A.N.: Hey guys. So, this is a reboot of a concept started a while ago. Ever wonder what the Pokémon World was like in days of yore, a hundred, two hundred, five hundred years before the high tech era where the Anime and Games take place? Ever wonder what the history of the Pokémon world looked like? This is what this fanfic is. Basically, it's a Pokémon story based on the Gen I games/Pokémon Adventures/Pokémon Origins canon (but with liberal borrowing from the Anime/Pokémon Yellow World as well) if it took place in a "Feudal Era Japan" Pokémon world. To an extent, the idea is to explore what the world of Pokémon would be like before modern technology. Hopefully, however, y'all will also be entertained by the copious amounts of adventure, intrigue, Pokémon battles and romance which will also be included, and which hopefully won't suck. This story begins right after Red/Ash/Satoshi defeats Blue/Gary/Shigeru for the Champion title, upon the return of both to Pallet Town. So... without further ado, here goes. Hope y'all like, and don't forget to R&R.

Thanks for reading,

-The Author

Chapter I

It was a deceptively calm evening in Pallet Town. The sun was setting over the farm houses, sprinkled as they were across that small village nestled between sea and forests. Pokémon, and people in traditional kimonos and conical kasa rice hats returned from work on their farms; and as the cool evening breeze blew away the day's heat, the wind chimes rang on the shrine at the entrance of the Castle.

There was no trace of electric appliances or modern technology anywhere in Kanto in those days, or anywhere else in the world for that matter. The world of Pokémon was very, very different.

By a wooden table in the the Castle's dining room, the town's resident Pokémon Master, Master Okkido, was having dinner, knelt seiza-style on a tatami sitting mat. Next to him, in a matching white kimono, his apprentice also sat. Opposite to them both was a pair of youths. One, clean cut and rather angry-looking, was a young man with spiky brown hair; he wore a purple kimono. The other looked a lot less serious, and as we shall see, he had every reason to be happy; he had black hair and a blue kimono, and, although his clothes were considerably more worn, a wide smile graced his face.

Master Okkido, addressed the both of them:

"Shigeru; Satoshi. I am very proud of both of you," he said "I do not say this lightly either. Of course, Shigeru, being my grandson, I would have expected you to hold onto your title a bit longer; I came to the Indigo Plateau as soon as I heard you had won, but by the time I was there you had already lost to Satoshi. Nonetheless, you are both now Pokémon Masters, and not only Pokémon Masters, but Champions to boot. Not one, but two Champions, both from Pallet Town, and both in such rapid succession! This is quite extraordinary."

And indeed it was, especially back then. Satoshi was the youth with the blue kimono, and Shigeru the one in purple, his rival since they were babies, but also his best friend. The two young men had both set off on their Pokémon journey together, and they had both returned just that day. They had both become, by the end of their long and adventurous journeys, Champions. The story is well known: Shigeru had always been one step ahead, always beating Satoshi, always besting him at ever turn; being the best was what was expected of him as a Pokémon Master's grandson, after all. Shigeru had even become Champion first! But Satoshi, through sheer determination, had kept up with him; and in the end, he had managed to defeat him, and had taken his title almost immediately after Shigeru won it. This is where this story starts.

Shigeru was still somewhat bitter.

Satoshi, for his part, was still smiling like an idiot:

"Thanks, Master Okkido!" the youth said rather cheerfully. Being a simple peasant boy, he was not burdened with the gravitas of being a Pokémon Master's grandson like Shigeru, and you would not have guessed it from the looks of him that he was currently the strongest trainer in Kanto

"Oh yes," Master Okkido's apprentice then chimed in "It is quite extraordinary. There will be a banquet in the town square tomorrow in your honor. The whole town is very happy for both of you!"

Here, a smile crept onto Shigeru's face at the thought of the banquet in his and Satoshi's honor. He relented somewhat. After all, he and Satoshi were still friends, in fact.

"Yes, I suppose you have won, fair and square." Shigeru conceded. It was useless to hold a grudge, after all "But this isn't over. I'll take my title back, you just wait and see!"

