~¤~Prétear~¤~

by Crimson Flame

Pokemon is not mine. Prétear is not mine. Fushigi Yuugi is not mine.

This is an AU (Alternate Universe) story. Based on the anime Prétear and a bit of Fushigi Yuugi.

After reading a mysterious book, Misty Waterflower, a normal high school girl gets thrown into an alternate dimension filled with strange creatures called pokemon. There she is approached by seven pokemon masters who claim that she is the legendary Princess Prétear who has the power to protect the world from the evil Queen Fenryl. With the power to ‘merge’ with a master to form a Prétear Pokemon, Misty struggles to unveil the mysteries of the masters and the real identity of the evil queen…..

Ash/Misty, a bit of Gary/Misty at first.

(.…bla bla….) Is thoughts

"….bla bla…." Is normal speech

{….bla bla….} Is notes/book writings/signs etc.

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A sixteen year-old Misty Kasumi Waterflower yawned.

The idiot history teacher was droning again. He sounded worse than a hive of bees. As he spoke, showers of spew rained down in the front rows. Misty was thankful she wasn’t sitting in the front. Gripping the history textbook tightly, she cringed as she tried to block out the sound of chalk scraping on the blackboard.

(Stupid history. Boring. That’s my life. I wish something interesting could happen once in a while but apparently that is too much to ask.) She thought as she yawned again for the umpteenth time.

Just as she was about to fall asleep, the school bell rang loudly shaking her from her stupor. Hurriedly she cleared her desk and got up from her seat clutching her schoolbag, anxious to leave the classroom and go home.

"…and remember the assignment on the attack on Pearl Harbor. I expect a full report from each of you by the day after tomorrow. If not, look forward to an ‘F’ for your term test. Class dismissed."

Misty groaned along with the rest of her classmates. Apparently they haven’t finished theirs either. She was looking forward to a long warm bath and a trip to the mall after. Now she would to forget about it and pay a visit to the town library for research material instead.

Life can be so unfair.

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"Hey Kaz! Wait up!"

Misty turned her head around when she heard that familiar voice, her fiery long hair twirled along like flowing silk. She smiled as she saw her childhood friend of the same age and secret crush running up the school corridor to catch up with her.

Gary Shigeru Oak was panting for breath when he finally reached her.

"Hey Ru, what’s up?" Misty smiled, blushing in greeting.

Gary quickly regained his act and smirked arrogantly at Misty.

"Quit it, Ru. Other girls may fall for that cunning smile but you know better than to try that on me. What do you want from me?"

"Ok then Kaz. Straight to the point eh? You see, my distant cousin came to town last week and I’ve got four tickets to this concert."

Gary stopped and looked anxiously at Misty in the eyes. Misty looked suspiciously at him and said slowly,

"And?"

"And…um, I’m bringing my girlfriend, Selene."

Misty looked away downhearted when Gary said that.

"Wait. Isn’t your girlfriend’s name Elsa?" Misty asked.

"Oh Elsa? I broke up with her two weeks ago. Selene’s my new girlfriend."

"I see."

Misty sighed. Gary seemed to view girlfriends like clothes, going through a new one every few weeks. And he could afford it too. With his good looks and arrogant attitude, girls are attracted to him like bees are to honey. Misty tried to talk him out of this hurtful habit before but he just shrugged it off and said that he hadn’t found the right girl yet. When the time comes, he said, he promised to quit fooling around. And Misty had always hoped that she will be ‘the one’ when the time comes.

Oblivious to Misty’s thoughts, Gary continued on.

"Anyway, as I was saying, my cousin is visiting and I was hoping to bring him to the concert. And since he doesn’t have a date and since there is an extra ticket….."

Gary trailed off and looked anxiously at Misty’s angry face.

"Gary Shigeru Oak! How dare you fix me on a blind date?!!!"

"It’s not a blind date! He’s my cousin! I know him! He’s a nice guy!"

But Misty was already fuming and didn’t seem to hear what he had said.

"Please Kaz?"

Misty shook her head.

"Aww come on Kaz. Please? Please?" Gary said in a pleading voice and put on his most adorable purple puppy eyes.

Misty sighed defeatedly as all the steam subsided. (I hate it when he does that.) Misty thought as she nodded her head reluctantly.

