Murmurs could be heard among the trees, certain oceanic hairs lit up with the afternoon. A short person in a yukata was holding a peach and seemed to want to take more, but ended up falling on the grass. His giggle dispersed, an embarrassed and smooth one, squatting down.
Who is Akari looking at and why has he seen those golden hairs in some dream?
''Oh...'' Akari had only said that, lost in his thoughts and of course, a bit shy.
The beloved of Arceus, what a destiny he was naive about, if only wanted to take a walk on one of his many trips (rarely leaves Sinnoh as he stays in the library most of the time), what would happen to him later. Had spent centuries, millennia, to end up marveling at a world he did not recognize, caressing that peach, one of his first contacts with the environment, those crystalline eyes reflecting a genuine sparkle, so ephemeral.
If only he could stay a little longer like this.
Hisui was lovely in the last days of summer.
Sorry. Sinnoh.
He should be used to calling it that by now, but the name always felt wrong on his tongue. It was essentially the difference between a coffin and a sarcophagus: both meant similar things, but were vastly different in various ways.
He hadn't been there in a long time.
Last time he'd seen it, he had sworn to never return unless he had no where else to see. But nostalgia had called him back. Or maybe it had been Arceus playing some vicious prank on him, toying with his impulse or planting the seed in his brain to return all to see—
"Akari?" The name, like Sinnoh, felt poisonous and wrong on his tongue as it escaped him in a gasp as if he'd been punched in the gut. He wished he'd been able to stop the shocked utterance from escaping him in the first place, as the name felt cursed the way he'd said it.
There was no masking the conflicting emotions crossing his face as the color drained from it. Confusion, shock, discomfort.
That damn kid—
—Why was he there?
Why? Why?! You should be dead! Dead of old age, buried or propped up in some museum, heralded as the great hero, Arceus's Chosen! Not here! Maybe... maybe this is a descendant... ?
He opened, then closed his mouth, uncertain as to what he wanted to say or what he was even supposed to say.
Yeah. Yeah, that has to be it. It can't be him.
Finally, the shock fell away from his face, and he forced a tight smile. "Ah— sorry, haha, you just looked familiar. Need some help there?" He offered, despite every nerve in his body telling him to run and not look back. Maybe he would get lucky and the other hadn't heard the name at all.
