Story Notes:
Im starting to rewrite it, so if it contradicts itself at times, its because i havent gotten to that chapter yet. chapters with the word 'rewrite' at the end have been rewriten.
Amnesia?-Chapter Four: Fighting In A Berry Grove Revised
For the second time in as many days, Blaze woke with the dawn. Though this time, he didn't even have time to wonder if he had been dreaming before he felt Sakura shift, her fur sticking to him thanks to the sticky mess of cum all over his chest. "Totally worth it," he thought as he lifted her off his chest, watching as Sakura's eyes slowly fluttered open, and bringing her in for a kiss. When his tongue entered her mouth, her eyes shot open so fast, Blaze thought she was gonna kill him. But then she just slowly closed her eyes again, and kissed him back, and he breathed a relieved sigh into her mouth. When they parted, Blaze indicated his chest, and then the pond. She got off him, but before he could stand, he felt the ground move out from underneath him, and before he had time to think, found himself landing on his back in the cold water. He came up spluttering in indignation, and saw Sakura giggling a few feet away. Grinning, he brought the flames to his hands while they were underwater, and, instantly, the pond was turned into a warm, steaming hot tub. He smiled at her, giving a pleased sigh as he sank into the water and began to scrub the sticky remains of the previous night off. Fortunately, it wasn't too hard, and before long, he was running his fingers through Sakura's fur to get the stuff out of it, which took considerably longer, despite the water loosening it, but she seemed to like the treatment, so neither of them minded overly much.
When they finished, they simply relaxed in the warm water for a while, just taking pleasure in the feel of the other's body against their own. To Blaze, the feeling of Sakura's silky fur playing against his skin was extremely pleasant. Likewise, Sakura loved the feeling of Blaze's bare skin as it rubbed against her fur, though both preferred the feeling when dry. Eventually, however, the water cooled off. At that point, Blaze noticed that the sun was well above the horizon, indicating it to be about two hours after they got in. They crawled out, and Blaze dried them both off again. Then Blaze pulled on his clothes, and slipped into the belt, with the weapons still attached.
After a few seconds, Sakura looked as though she had swallowed a rotten apple whole. When Blaze asked what was wrong, she said, "I forgot... mom was expecting me back last night."
"Is that really a big deal?" Blaze asked nonchalantly.
"OF COURSE IT'S A BIG DEAL!!!" Sakura yelled, causing Blaze to jump back in alarm, his hand pausing halfway between his side and the hilt of his sword. Seeing this, Sakura flinched slightly, and continued in a softer tone. "My mom tends to blow things out of proportion, and she can be really scary when she wants to..."
"Well, let's get it over with then," said Blaze, sighing. "Where do you live?"
"Right below us," replied Sakura, her nervous mannerisms unchanged by Blaze's calmness. She was almost chewing her claws in anxiety.
"In the rock?"
Sakura sighed. "It's a mountain my great grandfather ripped in half when he got bored, not a rock. But yes, I live inside it."
"When he was bored?" Blaze asked. Then, more sheepishly "Did you get any of that power?"
"Well, it runs in the family." Blaze jokingly inched away, and Sakura laughed, lunging at him and latching onto his neck. Almost instantly, they dissolved into a fit of laughter. For several minutes, they just rolled around laughing. Before long, however, they remembered their situation. Though neither of them wanted to see the older mew angry, it would only get worse if they waited, so Sakura led the way over to the edge of the cliff, and from there to a cave entrance, concealed by the veil of vines and moss that covered most of the wall. It was barely large enough for him to wiggle through, but after about two meters, just when he was beginning to worry, his reaching arm fell on thin air just as he put his weight on it, and he tumbled out onto the floor, which was about half a meter away.
As he stood up, he brushed himself off and looked around, doing his best to ignore Sakura's giggles. He was in a dimly lit room; the stone walls seemed to radiate an all-encompassing golden glow, but it was so weak that his human eyes could barely make out his hand at arms length, and his feet were invisible to him. Because his eyes were useless, he closed them, relaxing his concentration. At once, the world appeared before him, even more vivid than sight allowed. Every crack, fissure, bump, and curve was clearly defined in that strange sensation, which his brain interpreted as being somewhere between touch, sight, and hearing, yet at the same time, none of them. Just as clear was Sakura, and mere feet away, her mother.
