"So what are you going to do once you beat the Elite Four?"
Those words rang in my ears, like never-ending white noise. They terrified me more and more with each passing day.
You see, everyone treats trainers like the pinnacle of society – the best job you could hope to have, especially if you're in it for the money. The whole world revolves around trainers, but I regret ever becoming one. Especially now I'm at the top.
Everywhere I walk around, I can hear the whispers.
"Look, it's the champion!"
"Really? They hardly look it."
Champion, champion, champion. Now, it's all they call me. They know what my Pokemon are, but do they even know my name? They say that a champion should relish in what they've achieved, but I've been in this position for so long that there's nothing left.
But everything is wasted on me now. I wish I hadn't let myself become this strong, but I guess ignorance truly is bliss.
Once you get to a position as high as this, you have to suddenly stop being yourself. Everyday, I have to give my challengers the same welcome. The same smile.
"I'm so excited to be here!" The young hopefuls say.
"Ready to battle?" Comes my static reply.
I wish the entrance-watchers of the gyms who l fought at so eagerly would've told me that it would've have been like this – maybe I would have just given up there, and gone to work as a white-collar worker, like my parents. But they had to lie.
Maybe they were just as ignorant as me.