Pokemon Dawn

Early morning of April 8th. Temporary shelter in the coastal area of ​​Honglian City.

"Do you have any bandages left?"

"Yes, please use it, Senior Liuyuan!"

"Well...it seems that the cotton swabs have also been used up."

"I'll go get it right now!"

The green-haired boy's resounding response made the female doctor in a white coat, whom he called "Yanagihara-senpai," couldn't help but smile, "Thank you. You are very active in your work, Hiroki-kun."

"Of course." The boy nodded seriously, "I am a member of the rescue department, and now is the time to use my power to help everyone."

The boy's name is Mitani Hiroki, and he is thirteen years old. He comes from an inconspicuous town in the northern part of the Kanto region. He just passed the entrance examination of the Rescue Department not long ago and became a formal member of the Rescue Department.

Today is his first time to participate in a rescue operation. Therefore, he was not allowed to go directly to the disaster site, but was assigned to help in a temporary shelter.

However, Hiroki was not depressed at all - because this was his dream job.

He has dreamed of becoming a investigator who can save people's lives since he was a child - yes, just like the chief investigator Akira Konoe - so he joined the rescue department without hesitation to train himself. There are many wounded people in the shelter who need help.

, he would never be able to watch people suffer and do nothing.

"That's it." Yanagihara ended the work at hand.

Looking at the young girl who couldn't help but breathe in pain, Hiroki leaned over and comforted her: "It's okay, your injury is not serious. It will not hurt soon - in ten minutes at most."

The girl blinked and smiled, "Well, Hiroki-kun, right? Thank you."

The green-haired boy suddenly blushed when he was praised by the person he was helping for the first time, "Uh, I, I didn't do anything, so I don't deserve thanks... that's right!" When talking about his favorite topic, the boy's eyes were filled with tears.

It shone brightly, "If I want to say thank you, the one I need to thank the most is Mr. Shenyu Xinghai! Thanks to him alone for blocking the three divine birds, the city was not damaged more seriously!"

here we go again.

Yanagihara shook his head helplessly and murmured softly: "Really, it's just a human body propaganda machine of the Investigation Department."

Hiroki has always had a high level of respect for the four major departments, especially the Investigation Department, and often spared no effort to praise the investigators. Many seniors joked that he worked harder than a real propaganda ambassador.

Young boys always seem to be like this. Yanagihara pursed his lips and smiled, and continued to provide emergency treatment to the next wounded person.

As a staff member of the auxiliary medical team, Hiroki may seem a bit noisy. However, in a place like this, too much silence is fatal.

Spreading positive and hopeful emotions, never hesitating, never losing faith, never giving up on anyone - the most important principles for rescuers to follow were fulfilled by him very well.

"By the way, Yanagihara-senpai." After carrying large and small bags of medical supplies into the house, Hiroki did not forget to talk to the familiar senior, "Mr. Shenba is indeed resting in Guren City Third Hospital, right? He will wait until work

At the end, I kind of want to visit him..."

"Hiroki-kun, I think it's best not to disturb Mr. Shenyu's rest."

"Hey - but it's not easy to be in the same city... Wow!"

Hiroki tripped over something and nearly fell to the ground. He quickly staggered to steady his body. Looking back, the green-haired boy suddenly took a breath of cold air.

"Yes, I'm sorry!" Hiroki quickly put down the things in his hands, "Sir, are you okay?"

What tripped Hiroki was the middle-aged man's legs. He lay straight on the dirt floor with his eyes half open, like a solidified statue.

Hearing Hiroki's voice, it took a long time for the middle-aged man to react. He slowly glanced at Hiroki, and this look shocked the young man.

It was a lifeless look, like that of a dying person.

"It's okay. I'm not hurt." He replied in a low voice.

"Do you really don't need help...?"

"Um."

Seeing that there were indeed no visible injuries on the middle-aged man's body, Hiroki had no choice but to turn around and leave worriedly, continuing his work.

The person lying on the ground seemed not to notice the boy's frequent gazes, and just lay motionless and lifeless.