Upon realizing they had been discovered, Blaze nonchalantly said, "Hello, shuutome. Sorry we're late; I didn't realize we were supposed to come here." *Note: shuutome is how one would address a mother-in-law in Japan. Blaze said this because he is trying to be polite, though with questionable success, due to the circumstances and his casual attitude*
"Where did you hear this?" asked the older mew, as though surprised, "I never said you two had to come back. Besides, you were up there," she pointed to the exact position they had fallen asleep at with her paw, "the entire night."
At her reaction, Sakura couldn't help but speak. She exclaimed, "But you always get mad if I'm not in the den an hour after sunset!"
"Well, you're not a kitten anymore, are you?" asked the older mew sweetly.
"Apparently I was a few nights ago," Sakura muttered so Blaze couldn't hear, and if her mother did, she pretended not to.
"Well, I'll leave you two to your own... devices," said Sakura's mother suggestively as she went back to what she had been doing before, her tail twitching slightly as she flew away.
Sakura led him through a second tunnel, this one slightly longer than the entrance was. He emerged into a wide room, better lit than the first. In the center was a deep pond, more like an underwater cave than a pond. In the pond was the source of the light; a glowing sphere that was about two meters in diameter lay about ten feet below the surface. Almost as soon as he noticed it, Blaze felt an incalculably malicious presence press in on his mind, as though trying to snuff out his existence with pure, incomprehensible hatred. He tripped over his own feet as his vision went crimson and fell on his face. The next thing he knew, he was looking up at Sakura's face, and the vile presence had vanished.
"Are you ok, Blaze?" the worry on Sakura's face as she asked this question was painfully obvious. Or maybe the pain had something to do with his back, he couldn't tell.
"Yeah, I just slipped is all," he responded in an attempt to placate her. The worry expressed on her features lessened slightly, but didn't abate completely. He looked around the room in an attempt to find something to distract her, and noticed his surroundings for the first time. They were in a cavern that was even bigger than the first room, with a ceiling that was so far up, there could only be a few centimeters between one side and the other. The walls were engraved with images of pokemon, many of them ones that Blaze didn't even know existed, dancing arm in arm. The greenish, vine tinted lighting; which was provided by a single window, which was about one meter square and looked like it had been blasted out of the rock, on the side opposite the entrance; and the way they were carved made it seem as though when you moved, they did as well. Blaze slowly stood up, looking around in wonder. Now that there was light, he could actually see, and he was glad for it. This room couldn't be admired properly with that, for lack of a better term, sixth sense.
Sakura noticed his fascination, and said, "I see you like it here."
"It's amazing," Blaze's voice said, mimicking his face precisely, "How did you get it like this?"
"It's an old trick of my mom's."
"It's really cool."
"I'm glad you think so. This is my room, after all."
"Lucky," Blaze thought.
"Well, it's yours now, too. Since you're my mate, it's only right that we live together." At her words, Blaze's cheeks went scarlet in embarrassment as he recalled that she could read his thoughts. Even if she tried not to, sometimes she wouldn't be able to help it, simply because it was instinctive to her as walking was to him. Oftentimes, she couldn't even tell the difference between speaking and thinking, if Blaze's knowledge of Psychic-types was accurate. Then he realized what she had said, and the blush deepened, if that was possible.
Blaze's stomach took this moment to announce its hunger, using its version of a Growl attack. Sakura looked from his blush to his belly and back a couple times. She asked, "You hungry?"
"No...," Blaze began, but was interrupted by his stomach again. "Oh, alright," he said more to his stomach than Sakura, "Let's go find something to eat."