"Yes! Thanks Kaz! You’re the best! You know I love you, don’t you?!" Gary said hugging his best friend tightly.

"Yes I know. You love me, worship the very ground I walk on, would do anything to please me and…"

"Hey I didn’t say that!"

"No. But I did."

Misty smiled playfully at her childhood companion and Gary smiled back.

"The concert’s in three days. I’ll call you and come pick you up. See ya around Kaz."

"See ya Ru."

With that Gary left and Misty continued onwards heading for the library.

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{…..United States' entry into World War II…..an event precipitated by Japan's devastating surprise attack on Pearl Harbor….surrounding the events of December 7, 1941……}

Misty flipped through another book that said the same things the previous one had. This meant that she had only a limited amount of information to write her report. Muttering curses about idiot history teachers and inefficient libraries, Misty got up to search for another book. She went down aisle after aisle looking for more information to write on. Tired and frustrated, she was about to give up and go home to write the report based on made up facts, turning history into fiction when a slightly opened door caught her eye.

{Restricted Section}

{Authorized Personnel only}

A sign on it read. 

(Oh, who cares?) A desperate-for-facts-Misty thought as she made her way into the dim-lit room.

She squinted and searched through the old dusty books that lined up in the worn-out racks. As Misty looked on, she saw that the collection was made up mostly of old encyclopedias, outdated reference books and various other subjects. Not one on Pearl Harbor at all. Dejected, she turned around to leave when a book caught her attention.

It looked out of place because for one thing it looked almost new. It was clad in silver white binding and the title was black rimmed with gold. It seemed to call out to her, asking her to open it and to read it.

Stifling a laugh at her own weird imaginations, Misty took the book and sat down in one of the corners of the room. Her soft delicate fingers traced the rough surface of the book and along the title as her eyes focused on the letters on the cover.

"Tabun no sekai…" Misty whispered to herself as she read the words. Slowly, she flipped the heavy cover of the book and looked to the next page.

{This book is a journey in which the reader shall make. Remember that nothing is written in stone and destiny is what we make of it. Our story is our own. Always belief in yourself. When you reach the end, you shall return to the beginning.}

(Return? To the beginning? This sounds oddly like those self-help books. What am I doing? I’ve got a report to write. I’m leaving.) Misty thought as she got up with the book in her hand.

That was when it happened.

The book began to glow. At first, Misty thought she was hallucinating due to fatigue but as she looked on closer, she realized that it was really happening. A soft aura as white as pure snow began to surround her body and Misty felt faint. Then she felt a tug and was pulled into the book.

There was the sound of a book falling to the floor echoing off the barren room as Misty Waterflower simply disappeared.

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Misty felt like she was falling through space. White space. The whole scenery was pure white. It was strange but it made her feel totally at peace and content. The wind rushed by her face and through her hair as she fell faster and faster. Then it seems like she was slowing down when she fell headfirst out of the white tunnel. And into the freezing waters of a lake.

"Yaaaa!!" Misty cried out at the sudden chill from the waist deep waters that covered her recently warm body. Her clothes are plastered to her body and her wet hair was dangling in front of her face. She shivered and shook and tried to huddle her body into a ball to conserve whatever heat that she had left.

"Ahem."

Misty was startled by the noise in front of her and she realized that she was not alone. Her eyes locked onto the lean muscled torso of a body in front of her. She blushed deeply and thanked the Gods above that the water of the lake was not clear. Her eyes traveled up the magnificently built frame across bare, tanned and wet skin, up the smooth chest and ending up at the face.

Misty gasped. He was simply put, beautiful. He had messy black ebony hair which he kept long to his chest. It framed his face perfectly and brought out his facial features. His lips looked so damned kissable that Misty had to bite her own lip. His eyebrows were thick and seemed to frown at her. But most of all were his eyes. It was of the colour of sunset, a mixture of bright gold and soft brown.

They stared at each other for what seemed like eternity. Then the teen held out his hand and said in a deep but elegant voice,

"Hello, I’m Ash."

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‘Tabun no sekai’ loosely means ‘World of Maybe’ in Japanese. Don’t kill me if it’s not. I only know a few Japanese words and most of the time I hafta refer 2 my pocket dictionary.

Chara. may appear OOC but remember this is AU!

So what do you all think of this story?

=CF=