Chapter 1

Before I tell you my story, I feel I need to get something off my chest. That is the fact that I am, in fact, a lesbian. If that statement didn't make you instantly stop wanting to read this story, then you may now be wondering "Why is this so important you put it as the first sentence?" Well, I've always been treated like dirt because of my sexual orientation. People call me "disgusting" or "sinful" or things like that entirely because of something I can't control. So, I figured I'd get it out in the open now so that those who think that can stop reading before they get invested in the story and then become hurt when they discover I fall in love with and marry a girl later in this story.

That said, I've read a few other autobiographies about Pokemon trainers as I was studying to write my own and I noticed one particular thing about most of them: they all start at the start of the person's Pokemon journey. Is that because no one has an interest in their life before they were a trainer? They also don't talk much about after their journey, is that the same? Are people not interested in your life after your journey ended? Well, if that's so, then you might want to skip ahead a bit, because I'm going to tell you a lot about my life.

For those who didn't read the author name on the book, as I know many people don't, my name is Kato Hikari. That is to say, for those who aren't from the Nippon Islands, my name is Hikari Kato. I'll be using the traditional manner of Nippon for names in this story. That means last names will be first and first names last, like "Kato Hikari". I suppose, if the translators for other regions want to change it, they can, but I'd prefer they didn't. I feel it gives you a real feel for the world we live in that way.

That said, I was born in a place called Twinleaf Town in the Sinnoh Region. For those unfamiliar with Nippon, Sinnoh is the northern-most island and because of that is also the coldest. Whereas Hoenn is in the south and closer to the equator and thus warm most of the year around, Sinnoh is closer to the north pole and is thus cold most of the year. That's not to say it is always cold. Our summer is pretty warm, getting around 30 degrees or so like Hoenn, just instead of getting down to only 25 degrees in the winter like Hoenn does, it gets down -12 degrees. Of course, I'm using the metric system for that, for those not in a region that uses it.

Twinleaf Town was a small town, and even to this day it remains such. The town was established many years ago by our grandfathers. Not many have moved into the town since its creation, so most of those who live there were born and raised there. As I noted, I was one such person. I was born the daughter of Kato Ayako. My mother had never married and I was born because of a relationship gone wrong.

Despite this, though, my mother loved me a lot. She never held any resent towards me for the actions of my father. I say that because it seems common that such things do happen, or at least in the experiences I've seen in my life. My mother worked very hard as a farmer and I have to thank Moto Jun, my best friend, and his family for helping support my mother through the first years of having me as a child.

The Moto family helped my mother pay for bills and even watched me when my mother couldn't do it herself. Jun and I became very close friends because of this. Jun was only about a year older then me, and my mother sometimes would even try to refuse help from the Motos because of it, but they wouldn't let her. In the end, my mother managed to obtain enough money through farming to be able to support our family as well as repay her debts to the Motos, despite their objections about doing so.

As Jun and I grew up together, we found ourselves experimenting with a lot of things that we would see on television. Yes, we experimented with just about anything you could imagine, ranging from sex to drinking and so on. It was during this time that I came to realize I couldn't love Jun, not in that way anyway. Truth be told, we never tried dating or anything; we just knew we weren't meant for each other.

It wasn't long after that realization that I discovered the truth about my orientation. I discovered it one day when I was attending school. I had gone to use the bathroom one day and there was another girl there in the bathroom. I don't really understand what happened, but I know that what was supposed to be a routine trip to the bathroom ended up with me on the ground in a stall having sex with the other girl. In truth, I hadn't wanted to do it, and I would probably go as far as to say I was raped by her that day. Still, despite that, it made me realize one thing: I wanted that experience again.

Rather, I wanted a consensual experience with a girl, not a rape. When I turned 15, I did end up in a small relationship with another girl. She was a red-head with spiky hair. When we weren't at school, and thus she wasn't dressed in her school uniform, she liked to wear an orange vest with a red long-sleeved shirt under it. She would also wear blue jeans and liked to keep a pair of sunglasses either on her head or on her face. We were very into each other and, yes, we even had sex quite a few times.

Still, she couldn't come out to her family about her orientation and the closer we got, the more worried she became that someone would find out. In the end, she was right to be worried. We got caught one day by someone she thought was her friend. That person turned around and told the entire school about it. From there, it got back to her parents and her parents shipped her off to a "correctional camp". Unfortunately, you can't fix something that isn't broken, and when the depression from the camp got too bad for her... she took her own life.