Sakura giggled. "Follow me," she said after a second, flying out the window. Blaze did as she said. She led him to a patch of trees about half a kilometer south of the mountain, and disappeared amongst the branches. Blaze released his power when he reached the treetops, and simply swung down, perching on the last branch for a second to get his bearings before dropping the last five meters, rolling when he hit the ground to disperse the impact. He stood up, brushing the dirt off his clothes as he looked around. He was in a small thicket of berry trees and bushes, and the smell was almost intoxicatingly sweet. Berries of every description hung from the branches, in some cases dragging them down almost a meter, they were so densely clustered. There was just one thing missing...
Blaze would have expected a place like this to be filled with pokemon. Yet other than himself, Sakura, and the vegetation, the only living creature that Blaze could sense was a dragonfly perched on a tree a few meters away. He looked toward Sakura, and found that she was looking around, apparently as confused as he was. After a few seconds, they looked at each other, and just their eyes screamed the question, "Where is everyone?"
"I think we should come back later," said Blaze.
"Y-yeah," replied Sakura, beginning to head back for the den. Before Blaze could follow, however, an ominous presence appeared directly behind him, and even before he could spin around, he felt a heavy blow connect with his back, sending him sprawling forward. Out of instinct, he rolled to the side the second he hit the ground, and in doing so, he managed to avoid being curb-stomped by the hitmonlee who had put him there. He rolled backwards to get on his feet, and brought the orange flame to his hands as he took a fighting stance, only to dive backwards as he caught sight of a red boxing glove-like fist flying for him, causing it to miss by a matter of millimeters. As he was falling backwards, Blaze leaned back and dug his hands into the ground, which effectively flipped him over and he landed on his feet, to find himself facing five opponents: a hitmonchan, hitmonlee, machoke, blaziken, and a gallade, each in a fighting stance. No words were exchanged. Blaze knew what they wanted anyways, and they had attacked first.
First came the hitmonchan. It charged straight for Blaze in an attempt to subdue him through sheer force. Blaze simple ducked under its first blow and delivered his own, more critical punch to the stomach as he blasted him with his fire, which caused the pokemon to flinch long enough for Blaze to deliver a finishing uppercut that knocked the boxer into the air. Next was the hitmonlee, who jumped at Blaze with a kick. Blaze simply raised his arm and caught the blow on his forearm, stopping it dead. In the fraction of a second that the pokemon seemed to simply hang there, it received a powerful kick to the groin. It did not rise again, opting instead to simply lie there, clutching itself and writhing in agony. After that came the machoke, who seemed wiser than the first two. Instead of charging in headfirst, he cautiously approached Blaze. He kept his guard up as he took the first swing, but Blaze redirected it and slid his feet forward to knock the machoke's feet out from under him and used his own fall to throw the pokemon to the ground, where he rolled on top and pinned him and sent energy from a single finger into a pressure point on the side of its neck, which caused the machoke to pass out instantly. After that came the blaziken, who was more powerful than the first three. He leapt at Blaze with a powerful kick with a fire-encased leg. Blaze summoned the orange flame to his hand and grabbed the leg, only to find the other one coming for his head and was forced to duck and release the kick. He then summoned the blue flame and kicked the fire-type's legs from under it, punching it hard as it fell and slamming it to the ground in a blast of cerulean flame. It stayed down.
"That's an interesting set of skills you have, human," said the gallade as the blades on his elbows extended and he leapt for Blaze, who drew his guns and flipped them so the muzzles were pointed towards his elbows. He used the guns to deflect the blows from the razor sharp blades, and bided his time, waiting for an opening in the gallade's defense. The pokemon slowly began to lose its patience, and though it didn't show on his face, it showed in how he slowly became more reckless in his fighting. It had been only two minutes, which was an incredible amount of time in a fight like this, when the pokemon took one final swing that left him open, and Blaze took advantage of it. He flipped Raikou around so that it was in the proper position to fire, and pressed it against the psychic's chest, and pulled the trigger. There was a flash of orange light, and the pokemon was blasted back with a large, circular burn on the center of his chest. Though not deep enough to be fatal, or even to scar if it was treated, the blast was definitely a powerful enough to knock him out.