The night was dark. As the hours passed, even the busiest staff could feel that fewer and fewer wounded people were being admitted to the shelter.

This is not a good thing - because more people who were excavated have stopped breathing; the exhausted injured have fallen into a deep sleep, and some are sobbing quietly. Even the fledgling Hiroki clearly understands

I feel that the atmosphere in the current shelter is too bad.

The large screen with synchronized messages scrolled from time to time with survivors separated from their families. Hiroki noticed that every time these lists appeared, the middle-aged man lying motionless would suddenly open his eyes wide and stare at the screen until the list scrolled.

complete.

It was like the last fire of life in a dying body. The hope flashing in the middle-aged man's eyes was so extreme and fanatical that it made the green-haired boy who looked at him from a distance feel a little horrified for a moment.

Is it...that someone important has been separated?

Hiroki guessed this.

While the list of survivors is being released, the list of dead is also constantly being updated.

In the small shelter, more and more people gradually fell into grief. When they saw their familiar names on the death list, they cried uncontrollably and even fainted, causing the medical staff to panic again.

In a hurry.

Hiroki's active working attitude could no longer infect these grieving people, and he could not find the right words to comfort them.

There is nothing more heartbreaking than losing a family member.

The gray-haired woman's beautiful long dress had long been stained with blood and dust. She stroked her one-year-old son, who had a high fever due to serious injuries, and finally let out a broken cry unbearably.

Just now, she saw her husband's name on the list of victims. Their young children would never have a father again.

"Why..." she almost moaned, "why can't you come faster..."

When the house collapsed, the distance between her and her husband was only a few meters. It was only a few seconds before the next attack of the Frozen Bird was blocked by the sea of ​​stars.

But these few seconds and these few meters have become an insurmountable gap between life and death.

"Obviously if it were faster, this child's father wouldn't..."

The sad and trembling voice of the young mother made Hongshu slightly stunned. The people next to him had already had red eyes.

"Yes, if the investigator had come a little earlier, my arm would not have to be amputated." The man in his prime said with a gloomy face. Without his hands, he would never be able to participate in his favorite one-horned rhinoceros race.

.

"Since we have the strength to repel the three divine birds, wouldn't it be better to stop them from the beginning?"

"Why did it come so late after the disaster happened..."

"Obviously...my mother doesn't have to die..."

In the whispers full of sadness, regret and resentment, Hiroki showed an expression of disbelief.

"What are you talking about!?"

He loudly interrupted the wounded.

"Mr. Shen Yu Xinghai is the hero who saved us. Without him, we might all be dead! Why should we blame him instead? This is too strange, isn't it?"

Hiroki knew that it was wrong to argue with the helpless citizens who had just lost their loved ones. However, he simply could not tolerate such disgusting remarks filling this shelter.

"Mr. Shenyu must have his own reasons for not arriving in time. We can't..."

"What reason?"

A sharp question came from nowhere and made Hiroki choke.

He looked around, trying to find the person who was speaking. But the countless sorrows and cold and hateful eyes that came into his eyes made him horrified.

Everyone’s eyes are saying——

Is there any reason that is more important than the lives of our loved ones?

The middle-aged man lying in the corner closed his eyes, as if suppressing some terrible impulse.

"Okay, Hiroki-kun, there is no time for small talk."

Yanagihara patted Hiroki on the shoulder and said, "Go get me some painkillers."

"Well, okay..."

Watching the green-haired boy who was in a somewhat depressed mood walk out of the shelter, Yanagihara glanced at the people who had spoken before with his peripheral vision.

They no longer complained, and the expressions on their faces became cold and dull, but they could not hide the dissatisfaction and even resentment in their eyes.

The female doctor sighed.

Unlike Hiroki, she has long enough working experience as a member of the rescue department's medical team and has seen similar incidents countless times.

When people are suffering from excessive grief, in order to prevent themselves from collapsing, they will naturally blame others and pour out their negative emotions on other objects - whether the other person is a criminal who has committed a heinous crime or a hero who fights to protect them.

This has been the case for thousands of years.

The early morning light illuminated the scarred red city.

