By the time I reached the Violet City train station, the 8:45 to Route 36 was nearly about to leave. I ended up having to elbow some old dude in the gut so I could make it past the ticket counter, and then had to sprint across the station, screaming "Wait! Shit! Wait, goddammit!", which earned me some dirty stares from a couple of snooty ladies by the news stand.
Yeah.
But I managed to catch my train, so ha.
Anyways, it's not my fault that I was nearly late. The Violet City Train Central is insanely small, considering the fact that Violet is the fourth-biggest city in Johto. Ever tried stuffing over two thousand morning commuters in a station that was only designed to hold seven hundred? I don't recommend it.
It's all because of those dumb monks up in Sprout Tower. When Police Commissioner Falkner had suggested expanding the train station last year, they'd been all up in arms about how these "new-fangled devices" were "wrecking with the delicate aesthetic balance of our ancient city".
What a bunch of wrinkly old prune-bags. The only delicate balance that's being wrecked is their constitutions.
They'd been really stubborn about letting our research team, including me, Chantrea enter the Ruins of Alph, too. We'd had to get express permission from the Kimono Girls themselves before we'd been allowed to even step inside.
It'd all been worth it in the end, though. The section of the Ruins we were investigating had been roped off from public access for years, so most of the dig sites were untouched. That was something almost unheard of- I mean, can you imagine how many fossils and carvings and artifacts we could find?
But the only thing I'd find at this rate was preserved feces. "Come on, come on!" I muttered. The train inched along the track like a stoned Slowpoke.
Finally, after what seemed like two hours, the train groaned into the Route 36 station, the wheels farting to a stop. "Sorry, thank you, bye!" I tossed the words over my shoulder as I shoved a fat grandma out the exit, and stepped into the bright sunlight of Route 36.
Hey there! Raikou of the Crowned Beasts here! If you liked the first chapter of Bright Shadows, you should read its 2 companion stories, Little Crow and Fragmented Soul. Each of those two stories show another plot that will connect with this one, another character that will meet Chantrea! You see, we're doing a project called a Collaborative Pokemon Fanfiction, where three different writers tell different sides of a story. See our profile for more information!