After that, I vowed never to fall in love again. I didn't want to hurt anyone else or get anyone else hurt. Luckily, my mother was okay with me being a lesbian. She was completely supportive of me stating "No matter what other people say, I love you no matter what. You'll always be my daughter." As I would later discover, my mother was somewhat of a bisexual herself, preferring men but apparently she had had a few flings with women herself when she was young.

That said, my story is almost caught up to the beginning of my Pokemon journey. It was the beginning of fall, September to be exact. It was my eighteenth birthday to be even more exact. The Motos had given me a party and after we got home, my mother produced a small gift for me.

"Mom, I can't accept this," I spoke as I stared at the beautiful silver necklace she had given me. It was a long silver chain that had a heart-shaped garnet on the end of it. It had been something my mother had owned for a long time, exactly how long I didn't know. I just remember her always having it and wearing it, and I suppose I should have realized she hadn't been that day. It was my mother's most precious possession.

"You can," Mother spoke as she smiled. "You're 18 now, Hikari. It's time for you to have it."

I hugged my mother and she embraced me. She helped me put it on and I stared at it. It was such a beautiful thing and I almost felt like I could feel all of the memories my mother had had with it. That locket became my most precious possession after that.

It was a month later, I was watching television and a special report was airing on it. Apparently, some months before, a red Gyarados had appeared in the middle of the Lake of Rage in the Johto Region. It had been a huge thing because it had whipped up terrible storms and produced horrendous screeches. It was as if the Gyarados had been in pain. The reporters said that no one knew what had happened to it, just that two trainers had rushed into the Lake of Rage one day when no one dared to enter. It's said that after they went in, the Gyarados disappeared.

The reporters stated that they had interviewed both of the trainers, but both denied any involvement in the situation and had even stated they didn't know where the Gyarados had gone. Because of this, despite the event having occurred two months prior, they were still searching for it.

Now, you may wonder what is so unique about a red Gyarados but that's exactly what is so rare about it. Most Gyarados are blue in color, but this one was red and its scales seemed to sparkle in the light. Apparently, a new thing had begun to surface lately, a genetic mutation people were calling "The Shiny Effect". It causes a discoloration in a Pokemon and also makes their skin, fur, etc. shine in sunlight. No one knows the cause of it because every Pokemon that has had this discoloration has also vanished shortly after its discovery.

As the documentary finished up with "And to this day, the red Gyarados still alludes us. Who knows if we will ever discover what really happened here?" and the credits began to roll, there was a knock on my door. I had been sitting in the middle of my room, sitting in the "seiza" position. That is, I had been sitting with my knees bent and angled off to either side of my body as opposed to sitting on them directly. That particular day, it was late in the day, roughly about 7 o'clock or so, so I had already changed into a pink nightgown that wasn't much more then a spaghetti strap dress that ended at about my knees.

"Coming," I called out as I stood to my feet and walked over to the door. I barely even opened it before Jun barrelled through the door, almost knocking me over.

"Did you see that? Please tell me you were watching that documentary," Jun frantically spoke out.

"Yes, I was watching it, Jun." I waved my hands to try to calm him down. "Why? What's the big deal?"

"That red Gyarados was in a lake, right? We live right next to a lake, too. Something like that was hiding in the Lake of Rage, what if something like it is in our lake? We could be famous for finding it!"

"Jun..." I sighed. "Look, there's nothing hiding in our lake. If there was, it would have been found by now. That red Gyarados was probably a normal Magikarp at one point, and it wasn't until it evolved that it became something special. If anything in our lake is like that, we wouldn't know it and we wouldn't find it."

"But we could become famous if we did find it! What if there's a legendary Pokemon waiting there? You know the legends."

There was a legend that three beings of great power existed somewhere here in Sinnoh. They were three legendary Pokemon: Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit. Supposedly they lived in lakes, but no one has ever found them. "Yes, I do know the legends but-"

Jun grabbed me by the arm. "Then no time to waste, we have to find one of them!" He pulled me and rushed me down the stairs and out the door without giving me a chance to so much as put shoes on. Jun rushed me out of Twinleaf Town and off to the northwest where Lake Verity was.