Blaze stood, looking at the result of his power, and hating it. He hated that he could have such power; to be able to destroy any who opposed him; and he hated himself for using that power. He was looking down at the gallade on the ground at his feet with his injuries, when he heard a voice in his head. "Your power is not only for destruction. It can heal, as well; it was made to help us survive," it said. Blaze attempted to question it, but he got no answers, aside from blue flame erupting from his right hand. As if his body was not his own, he holstered his guns, walked up and knelt beside the swordsman's chest. He then brought his hand to the wound. As he willed the power into it, the burn began to heal, as though the flame was flawlessly regenerating the cells. After five minutes, he stood up and gazed at the results. Where before there had been severe burns, there was now only flawless skin, looking as though it had never been scratched. As he stood, he wondered where Sakura had disappeared to. Almost as soon as he thought this, he felt a chill creep up the nape of his neck, and slowly turned around. He was greeted by the sight of the machoke holding an unconscious Sakura, and flanked by the hitmonchan and hitmonlee.
"Let her go," Blaze growled, reaching behind him and pulling out Raikou and Hyou. The machoke just laughed.
"What are you gonna do, human?" it asked snidely, "Now drop 'em."
Blaze snarled wordlessly, and was forced to comply. He released the guns and they hit the earth with a thud, yet he refused to surrender. He closed his eyes and brought his hand to the hilt of the katana. As soon as his hand wrapped around it, he felt a strange pulse from deep within the blade; not a physical pulse, but more like a pulse of energy. "Please," he thought, "I need your power now." As he opened his eyes, the pulse grew stronger and the world faded, to be replaced by an expanse of pure white. In front of him stood a man in a suit of samurai armor, complete with the face mask. Slowly, an armored hand reached up and drew the sword from his waist, revealing a blade that was a black as the darkest night, perfectly curved, and with silver Japanese writing set into the blade on both sides, so perfectly aligned that to the touch, it was nonexistent. Blaze recognized it instantly. It was the sword he carried on his back, but there was a difference. Where the one on his back read, "I am the Manifestation of Resolve. Only one with the will to move mountains with their bare hands is worthy to wield me. My name shall be revealed only to one who is worthy of my power," this one read differently.
"I am the Manifestation of Resolve, wielded by one with the purest resolve. My name is..."
"GOUKA," Blaze yelled, drawing the blade in a burst of purple fire, which encased not only his hands, but the blade as well, and his eyes glowed two different colors, one red, the other blue. Without a word, he ran forward, and before any of the three attackers could react he had closed the gap between them. Before any of them could do more than think, "This is going to hurt," he darted past them and spun around, lashing out with the blade in an arc that left a cut on all three of their backs, just deep enough to shock them. The machoke at the center released Sakura out of reflex. Before she could hit the ground, the gallade dashed in, caught her, and darted to a safe distance.
"You little-," growled the machoke, but Blaze interrupted him.
"You attacked me for no reason, tried to kill me, and held my mate hostage," he said, "For that, I can't let you just walk away." He again darted forward, and this time he jumped over them and swung the blade, still encased in amethyst flame, with a yell of "FIRE STYLE: BLUNT SLASH!" The flame leapt off the blade along the arc that his stroke followed, and rammed into the pokemon's heads, knocking them to the ground. "Know that if you ever attack me or Sakura again, you will not survive." With that ominous warning, he left them there, dazed and confused.
He walked over to the gallade and Sakura, who had woken up just seconds beforehand. "Blaze!" she almost shouted, "You're ok!"
The human smiled. "Of course I am," he said, "I won't lose to a bunch of thugs like them." The matter-of-fact way in which Blaze said it surprised even himself. Sakura leapt forward and wrapped her arms around his neck in an embrace, nuzzling his cheek happily. Blaze's stomach took that exact moment to voice its protest for Blaze's not eating, which caused all three of them to jump in surprise.
"I guess you're still hungry," Sakura said to his stomach. "Well, let's go find some good berries then, shall we?"
The two of them turned to the gallade, who was looking at them curiously. "Care to join us?" Blaze asked politely.