The rescue department is still working tirelessly. However, the list of survivors is beginning to become shorter, and the list of confirmed dead is becoming longer and longer.

The entire city is enveloped in an atmosphere of grief and depression. For people who are waiting for news about their families, the disaster is far from over.

In the small shelter, the middle-aged man tried to straighten up tremblingly, but fell back to the ground unsteadily.

His bloodshot eyes were opened to the limit, staring at the words on the screen.

[Rimi Akiyama (female, 7 years old), confirmed dead]

Finally standing up crookedly, he kept making heavy breathing sounds. The nurse standing nearby approached to ask with some worry, but he roughly pushed him away.

In his eyes, that extreme and fanatical hope was extinguished.

He stood like this for a moment, expressionless and sluggish, but cold liquid kept pouring out of his eyes, washing out a white mark on his dusty face.

Hiroki, who was so busy that he couldn't touch the ground, noticed the middle-aged man's unusual behavior. Before he could step forward to ask what was going on, the middle-aged man suddenly let out a shrill roar like a beast.

With red eyes, he rushed out of the shelter.

Hiroki only hesitated for two seconds.

He knew that it was inevitable for people who had lost a loved one to lose control of their emotions for a while. But for some reason, he had a premonition that made him tremble.

Perhaps it was because the middle-aged man looked too lifeless before, or perhaps because his eyes were too scary. Before he could think of a conclusion, Hiroki had already chased him out.

The middle-aged man ran, his hoarse breathing and the loud beating of his heart ringing in his ears.

Waiting all night long had already reached the limit of his emotions. When his daughter's name appeared on the list of dead, the last string of reason in his mind was finally completely broken.

The rapid breathing caused a burning sensation in his lungs, and the temperature from his chest was even more deadly. His brain had been washed away by turbulent emotions - sadness, despair, resentment, and anger.

Why?

Shenyu Xinghai, why don’t you get there faster?

Aren't you a hero?

Why do I have to see my daughter being trampled to death in the crowd before I can take the stage so slowly!?

He still remembered that the green-haired boy mentioned the hospital where Xinghai was located. He could no longer think normally, and only relied on animal-like instincts to act, running and roaring desperately to release energy enough to destroy himself.

He ran through the ruins, crossed the city's roads, and rushed into the Honglian City Third Hospital. The panicked shouts of the nurses, the calls for security, and the noisy sound of instruments falling to the ground failed to reach his ears.

His eyes were like a wild wolf, scanning the name tags posted on the doors of each ward. When the word "Shenyu" appeared in his sight, he howled at the top of his lungs and violently pushed the door open.

"Shenyu Xinghai! Why did you kill my daughter!?"

Hiroki tried his best not to be thrown away by the middle-aged man's pace. He had no time to think about why an ordinary citizen could run faster than him who had received professional training, so he could only barely keep up, panting.

After hearing the roar coming from the far end of the corridor, Hiroki realized that something was wrong.

Unprecedented anger surged into his heart. The strength that came out of nowhere made him quicken his steps and squeezed into the ward where the sound came from.

"This gentleman!! Please..."

Looking into the house, he was suddenly speechless.

The investigator Shenyu Xinghai whom he respected was sitting on the hospital bed, looking out the door with a hint of surprise. Next to him was a young nurse who looked at a loss.

Next to Xinghai, medical trays were piled full of bandages soaked in blood. This shocking scene made Hiroki unable to imagine how a person could survive after losing so much blood.

The nurse was wrapping a new bandage on the silver-haired young man's arm. This work was interrupted before it was completed. The two people outside the door could clearly see the horrific scars engraved on the arm, which were deep enough to the bone.

The young man's head, shoulders, ankles, and all over his body were covered with bandages. His face was very pale, and his body was shrouded in a large hospital gown, like a crumbling autumn leaf.

As the "Human Propaganda Agent of the Investigation Department", Hiroki knows all the seven first-level investigators in the Kanto area very well. He understands the power, calmness and arrogance of the dragon messenger Kamu Hoshikai, but he has never seen the body.