When we arrived, Jun stopped running, finally giving me a chance to pull my arm away from him and catch my breath. Again, it was October at night, which meant it was cold. Worse, we were next to a lake and the cold air from the lake made it even colder here. I shivered as I wrapped my arms around myself, rubbing my arms. "Damn it, Jun, you could have at least let me put on a jacket or something."

"Wait, look." Jun pointed ahead and I turned. In front of us was a man dressed in what I thought was a space suit of some kind. The whole thing was black except the chest which was grey. He had spiky hair that appeared grey as well, making me assume he was an older man.

"If only they knew what lied here," the man spoke in a very monotone way. "The raw, legendary power that resides here in this lake, if they only knew of it..."

"Who is he?" I whispered to Jun.

"I don't know," Jun didn't even whisper back. Instead, after saying that, he called out, "Hey! You there!"

The man turned, his dark eyes looking at us with a deep glare. His face showed no expression upon it, yet it felt like he was trying to stare us down. "And what is it you two want?" In everything he said, his voice remained monotone.

"We came here to look for the Legendary Lake Pokemon!" Jun spoke up. "Who are you and why are you here?"

The man smirked, yet his voice remained monotone. "Really now? You two kids think you can find the Lake Pokemon?" He shook his head, his face returning to its neutral position. "No, you are but meer fools. Return to your homes, this isn't some game." The man started to walk towards us.

"I asked who you were and what you were doing here."

"I heard you the first time, but I have no reason to answer. Now, run along."

"Not until you tell us who you are and why you're here!" Jun shouted, getting into a defensive position.

"I have no reason to bother with you." After that, he turned and began to walk away from us.

"Hey! Come back here!" Jun went to rush ahead, but I grabbed him and held him back.

"Leave him alone, Jun, it's not worth it," I demanded.

Jun growled and folded his arms. "I don't like him."

"He's gone, that's all that matters. We should be gone, too. It's freezing out here." I returned to shivering.

"But we haven't even started looking for the Lake Pokemon yet."

"Jun... you dragged me out here in a nightgown. For Arceus' sake, I'm not even wearing anything under it. I'm practically standing outside naked in -7 degree weather! I'm cold, okay? Tomorrow, in the morning, if you want to come back out here again, I'll actually get dressed in something warm and come with you. We can spend the warm bit of the day looking for the Lake Pokemon, but right now, I need to get home and inside before I catch a...a..." I sneezed. "...A cold..."

Jun sighed. "All right, fine, let's go home."

The door slammed as I marched it, shivering rather violently. I sneezed. "Hikari, are you okay?" Mother asked as she rushed up to me.

"F-fine...just c-cold... Stupid J-Jun made me go to the l-lake with him..." I stuttered as I shivered.

"In your nightgown? That's terrible." Mother grabbed a blanket off the couch and covered me in it. "Come on, I'll get you some hot chocolate."

We made our way to the kitchen and I sat down at the table. Mom made up some of her special hot chocolate that I loved a lot and set the cup in front of me. I sipped it. I could feel the warm drinking go down my throat and through my body. "Thanks, Mom."

"I don't understand why Jun keeps doing things like this to you..." Mom spoke as she sat down at the table opposite of me. "I mean, who in their right mind takes a person out into the cold in nothing but a nightgown?"

"He wasn't thinking, Mom... It's okay, sometimes his body just gets ahead of his brain."

"Well, he needs to stop doing that. You could have caught a cold out there."

"I'm fine, Mom." I sneezed. "Really."

"Something tells me you're not going to be saying that tomorrow."

"I'm fine, honest. I'm just cold, that's all."

"Well, we'll see about that tomorrow. Once your done with that, you should head straight up to bed. You might even want to consider actually wearing something to bed today since you were out in the cold so long." Yeah, that's a thing I didn't mention either. When I'm on my period, I wear panties to bed, but when I'm not, I sleep naked. I don't really know why, it's just a thing I developed a habit of. It might be because Mom does the same thing, which is why she's never said anything about it, but I don't know.

I sighed. "All right..." I finished my hot chocolate shortly after, then, as Mom had instructed, I headed up into my room and buried myself in my blankets without taking my gown off. It didn't take long before I slipped into peaceful slumber.