"No. thank you, but I wouldn't want to intrude..." the gallade began, but Sakura silenced him.
"I insist," she said. "After all, you're a friend of ours now."
The gallade was silent for a few seconds. Then, he suddenly leapt into the trees. Mere seconds later, he returned, followed by a large group of floating berries, which he placed in front of them. "Enjoy," said the psychic swordsman. Both Blaze and Sakura dove into the pile instantly. The very first berry that Blaze bit into flooded his mouth with delectably sweet juice, and he just had to have more. In less than twenty minutes, the three of them ate everything they could stomach, with Blaze eating almost twice as much as both of the other two combined. When they were finished, they all say down in the soft grass and drifted off to a peaceful sleep.Chapter End Notes:Well, another one's done. here's hopin the next one is quicker to write
When they finished, they simply relaxed in the warm water for a while, just taking pleasure in the feel of the other's body against their own. To Blaze, the feeling of Sakura's silky fur playing against his skin was extremely pleasant. Likewise, Sakura loved the feeling of Blaze's bare skin as it rubbed against her fur, though both preferred the feeling when dry. Eventually, however, the water cooled off. At that point, Blaze noticed that the sun was well above the horizon, indicating it to be about two hours after they got in. They crawled out, and Blaze dried them both off again. Then Blaze pulled on his clothes, and slipped into the belt, with the weapons still attached.
After a few seconds, Sakura looked as though she had swallowed a rotten apple whole. When Blaze asked what was wrong, she said, "I forgot... mom was expecting me back last night."
"Is that really a big deal?" Blaze asked nonchalantly.
"OF COURSE IT'S A BIG DEAL!!!" Sakura yelled, causing Blaze to jump back in alarm, his hand pausing halfway between his side and the hilt of his sword. Seeing this, Sakura flinched slightly, and continued in a softer tone. "My mom tends to blow things out of proportion, and she can be really scary when she wants to..."
"Well, let's get it over with then," said Blaze, sighing. "Where do you live?"
"Right below us," replied Sakura, her nervous mannerisms unchanged by Blaze's calmness. She was almost chewing her claws in anxiety.
"In the rock?"
Sakura sighed. "It's a mountain my great grandfather ripped in half when he got bored, not a rock. But yes, I live inside it."
"When he was bored?" Blaze asked. Then, more sheepishly "Did you get any of that power?"
"Well, it runs in the family." Blaze jokingly inched away, and Sakura laughed, lunging at him and latching onto his neck. Almost instantly, they dissolved into a fit of laughter. For several minutes, they just rolled around laughing. Before long, however, they remembered their situation. Though neither of them wanted to see the older mew angry, it would only get worse if they waited, so Sakura led the way over to the edge of the cliff, and from there to a cave entrance, concealed by the veil of vines and moss that covered most of the wall. It was barely large enough for him to wiggle through, but after about two meters, just when he was beginning to worry, his reaching arm fell on thin air just as he put his weight on it, and he tumbled out onto the floor, which was about half a meter away.
As he stood up, he brushed himself off and looked around, doing his best to ignore Sakura's giggles. He was in a dimly lit room; the stone walls seemed to radiate an all-encompassing golden glow, but it was so weak that his human eyes could barely make out his hand at arms length, and his feet were invisible to him. Because his eyes were useless, he closed them, relaxing his concentration. At once, the world appeared before him, even more vivid than sight allowed. Every crack, fissure, bump, and curve was clearly defined in that strange sensation, which his brain interpreted as being somewhere between touch, sight, and hearing, yet at the same time, none of them. Just as clear was Sakura, and mere feet away, her mother.
Upon realizing they had been discovered, Blaze nonchalantly said, "Hello, shuutome. Sorry we're late; I didn't realize we were supposed to come here." *Note: shuutome is how one would address a mother-in-law in Japan. Blaze said this because he is trying to be polite, though with questionable success, due to the circumstances and his casual attitude*
"Where did you hear this?" asked the older mew, as though surprised, "I never said you two had to come back. Besides, you were up there," she pointed to the exact position they had fallen asleep at with her paw, "the entire night."
