Not everyone thought of Akari as something nasty, or called her it. Rei certainly didn’t. He’d named her, said she was the falling star he’d made a wish on. When they weren’t busy with work, he’d join her in trying to carve small figurines of creatures she’d imagined, pokémon she swore existed beyond Hisui and its rifts. He enjoyed sketching the things she’d describe, smudging them with pigments that neither were sure were their factual colorings. It was all in good fun.
“There’s one that is long, with stripes and small stubby paws, whose tail was pretty much its whole body. Like some kind of slithery stunky.”
 Rei painted it with a red violet, and the pokĂ©mon felt wrong looking with parts that were woefully misshapen. She was greatly attached to that drawing, and referred to the creature as longrat, somehow knowing a whole lot about them. Its diet, the exact number of rings on an average male (four), the fact that they grew winter coats (that made them more fluffy), Akari could vaguely describe so much about these things may not even exist, yet couldn’t recall anything about herself.Â
What she did know was how she came here being dreadfully pale, with bony knees and a frame that a kimono could never quite lay properly over, as well as a deep mistrust of her ability not to hurt things. She’d since began to fill out and was no longer so wraith-like, but her gold eyes did her no favors in still being mistaken for one. Â
“You know the color gold is usually a sign of the Almighty’s light,” Rei said once after overhearing the zorua remark. “It’s often used in art to represent the bridging of the gap between the earthly and the sacred.” He was rummaging through her pack, pausing to pull out the rice treats she’d hidden beneath potions. His expression spoke of exasperation, but he didn’t bother to comment that she was wasting space.Â
“Those are emergency rations,” she said knowing Rei could hear how she was pleading.
He still took them out. “It’s a common eye color in the dragon people of Yunova.”
“So I’m not a zorua, just a dragon-type then? Wowzers, that’s good to know.”
 “No, really. The Professor told us about them before you started your entry on goomies, remember? So you’re not really that odd looking… by Yunovan standards.”Â
Akari didn’t know that. She didn’t remember ever talking about Yunova or dragon people, but Akari also didn’t remember the first however many years of her life before she got here, and even if she did, what did it matter? In Hisui there were no foreigners from Yunova, or people who came from the sky, there was no thing such as pokĂ©mon who were your friends, and no red violet longrats. But Rei always tried so hard to offer her reason, and she felt at home with him and the Professor, so he had to be right. She needed him to be.Â
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