I Shoulder My Bag And I Leave On a Journey

I suppose I should introduce myself. I mean, most people do, right?

My name is Ryu. I'm no-one special, or so I thought until a while ago. I didn't look special, apart from a scar covering my right cheek.

What I'm going to tell you is, to be honest, pretty whacked up, borderline crazy. But it's true. Its probably the Pokémon world's largest secret. I, and some other people my age, have to deal with a crisis that spanned the world. Its pretty whacked up, even though it looks perfectly clear from an outsiders perspective.

You would probably call this something that happens in a videogame, vanilla I guess; a young man realises his destiny and saves the world from imminent destruction.

Funny part being? I didn't save the world. Probably all I did was postpone the inevitable by a century or so. One day this was meant to happen… The return to origin, you could call it.

I'll tell you from the start, when I set out on my long-awaited Pokémon journey. Oddly enough what happens in the early stages of my story are very defining of what happens

An icy wind. A yellow eye. A roar, and the feeling as if I had the entire world under my feet…

Dear Hikari,

How are you? Its been a while since I mailed you, hasn't it? Let alone seen you; I haven't even been near Lacunosa since we left. I do hope the townspeople didn't alienate you as much as me. That was terrible :(

I'm gonna cut it straight to you. I miss you. Life here sucks without my good friend, as it has done over the past 6 years, so yesterday I decided.

I'm gonna travel the world and solve mysteries, starting with my eye. I figured that, for the start of that, I'm coming home. I'll give you a heads up when I get nearby, maybe we can meet up! I'd love to catch up.

Expect me falling in with the door in a week or so,

Cheers,

Ryu

This was the last 'normal' thing I remember doing.

You see, something I forgot to mention was that my right eye is kinda whacked up; the whites are black and the iris is yellow. The pupil's nothing but a slit. I dunno why it happened, all I actually know about the eye is that it went like this over a year or so after I turned 13. Of course I immediately told Hikari about it, but there were a few things I didn't mention.

I could see clearly, at all times, regardless of conditions.

I could see movement, intentions.

I could see things most people wouldn't even be able to notice.

The point being I want to know why I can see these things. That, and I've always wanted to solve mythological questions; my interests fall together with my curiosity questions. Also, I'm turning 16 tomorrow, so I can go on my Pokémon journey, a journey everyone went on at some point. I thought of all the great names of trainers that were on their journey; there was Sapphire, who had once been possessed by the Sea Basin Pokémon, Kyogre. Or Cynthia, Sinnoh's regional Champion, who was researching the history of Sinnoh. I hoped to be on the same list as these legends...

I pulled out my note pad, and flipped over to the list of ruins the world over, and the legendary Pokémon that were somewhere out there. Many of these were already relatively known, but there were quite a few of them that no-one had even heard of.

My fascination was with these legendaries, and the myths that surrounded them. My journey would be to unravel these mysteries!

I was snapped out of the dream by a sudden poke from a wet snout, right in my ribs. All too familiar...

I petted my mum's Arcanine on its head, scratching it behind its ears. She loved that.

"Hello there, big boy" I always called K9 (Arcanine's nickname) big boy, despite her gender. I saw that, in her mouth, she held a bag, for me to pack my things in, which I had already put on a line next to each other. It had been lying there for days, and on this Saturday it was going in the bag.

Finally.

I put on some of my favourite music and started packing. When I was done, an album later, I noticed I had plenty of space over. Probably another side effect of the eye.

I walked downstairs, dropping my bag off in front of the front door. I walked into the kitchen, where my mum was making K9 her breakfast.

"Morning, Ryu" she greeted me, a sad smile on her face. She had known the day was coming, and she had tried to postpone the inevitable as long as possible, with various moves and such (she said it was her job, but I knew better).

"Morning, mom." I sat down at the breakfast table. "I'm done packing"

Mom tried to keep a tear in. "So you're going today?"

"Yup"

"I guess it was inevitable, then." She petted K9, and gave a look at the Egg that K9 had made recently. It had been a while, and its hatching day was approaching (Actually it could happen at any moment). "At least stay until it hatches" She said. I was puzzled, but when I saw her staring at the egg, I shook my head.

"I've decided to go today. The professor is distributing Pokédexes to trainers here today, so I figure that the time is ripe." I looked out of the window, into the sky. "Its been a long time coming, but I feel that I should go now"

"Looks like there's no stopping you"

We sat there at the table in silence, neither of us really knowing what to say.

"I'll drop by when I have the Pokédex, and then I'll leave. Say my goodbyes and stuff" I get up from the table and go to the town square.

I was the last person in line. Not by choice, but rather coincidence; I was to get the last Pokédex. There were plenty of other people who would've wanted one; there just weren't enough of them to go around.

I looked up the line, which passed on relatively quickly. The first person I saw leave was a cute girl, about my age. Our eyes quickly met, and she waved at me before she left. After that, the travel through the line was quite boring.

When I had finally gotten my hands on a Pokédex, I headed back home. I'm not going to lie, I was hoping to see that girl again, but I knew that I'd, in most odds, never see her again my entire life. Shame. She was my type too.

First thing I did was read what the Pokédex had to say about Volcarona. Once being hunted by Team Plasma, Volcarona had once called the Relic Castle home, which was to be my first destination on this journey. I was planning on doing some research on this supposed Legendary.

Despite the fact that Legendaries didn't produce any offspring (they were, after all, one of a kind, and often didn't have truly definable genders), there were two exceptions to the rule: Volcarona and Manaphy. The peculiar part was that Manaphy's offspring couldn't evolve into Manaphy, but Volcarona's offspring, Larvesta, could.

I wasn't really interested in the evolution of Pokémon, but more in the impact that Volcarona had on the culture it had been revered in; eyewitnesses reported that the entire castle was built for Volcarona. That I had to witness that myself.

My thoughts had carried me all the way home. I could see more of a hustle and bustle than usual in the kitchen. What was mom doing?

Turns out the egg was hatching. The first crack had appeared in the shell the moment I had received the Pokédex. I first thought it to be a coincidence, but the mess I got thrown in to can hardly be called a coincidence. It was a sign.

When I came inside, my mother was cooing a baby Growlithe. I realised it was special: mom usually let K9 do that. When she looked at me, I read her like a book.

"You can't seriously be planning on giving me a baby Growlithe as the first Pokémon on my journey" I said, exasperated. My mom was stubborn, like me.

"It's why I asked you to stay around until the egg hatched!" Mom seemed offended that I had even thought of the possibility of going without a Pokémon.

I knew there was no fighting over this, but to be frank I wasn't exactly ecstatic about it either. This was a breedery, so I had dealt with Growlithes all the time. I wanted something different, I guessed. But I wasn't about to say no; Mom wouldn't take it for an answer, either.

I made some final checks.

Bag? Completely filled with food supplies, at least for a while.

Pokéballs? Check.

Pokédex? Check.

Growlithe? Check. The mutt was already running around, and it had taken a liking to me.

Most people would expect me to make some kind of farewell speech, embrace my mom, thank her for everything she's done for me.

Most people who knew me would not. Farewells weren't my thing. I only give farewells if I never intend on seeing them again. And my mom wasn't exactly high on my 'never see again' list.

So I just shouldered my bag and left. Not once did I look backwards.

Next Chapter! Ryu takes his first steps into the world, complete with blunt offending and more questions than answered! Why is N in Striaton City? And what does Joy have to hide? Stay Tuned to Find Out in 'I Silence the Loudest Person in Southern Unova'!