At her reaction, Sakura couldn't help but speak. She exclaimed, "But you always get mad if I'm not in the den an hour after sunset!"
"Well, you're not a kitten anymore, are you?" asked the older mew sweetly.
"Apparently I was a few nights ago," Sakura muttered so Blaze couldn't hear, and if her mother did, she pretended not to.
"Well, I'll leave you two to your own... devices," said Sakura's mother suggestively as she went back to what she had been doing before, her tail twitching slightly as she flew away.
Sakura led him through a second tunnel, this one slightly longer than the entrance was. He emerged into a wide room, better lit than the first. In the center was a deep pond, more like an underwater cave than a pond. In the pond was the source of the light; a glowing sphere that was about two meters in diameter lay about ten feet below the surface. Almost as soon as he noticed it, Blaze felt an incalculably malicious presence press in on his mind, as though trying to snuff out his existence with pure, incomprehensible hatred. He tripped over his own feet as his vision went crimson and fell on his face. The next thing he knew, he was looking up at Sakura's face, and the vile presence had vanished.
"Are you ok, Blaze?" the worry on Sakura's face as she asked this question was painfully obvious. Or maybe the pain had something to do with his back, he couldn't tell.
"Yeah, I just slipped is all," he responded in an attempt to placate her. The worry expressed on her features lessened slightly, but didn't abate completely. He looked around the room in an attempt to find something to distract her, and noticed his surroundings for the first time. They were in a cavern that was even bigger than the first room, with a ceiling that was so far up, there could only be a few centimeters between one side and the other. The walls were engraved with images of pokemon, many of them ones that Blaze didn't even know existed, dancing arm in arm. The greenish, vine tinted lighting; which was provided by a single window, which was about one meter square and looked like it had been blasted out of the rock, on the side opposite the entrance; and the way they were carved made it seem as though when you moved, they did as well. Blaze slowly stood up, looking around in wonder. Now that there was light, he could actually see, and he was glad for it. This room couldn't be admired properly with that, for lack of a better term, sixth sense.
Sakura noticed his fascination, and said, "I see you like it here."
"It's amazing," Blaze's voice said, mimicking his face precisely, "How did you get it like this?"
"It's an old trick of my mom's."
"It's really cool."
"I'm glad you think so. This is my room, after all."
"Lucky," Blaze thought.
"Well, it's yours now, too. Since you're my mate, it's only right that we live together." At her words, Blaze's cheeks went scarlet in embarrassment as he recalled that she could read his thoughts. Even if she tried not to, sometimes she wouldn't be able to help it, simply because it was instinctive to her as walking was to him. Oftentimes, she couldn't even tell the difference between speaking and thinking, if Blaze's knowledge of Psychic-types was accurate. Then he realized what she had said, and the blush deepened, if that was possible.
Blaze's stomach took this moment to announce its hunger, using its version of a Growl attack. Sakura looked from his blush to his belly and back a couple times. She asked, "You hungry?"
"No...," Blaze began, but was interrupted by his stomach again. "Oh, alright," he said more to his stomach than Sakura, "Let's go find something to eat."
Sakura giggled. "Follow me," she said after a second, flying out the window. Blaze did as she said. She led him to a patch of trees about half a kilometer south of the mountain, and disappeared amongst the branches. Blaze released his power when he reached the treetops, and simply swung down, perching on the last branch for a second to get his bearings before dropping the last five meters, rolling when he hit the ground to disperse the impact. He stood up, brushing the dirt off his clothes as he looked around. He was in a small thicket of berry trees and bushes, and the smell was almost intoxicatingly sweet. Berries of every description hung from the branches, in some cases dragging them down almost a meter, they were so densely clustered. There was just one thing missing...
Blaze would have expected a place like this to be filled with pokemon. Yet other than himself, Sakura, and the vegetation, the only living creature that Blaze could sense was a dragonfly perched on a tree a few meters away. He looked toward Sakura, and found that she was looking around, apparently as confused as he was. After a few seconds, they looked at each other, and just their eyes screamed the question, "Where is everyone?"
