Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon, the world that they live in, the region of Isshu/Unova, or anything else Nintendo created. I own all original characters unless otherwise specified. Any original character that's a pokemon is original in its characterization and any qualities that weren't given to its species or pokemon in general in the games or anime.
But such a disclaimer shouldn't really be necessary. Use your good judgement to determine what's mine and what isn't. I mean, you know this is fanfiction, a derivative work posted on a website purely for derivative works, otherwise you wouldn't be here. Since only those who own pokemon would ever have a reason to sue a pokemon fanfiction writer, they should be able to differentiate between the things that are mine and the things that are theirs.
Excerpt from Yuan's journal, translated from pictures with captions to pure text:
Lacunosa village
First founded: over 500 years ago by Isshu natives
Population: less than 100
Demographics: over the years consistently about 30% descended from foreign settlers and the rest Isshu natives.
Geographics: Northeastern Isshu, forest to the north, south and east, plains to the west.
As long as I can remember, I've been different. When I was little, the girls would be playing with dolls, makeup and jewelry, and learn to cook and sow, while the boys would be playing tag and roughhousing and going out to hunt with their fathers. There were exceptions of course; there were a few girls I knew who would play tag and roughhouse and go hunting, and even fewer boys who would play with dolls, makeup and jewelry, or learn to cook or sow.
I didn't do any of these things all that much. Instead, I would spend much of my time daydreaming and wandering around taking in the scenery. Oftentimes I would draw some of the things I saw. I especially enjoyed drawing living things. Walking around in the wilderness and drawing portraits of each of the different kinds of pokemon surrounding Lacunosa had become a pastime for me over the years. Not to brag, but even then I was a great artist, although I had yet to show my pictures to anyone in the village. I had no friends at home, and the only person I ever really talked to was my mother. I wasn't that lonely though. I still had the life surrounding Lacunosa to keep me company. There was actually a swellow I met once who posed as I drew her in my journal.
However, the day I met my best friend, he refused to be drawn. Still does to this day, in fact. The day I met him had seemed to be a day like any other. I was walking along a pleasantly calm, dirt path through the forest east of home, unaware of the long and difficult path ahead of me...
Transform! Yuan of Lacunosa!
What kind of pokemon was that? Yuan had never seen anything like it before. It had four shadowy gray legs and a dark canine face with red eyes and a dark blade coming out of its head. In spite of the fact that most of its body was covered in white fur, it looked more like a creature of the night, seeming out of place in broad daylight even though that light was dimmed by the canopy of the trees.
Yuan whipped out his journal, quill and a bluk berry. Almost instantaneously, the creature turned and gave him a piercing glare, then fled.
"Wait! I just want a picture!"
But it was too late. The strange pokemon was already gone.
Yuan noticed it was slightly darker now. His stomach rumbled. It was almost time for dinner; he had to get back home before the sun set.
When he got back home, his mother was outside of their tent, cooking a vegetable stew over a fire.
"Dinner's almost ready, Yuan," she said. "How was your day?"
"Fine," said Yuan, sitting down on a log near the fire.
"That's what you always say dear," his mother replied.
"That's how it's always been," was Yuan's even response.
She was silent after that. She liked to pretend that Yuan was a normal boy with friends, but she knew that the reality was very different, and Yuan knew that she knew. However, he wasn't sure if she knew about his daily excursions into area surrounding the village; he didn't know if she would approve, and he didn't want her to worry. Perhaps that was the same reason she never talked to him about his father, whom he had never met. Maybe she thought it would worry him.
Yuan's mother put out the fire and scooped the stew into two bowls and handed one to him. He thanked her and began to eat. Suddenly, someone screamed. The voice was coming from somewhere near the west side of the village. Yuan's mother dropped her bowl of stew to the ground and rushed towards the source of the noise. Yuan quickly put down his stew and followed her at a brisk pace.
All of the people and pokemon of Lacunosa village were crowded around the west entrance to the village where the forest ended and the plains began.
In the center of all the onlookers, towering over them all was a dark blue-scaled three headed dragon with all three of its faces framed by reddish horns, and its body carried by black wings. Sitting on its back was an old man with faded and graying red hair and a permanent scowl on his face, wearing white robes with a red belt that held a sword in its hilt.