Because the human Shenyu Xinghai looks so fragile.

He realized belatedly——

Human beings who can easily defeat the three divine birds simply cannot exist. They are not almighty gods - everyone should know this.

The middle-aged man originally planned to step forward and pick up the incompetent hero by the collar and throw him to the ground. But his body stiffened and he was unable to move no matter what.

The two uninvited guests saw the unparalleled first-class investigator who always smiled calmly on the screen with a heartbreaking expression.

After understanding, there was sadness, guilt, and deep self-blame. All emotions were contained in those ice-blue eyes like lake water, swaying and overflowing.

"sorry."

he said.

This farce was quickly ended.

Before Hiroki came to his senses, another person appeared in front of them.

In the biting cold wind, Hiroki raised his head and saw the back of a young man in a black windbreaker.

His hair was very long, and the ice-crystal silver strands hung straight down, swaying slightly in the air-conditioning. And his voice contained anger that was enough to scare everyone.

"roll."

The middle-aged man's hands and feet were tightly clasped by chains of ice that appeared out of thin air. The cold air entered his body, and his emotionally out-of-control father fell silently.

For a moment, Hiroki even thought that this person would kill the troublemaker. Fortunately, this terrifying thought did not come true. The young man shrouded in cold air glanced at the rescue department uniform on Hiroki's body and pulled the unconscious middle-aged man away.

The man kicked him in the foot.

——The meaning is self-evident.

After Hiroki apologized to the people in the room, he dragged the middle-aged man out of the ward and closed the door immediately.

Is that person... a relative of Mr. Shenyu? He also has long silver hair.

Hiroki muttered secretly, and didn't realize it until he vaguely heard the conversation coming from the door.

That person calls Mr. Shen Yu his senior brother, which means...

As we all know, the master of Shenyu Xinghai is the former chief investigator Xingyu Baiye. Speaking of Baiye's other disciple, of course - it is the big shot of the Ice God family.

The excitement of meeting the "legendary figure" only surged up for a moment, and was then overwhelmed by the depression that followed. If it were the usual Hiroki, he might have mustered up the courage to try to talk to him, but now Hiroki

Shu just hopes that no one will disturb this hero who is already desperate enough.

Walking out of the hospital door, the young man looked at the ice chains tied to the middle-aged man's hands and feet, which showed no signs of melting.

What he knows - as early as when he was studying at the Trainer Training Academy, his teacher said - those who can become first-level investigators are those who have a strong sense of responsibility. Otherwise, they will not be able to shoulder the responsibility of the people.

With heavy trust, I embarked on such a difficult and dangerous road.

If they are accused of "my daughter died because of your failure to rescue in time," they will really take this as their own responsibility, and will blame themselves, regret, and suffer endlessly for the rest of their lives.

Hiroki aspired to become an investigator. However, at this moment, it was as if the chill of the ice chain had infected him, and he was trembling slightly because of fear.

Even the young newcomers cannot imagine how much courage it takes to continue living and how much perseverance it takes to continue to complete the work of an investigator, bearing such accusations and cold looks.

Yes, the investigator is a hero - this is the way the media has always promoted it, and it is true that countless young trainers have been inspired by this.

But now, Hiroki began to doubt the authenticity of media reports and everyone's perceptions of the investigators.

The first-level investigator, who only carried three Pokémon, single-handedly defeated the three divine birds - when did people start to believe this statement?

Investigators are heroes, but not gods. They will also be injured and tired. And when they are scarred, the people who worship heroes will only make more demanding demands on the heroes.

The chains of ice are binding the limbs of the troublemakers. And people's bottomless expectations and unconditional trust, including Hiroki's own excessive respect for the investigators - aren't they also heavy shackles placed on the investigators?

This is so strange.

Hiroki said to himself, just as he said to the wounded in the shelter before.

They are obviously protecting us, but we do something like this in return, and even ask the heroes to say sorry to us?

…

I'm sorry, Mr. Shenyu, I couldn't stop him from breaking into your room.

sorry.

I'm really...sorry.

The young boy buried his face in his hands and cried softly.