresolved before her, but she no longer felt excessively dejected over it. Perhaps conversation with others was the best medicine. Though she didn't really want to admit that, at least for now.

She raised her face. "What about you?"

Oka had moved away from the railing.

"I still haven't heard your circumstances."

"What about 'em?"

"The reason you've been continuously fighting in Gantz's battles."

"Didn't I tell you already?"

She shook her head, then stared firmly into his eyes. "Enough. You've lied enough. Tell me the truth."

"I'm a diligent working man. That's all there is to it, seeing things through to the end."

"You seemed pretty knowledgeable about resurrections. That hypothesis about Gantz making a mistake was surprisingly coherent too. Almost like you've experienced it once before."

Even stated with that much conviction, he didn't crumble at first. Remaining silent, not showing any emotion on his face, just keeping his gaze forward. But as she continued scrutinizing his profile, Oka closed his eyes and began scratching his head.

"Women, I swear..."

"It's not fair for only me to share my circumstances. If you're such a diligent worker, do it properly."

"Nag, nag." After a brief pause, Oka began speaking as if it were a trivial matter. "There was a woman with me. Car accident. So we both got summoned by Gantz at the same time."

"I see."

"And as expected for a genius like me, I was the only one left standing while she died. Back then, I was still concerned about keeping up appearances to an extent. Didn't want her family getting suspicious, so I got a perfect score on the first mission to revive her."

Oka shrugged his shoulders. Then, with a wry smile as if telling a bad joke.

"That turned out to be a mistake. I was completely dead, but she had managed to get revived at the hospital, albeit barely. You can probably guess how it went from there."

Shirona nodded.

"Well, it became one step away from the worst case scenario. The revived woman and the still living woman fought it out with each other. They couldn't bear the other's existence, it seems. And I, who was going to be held responsible for that, ended up getting slightly demoted to a branch office teller position. Isn't that just tragic?"

"Quite the tall tale you've spun there."

Oka's expression went blank. It was only then that he finally took a good look at Shirona's face. "What was that?"

"You've mixed in some truth, so it's getting closer. But tell me honestly. That woman was your fiancée, wasn't she?"

Silence.

"She was an important person to you, right? You can't forgive them, can you. If I were you, I'd think this way. Both the aliens and Gantz are to blame. So I'd survive until the very end to get back at them. That's what I'd think."

"You really enjoy fantasizing, don't you? It's true that was the nature of our relationship. But it was essentially a marriage of convenience, bank-related. We had a mutually detached relationship. There's no way I could continue on just to avenge someone like that."

"Then why do you still keep her ring stored away so carefully?"

This time, it seemed he couldn't dodge it. He opened his eyes slightly wider than usual, as if he wanted to say something. But no words came out. Only his gaze strongly showed a sense of doubt.

"It's in the shelf of your car, isn't it?"

"You..."

"Mikaruge told me that time. That you had it stored away in the very back. If it was really just a detached relationship, you'd have thrown something like that away immediately, right?"

"...If there were a lot more women like you around, all the men would suffocate and die."

His joke lacked its usual tone. After checking his cigarette case and realizing there weren't any left, it seemed like he had smoked his very last one judging by the remaining ashes he flicked away. Then he turned to face Shirona.

"I've known since I was little."

"Childhood friend, huh?...Sorry, maybe I pried a bit too much."

He tapped her forehead with his index finger. Garchomp showed a slight hint of aggression.

"Situation-wise though, you seem like much more of a tragic protagonist yourself."

"Maybe so."

She reached out and stroked Garchomp's cheek. Watching its ticklish reaction made her past suffering seem to shrink away a little.

"We should head back. You can ride with me too."

"You sure about that?"

"Yeah, I feel a bit better now. Thanks for listening to my long story."

"Your reward is that thing over there then."

"Yes, yes."

Although she flew a bit faster than when they had come, in the end Oka still seemed to maintain his usual calm demeanor. A thought occurred to Shirona that she wanted to try shaking up that expression sometime. She toyed with the idea of having Lucario sneak attack him, half in jest.

They landed in an alleyway, away from people. But as they exited onto the main street, Shirona noticed some kind of major commotion was occurring.

The sound of a motorcycle approached.

When it stopped in front of Shirona, Kyo dismounted the seat, drenched in sweat. He staggered, nearly collapsing, but was supported by Mikaruge's psychic power. It seemed he had been chasing after them, as several police cars were approaching from further down the street.

Milotic came crawling out from among the crowd. She looked a bit tired, perhaps because she had Kuwabara riding on her back.

"Big sis!"

Anzu came running over, carrying Gastrodon. Behind her, Togekiss and Nakayama approached side by side. Muroya brought up the rear, looking extremely put out by it all.

"I saw it first!" 

"No, I did. So I have the right to keep it." 

"Hey, you think dog food will do? Do they eat fish too?"

Along with those familiar voices from the trio, Lucario came shuffling over, covering its ears in apparent exasperation.

Shirona tried to hold back just a little. She pressed her lips tightly shut and tensed her face, trying her best to endure.

And then Roserade appeared right in front of her. She flew straight into Shirona's arms.

After taking a deep breath, tears ended up spilling out after all.