This page contains potentially sensitive content.
Use caution if you are sensitive to any of the following:
- Gore - e.g. One of the characters having literal vines grow out of their neck and mouth while coughing blood viciously
- Death - i'm not spoiling anything if you are that curious just read until the end ; death is present in this though!
(Credits to @octillinine on Twitter for this story! DO NOT plagiarise their work and kindly ask permission to post it on another wiki or platform, translation or no translation. Thank you and enjoy the Pokepasta!)
Rosa used to be portrayed as a kind and loving person. She practically treated everyone as if they were close siblings, and was willing to do anything to help a person or Pokemon in need. Everyone could agree that she formerly was one of the most modest people to mankind, and everyone liked her…
…MOSTLY everyone liked her.
There was that one ‘special someone’ she had always loved from the bottom of her heart. Even better, Rosa and that someone were childhood friends. They were friends…until they had a dispute. A dispute in which even I was oblivious to the topic, but still, it was quite an argument.
You’d think that this dispute would have made the two come to terms later in life, but to be honest, it was…quite complicated. To put it in simple terms: No, they haven’t made up. Rosa never got the chance. And that special someone didn’t even bother.
Who is this ‘special someone’, you’re asking? His name is Hugh. He was Rosa’s childhood friend. If you were to speak to him, he would exactly use the term “friend” anymore. He, without hesitation, would call Rosa his long-time rival.
Another question you may (want to) ask is “What happened after the dispute?” or “Are Rosa and Hugh okay?”
To be honest, that’s even more complicated of a tale. I wish not to discuss it, but if something like what I’m about to tell happens to a loved one again, I’ll be ready.
It all started exactly one month after. Rosa had given up her title as a Pokemon trainer almost immediately and focused on ‘getting rid of’ Hugh during that time period. Even the Servine that she admired dearly could not cheer her up, despite the many attempts it made. She destroyed everything that reminded her of Hugh, such as her own Pokédex, friendship bracelet, and at one point, she almost broke her own phone. Even then with these attempts, she still loved Hugh with all her heart.
“I can’t help myself, Nate…I just can’t. There’s nothing you could do either…it’s just as pointless. I love him. I LOVE HIM!” She uttered to me frantically. The words still made me shudder from time to time.
During that same time period, Rosa acted as if she was just a shell of her former self. In this case, she technically was. Her personality was harsh and bitter, and she was not at all productive. She told me herself that thought if she changed herself to act somewhat like the way Hugh acted now, maybe she would be unrecognisable enough so Hugh would like her again. Based on my observations, it was hardly successful. Hugh stated that he hated her more.
A day came where Rosa started to utter strange comments such as “My lungs burn…” or “Why does it hurt?”. Of course I couldn’t just stand around, but despite all of the strange pain she went through, she isolated herself from everyone, including her own mother, claiming she didn’t need any help and walked it off as the ‘seasonal’ flu.
The symptoms have become nothing but worse. It really started to scare me when Rosa started to cough up little white leaves. I presumed they were…petals? They started to look more and more similar to flower petals, so I guess that mystery was solved.
The news about Rosa’s condition spreaded across Unova quite rapidly, reaching Hugh in the process. People had mixed feelings about this, and as one of Rosa’s closest friends, I got many questions regarding her health and/or safety.
For every day after that, I was appointed by Rosa’s mom to watch over Rosa while she was at work. It didn’t get better. Rosa started to retch flowers, thorns, and even a little blood as vines started to grow in her throat, the thorns on those vines piercing through her neck. She was pleading for Hugh at that point.
“Let me see him…let me see Hugh…he’s the only one who can make me feel better!” Rosa said, bawling. “Please, Nate, you’re my friend! Friends should help each other…PLEASE!”
“I’m sorry, Rosa, he won’t talk to me if it has something to do with you! Hugh hates you, remember?” I said, panicking a little as well. “Please, PLEASE just move on, you’re hurting yourself!”
Rosa started to cough more blood and retch more flowers. “T-THAT SHOULDN’T MATTER! It’s HARD to get over a crush, Nate! Just because you chose not to find love for the rest of your life doesn’t mean you can’t help me get back with mine!” Rosa shrieked. Her face was starting to wrinkle a little from how desperate, saddened, and angered she was. “D-drag him the hell over here for all I care…I just need to talk to him! I-It can be for seconds if you’d like!”
“Rosa…I-”
“ROSA NOTHING! NATE! PLEASE!” Rosa continued to scream as coughs began to interrupt her more frequently.
I started to get a little frustrated. “Listen to yourself, Rosa! This isn’t you! You’ve becom-”
“MISERABLE! YOU’RE NOT HELPING, NATE!”