"I think we should come back later," said Blaze.
"Y-yeah," replied Sakura, beginning to head back for the den. Before Blaze could follow, however, an ominous presence appeared directly behind him, and even before he could spin around, he felt a heavy blow connect with his back, sending him sprawling forward. Out of instinct, he rolled to the side the second he hit the ground, and in doing so, he managed to avoid being curb-stomped by the hitmonlee who had put him there. He rolled backwards to get on his feet, and brought the orange flame to his hands as he took a fighting stance, only to dive backwards as he caught sight of a red boxing glove-like fist flying for him, causing it to miss by a matter of millimeters. As he was falling backwards, Blaze leaned back and dug his hands into the ground, which effectively flipped him over and he landed on his feet, to find himself facing five opponents: a hitmonchan, hitmonlee, machoke, blaziken, and a gallade, each in a fighting stance. No words were exchanged. Blaze knew what they wanted anyways, and they had attacked first.
First came the hitmonchan. It charged straight for Blaze in an attempt to subdue him through sheer force. Blaze simple ducked under its first blow and delivered his own, more critical punch to the stomach as he blasted him with his fire, which caused the pokemon to flinch long enough for Blaze to deliver a finishing uppercut that knocked the boxer into the air. Next was the hitmonlee, who jumped at Blaze with a kick. Blaze simply raised his arm and caught the blow on his forearm, stopping it dead. In the fraction of a second that the pokemon seemed to simply hang there, it received a powerful kick to the groin. It did not rise again, opting instead to simply lie there, clutching itself and writhing in agony. After that came the machoke, who seemed wiser than the first two. Instead of charging in headfirst, he cautiously approached Blaze. He kept his guard up as he took the first swing, but Blaze redirected it and slid his feet forward to knock the machoke's feet out from under him and used his own fall to throw the pokemon to the ground, where he rolled on top and pinned him and sent energy from a single finger into a pressure point on the side of its neck, which caused the machoke to pass out instantly. After that came the blaziken, who was more powerful than the first three. He leapt at Blaze with a powerful kick with a fire-encased leg. Blaze summoned the orange flame to his hand and grabbed the leg, only to find the other one coming for his head and was forced to duck and release the kick. He then summoned the blue flame and kicked the fire-type's legs from under it, punching it hard as it fell and slamming it to the ground in a blast of cerulean flame. It stayed down.
"That's an interesting set of skills you have, human," said the gallade as the blades on his elbows extended and he leapt for Blaze, who drew his guns and flipped them so the muzzles were pointed towards his elbows. He used the guns to deflect the blows from the razor sharp blades, and bided his time, waiting for an opening in the gallade's defense. The pokemon slowly began to lose its patience, and though it didn't show on his face, it showed in how he slowly became more reckless in his fighting. It had been only two minutes, which was an incredible amount of time in a fight like this, when the pokemon took one final swing that left him open, and Blaze took advantage of it. He flipped Raikou around so that it was in the proper position to fire, and pressed it against the psychic's chest, and pulled the trigger. There was a flash of orange light, and the pokemon was blasted back with a large, circular burn on the center of his chest. Though not deep enough to be fatal, or even to scar if it was treated, the blast was definitely a powerful enough to knock him out.
Blaze stood, looking at the result of his power, and hating it. He hated that he could have such power; to be able to destroy any who opposed him; and he hated himself for using that power. He was looking down at the gallade on the ground at his feet with his injuries, when he heard a voice in his head. "Your power is not only for destruction. It can heal, as well; it was made to help us survive," it said. Blaze attempted to question it, but he got no answers, aside from blue flame erupting from his right hand. As if his body was not his own, he holstered his guns, walked up and knelt beside the swordsman's chest. He then brought his hand to the wound. As he willed the power into it, the burn began to heal, as though the flame was flawlessly regenerating the cells. After five minutes, he stood up and gazed at the results. Where before there had been severe burns, there was now only flawless skin, looking as though it had never been scratched. As he stood, he wondered where Sakura had disappeared to. Almost as soon as he thought this, he felt a chill creep up the nape of his neck, and slowly turned around. He was greeted by the sight of the machoke holding an unconscious Sakura, and flanked by the hitmonchan and hitmonlee.