"Where is he? Where is Drew Duplex!?"
"We don't know who he is!" said one of the villagers. "Everyone knows each other here, and no man with such a name has ever resided here in our memory."
"He is an outlaw who can shapeshift, so he could very well be among your number. Capture them all!"
Out of nowhere appeared about a hundred men with pure strawberry-red skin, big black eyebrows and wearing blackbelt karate uniforms-or at least that's what they appeared to be on first glance. Closer inspection revealed that they were completely hairless, their eyebrows were actually an external bone that protected their eyes like eyebrows, along with nearly completely covering their noses; their bodies were not covered in blackbelt uniforms, but rather scales that were colored in such a way to look like they were. Furthermore, at the ends of the "sleeves" were huge three-fingered hands, and no actual human's complexion was that deep and opaque a red. They were pokemon.
"Wisdom and prosperity to the White Kingdom of Isshu! Use bind!" said the red-haired man, who by this battlecry revealed himself to be a knight. The pokemon that had just appeared each sought out a different human or pokemon villager and trapped them under the restraint of either a headlock or wrapping their arms around a different body part.
"Why are you doing this!?" one of the villagers demanded. "We are Isshu citizens with rights and freedoms, and you are treating us like criminals!"
"I am sorry madam," the knight still sitting on the back of his dragon pokemon said, though he didn't look sorry. "We are on the verge of war with the Black kingdom, and our king believes that desperate times call for desparate measures."
Yuan was struggling against the hold his captor had on him. He had never been faced with a situation where he couldn't move at all, and he was scared. He thought his neighbor's question was a good one. Why were the people of Lacunosa being treated like criminals? Even if the man riding the dragon was right that desparate times called for desparate measures, how was capturing him and his neighbors supposed to help defend them from the Black kingdom!?
"I would have thought you would have revealed yourself by now, Duplex," the man sneered. We both know that you're too proud to be restrained like this for long..." He jumped down from his dragon and approached Yuan's mother.
"You look familiar..." he said.
"I don't believe that we've ever met," she responded, cooly.
He unsheathed his sword. "Perhaps Duplex will show himself if I attempt to cut you."
"You're joking!" said Yuan's mother. Several of the villagers looked on in anger and fear for her, but afraid to speak, lest they draw attention to themselves.
"No, I'm not," the scowling man said. He raised his sword.
"MOM!" Yuan struggled to break free, and finally managed to elbow and headbutt his captor. In spite of the fact that the pokemon was more than twice his size and should have been much stronger, the red fighting pokemon was knocked back. Startled, the knight turned around and stared at Yuan, who had just lost all the hair on his head and elbow, which had both turned the same red as the pokemon who had been holding him captive. Many of the pokemon and all of the humans in the vicinity stared in shock at the sight.
"A shapeshifter..." the knight muttered. "Duplex?"
"I don't know who this Duplex person is," said Yuan, shakily. "But neither my mother or I have done anything wrong. Please leave us alone!"
"I am the most powerful of knights in the White Kingdom, second only to his majesty himself, and yet you make demands of me!?" the knight pointed his sword at Yuan. "I am here on the orders of the prince! For you to tell me to leave and even go so far as to attack one of my soldiers is treason! You don't even deserve to be touched by my blade." He sheathed his sword, and turned his back on Yuan, calmly saying, "Hydreigon, Hyper Beam."
The dragon that the knight had arrived on opened its mouth, gathering white-hot energy into its maw and fired it at Yuan.
This couldnt' be it. He didn't want to die. Yuan shut his eyes tight, and with all his might, willed the attack to stop, to disappear and leave him unscathed. About two seconds later he was still breathing heavily. He opened his eyes to see a bluish-green barrier had sprung up around him, and the hydreigon that attacked him had landed on the ground, panting heavily. Yuan's hands had started to turn indigo like many of the dragon's scales.
"A protection barrier," the knight scoffed. "That won't work again. Hydreigon!"
And then, suddenly, the knight and all of the pokemon he had brought with him disappeared.
Yuan fainted.