Rosa sprung up from her bed, bleeding all over the place. Her voice started to crack, and she was breathing heavily. “If yoU’re NoT GonNa hElp mE—I’ll jUst hELP mYSElF!”
She pushed me back towards her drawer and ran out of her bedroom as fast as she could. I scrambled up as fast as I could, running after Rosa. But it wasn’t like that helped either. Rosa was just too far from me, now out there in Unova all alone.
It had been MONTHS without her. Five to be exact. The only reports that were shared to the public about Rosa came from the person who despised her the most: Hugh.
Hugh claimed that there would be heavy breathing coming from his backyard every other night. That the breaths he heard were quite…irregular. He claimed that he felt as if there was someone following him. And every time he would battle me or other aspiring Pokemon trainers, he would hear Rosa’s voice, and even had a ‘hallucination’ that looked like her but…mangled. “She looked so…real!” Hugh said. “But I'm not falling for it. It's probably one of her stupid attempts for forgiveness again. Or maybe it's just another childish trick. Just grow up already, if you ask me.”
Despite my attempts at least asking for more evidence to gather, Hugh kept his lips sealed. His face could be portrayed as an iron mask.
The night where it all happened was a blur, and though I wasn’t really involved with the incident, I was spoken about it by Hugh himself the following morning.
Hugh was up late, focusing on how his Pokemon could become stronger, somewhat sleep deprived. There came tapping on the window. He didn't seem to mind it much, as he thought it was just one of the outdoor vine plants. Then came some coughing. The tap on the window soon became a knock, grabbing some of Hugh's attention.
Hugh opened the bottom half of the window. At first there wasn't anything out of the ordinary, just his backyard and the fence he really needed to paint soon. A figure then jumped through the window, landing on Hugh. “I'd KNEW you'd answer!” The figure said happily.
Though he was still a little stunned from the sudden entrance, Hugh had adjusted his vision to realise it was Rosa, who looked horrid.
Rosa was covered in leaves and branches, smelling like she hadn't bathed in weeks. Her clothes looked like rags, all torn and dirty. She looked malnourished, but didn't seem to care one bit. The worse thing, however, is that there was an abundance of vines, thorns, flowers, and blood all blooming on her body, most notably around her neck and mouth. She looked desperate, coughing so much that it was brutal to watch as blood poured from her mouth.
“Hugh, listen, I-”
“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Hugh yelped, scooting away from Rosa. “WHY ARE YOU HERE?! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!”
Rosa stepped forward. “I-I just want to-”
“Did you SERIOUSLY spend all this time stalking me?! Waiting to invade my personal business at this EXACT MOMENT?!” Hugh interrupted, angered.
“N-No…I wanted to…talk to youuu…” Rosa replied with a weak tone of voice, coughing harshly.
Hugh rolled his eyes as he rose himself up from the floor. “Is this about that stupid argument we had years ago? I don't. Want to. Hear it! For the last goddamn time!"
“B-but…Hugh…” Rosa said, falling to her knees. “I just wanted…you to know…”
Hugh raised his eyebrow, crossing his arms and looking away.
“...I want you to know that I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you.” Rosa said, coughing some more.
Hugh was still looking away. “Sure you do. But it's not like I can tell, even if you looked, like, super messed up like you are now.” He replied with a hint of remorse. Maybe even a hint of guilt. “You're…difficult to read sometimes.”
“T-that shouldn't matter right? My f-flaws shouldn't matter! Right?!” Rosa said with a grieving smile. “We're together now! That's all that matters!”
“‘Together…?’” Hugh took a second to realise what Rosa had meant and how she felt about him. “Oh. No. Oh, nonononono. That's not happening, crazy.”
Rosa started to retch more blood and flowers. “...W-What?”
“You heard me.” Hugh said sternly. “It's. Not. Happening. I DON'T LIKE you, Rosa. Even if I did, I wouldn't take it to this level. You can kiss that dream goodbye.”
“But…But…” Rosa started to fall on the floor, creating her own pool of blood, breathing heavily yet increasingly slowly. Hugh's mother appeared to have woken up and travelled downstairs to complain about the commotion, only to scream her lungs at the sight of Rosa's body a few seconds later.
Rosa spoke a few more words she could force out of her mouth. “I don't care, Hugh. I love you. With all my heart. You'll never forget this moment. You'll…never…forget me.”
With that, she laid there, lifeless. Hugh stared at Rosa's corpse for many minutes as his mom called the police department. A tear managed to escape his eye. Then another one did. And another one. So on, so forth, until he could hear himself crying from pure grief.
Was that a lesson learned? Or was it just a story Unovans are sure to forget a month later. Maybe it's both. I'm not sure in the slightest, myself. But it was probably worth telling, just in case something like this happens to occur in the region again.
Sometimes I can still feel Rosa's soul lurking around. But I never said she wasn't suffering.
- Nate