"Let her go," Blaze growled, reaching behind him and pulling out Raikou and Hyou. The machoke just laughed.
"What are you gonna do, human?" it asked snidely, "Now drop 'em."
Blaze snarled wordlessly, and was forced to comply. He released the guns and they hit the earth with a thud, yet he refused to surrender. He closed his eyes and brought his hand to the hilt of the katana. As soon as his hand wrapped around it, he felt a strange pulse from deep within the blade; not a physical pulse, but more like a pulse of energy. "Please," he thought, "I need your power now." As he opened his eyes, the pulse grew stronger and the world faded, to be replaced by an expanse of pure white. In front of him stood a man in a suit of samurai armor, complete with the face mask. Slowly, an armored hand reached up and drew the sword from his waist, revealing a blade that was a black as the darkest night, perfectly curved, and with silver Japanese writing set into the blade on both sides, so perfectly aligned that to the touch, it was nonexistent. Blaze recognized it instantly. It was the sword he carried on his back, but there was a difference. Where the one on his back read, "I am the Manifestation of Resolve. Only one with the will to move mountains with their bare hands is worthy to wield me. My name shall be revealed only to one who is worthy of my power," this one read differently.
"I am the Manifestation of Resolve, wielded by one with the purest resolve. My name is..."
"GOUKA," Blaze yelled, drawing the blade in a burst of purple fire, which encased not only his hands, but the blade as well, and his eyes glowed two different colors, one red, the other blue. Without a word, he ran forward, and before any of the three attackers could react he had closed the gap between them. Before any of them could do more than think, "This is going to hurt," he darted past them and spun around, lashing out with the blade in an arc that left a cut on all three of their backs, just deep enough to shock them. The machoke at the center released Sakura out of reflex. Before she could hit the ground, the gallade dashed in, caught her, and darted to a safe distance.
"You little-," growled the machoke, but Blaze interrupted him.
"You attacked me for no reason, tried to kill me, and held my mate hostage," he said, "For that, I can't let you just walk away." He again darted forward, and this time he jumped over them and swung the blade, still encased in amethyst flame, with a yell of "FIRE STYLE: BLUNT SLASH!" The flame leapt off the blade along the arc that his stroke followed, and rammed into the pokemon's heads, knocking them to the ground. "Know that if you ever attack me or Sakura again, you will not survive." With that ominous warning, he left them there, dazed and confused.
He walked over to the gallade and Sakura, who had woken up just seconds beforehand. "Blaze!" she almost shouted, "You're ok!"
The human smiled. "Of course I am," he said, "I won't lose to a bunch of thugs like them." The matter-of-fact way in which Blaze said it surprised even himself. Sakura leapt forward and wrapped her arms around his neck in an embrace, nuzzling his cheek happily. Blaze's stomach took that exact moment to voice its protest for Blaze's not eating, which caused all three of them to jump in surprise.
"I guess you're still hungry," Sakura said to his stomach. "Well, let's go find some good berries then, shall we?"
The two of them turned to the gallade, who was looking at them curiously. "Care to join us?" Blaze asked politely.
"No. thank you, but I wouldn't want to intrude..." the gallade began, but Sakura silenced him.
"I insist," she said. "After all, you're a friend of ours now."
The gallade was silent for a few seconds. Then, he suddenly leapt into the trees. Mere seconds later, he returned, followed by a large group of floating berries, which he placed in front of them. "Enjoy," said the psychic swordsman. Both Blaze and Sakura dove into the pile instantly. The very first berry that Blaze bit into flooded his mouth with delectably sweet juice, and he just had to have more. In less than twenty minutes, the three of them ate everything they could stomach, with Blaze eating almost twice as much as both of the other two combined. When they were finished, they all say down in the soft grass and drifted off to a peaceful sleep.Chapter End Notes:Well, another one's done. here's hopin the next one is quicker to write