He had every reason to want to do this, too. The title of Pokémon Master by itself was very prestigious; that of Champion was only ever dreamt of by most. And even more so in those days, when the terms "Champion" and "Pokémon Master" were far more specifically defined than they are now:

Of course, back then, just as today, people from all walks of life worked together with Pokémon. Farmers used Tauros to till the fields, and they used the spores of Bellsprout or Oddish to help fertilize the land an produce better crops. Machoke was used in construction; and many houses had a Mr. Mime for help. Merchants also used Tauros to pull their carts and transport wares over long distances, although in the Johto Region, Donphan and sometimes even Stantler were preferred. As life was considerably more rugged back then, too, most people also used their Pokémon for protection; amateur Pokémon fighting was very highly developed, although perhaps less refined than it is now. The best modern trainers would still be formidable back then; but the general public was far more battle ready than it is now.

However, dedicating a life exclusively to training Pokémon was rare. Human settlements were small and far apart back then, and they were practically independent from each other, with no central governing body; thus, travel between them was very dangerous, and the threat of both warfare and powerful wild Pokémon was ever present. This meant that every town needed strong Pokémon Trainers for protection. But the difficulty, length and extraordinary danger of journeys, and furthermore the lack of mass produced Pokéballs -everyone used painstakingly handcrafted Apricorn Balls back then, as they were the only type in existence- as well as the sheer resources, time, and dedication -this is a constant in any era- required to train Pokémon well meant that only a select few people became trainers; but these had to be very powerful, and after proving themselves they would devote their lives to training Pokémon for their communities, mostly but not exclusively for fighting.

And of these trainers, the best were the Pokémon Masters.

In order to become a Pokémon Master, one undertook a perilous journey across a region to collect many different types of Pokémon. This seems somewhat easier nowadays, but it was very hard back then; one must merely consider how localized some Pokémon species are, especially those of particular types, and add to that the difficulty of travel in those times. The aspiring Pokémon Masters would then train their Pokémon against all types of Trainers, and collect prestigious Badges given out by the Pokémon Masters of other towns. Very often, these journeys were how friendships and alliances were formed between cities, as Pokémon Masters were usually leaders in their communities. In the largest towns, the local lords, almost invariably Pokémon Masters themselves, could practically field armies of Pokémon, and often ran dojos and other training schools were they trained apprentice trainers, themselves aspiring to become Pokémon Masters. These were the establishments that would in later periods become Pokémon Gyms.

Smaller towns, however, might even be under the care of a single Pokémon Master, as was the case of Pallet Town with Master Okkido, at least until Shigeru and Satoshi returned at the beginning of this story. This sometimes meant they were pushed around by bigger cities, but even so, they usually retained a lot of independence.

When a Pokémon Trainer had collected at least eight Badges, he would go to the local Pokémon League and, in a traditional ceremony, would be declared a Pokémon Master. All trainers, but especially Pokémon Masters, were revered and respected in their communities, but also held to very high standards of behavior. In short, they acted as a sort of feudal class, knights or samurai.

This is why this era was called the Feudal Period.

The closest thing to a centralized government that existed back then were the Pokémon Leagues. These were counsels of the Pokémon Masters of all the settlements in a region. Aside from confirming Pokémon Masters, they also held and certified highly ritualized tournaments and championship matches to determine the local Pokémon Champions, but they only convened in full when large-scale war or some other danger posed a threat to the entire region. The league formed by the Kanto Masters was the Indigo League, so named because of its headquarters on Indigo Plateau near a shrine to the legendary Pokémon Moltres.

Often, Champions or Elite Trainers (former Champions) stayed near the League headquarters to train or defend their title, but this was not always the case.

Given such conditions, that two young men from a town as small as Pallet would become Masters together was naturally a boon for the entire village. That they would be Champions in such rapid succession was the stuff of legend.

They had both been Master Okkido's apprentices before leaving, and thus, on returning, after seeing their families, they immediately went to visit him. The news of their victory had not been contained in Pallet Town either, but had soon spread around the entirety of Kanto. Some people had not received it quite as well as others, though...

"So now what do you plan on doing?" Master Okkido's apprentice asked the two Champions.

"Oh, I don't know," said Shigeru "I suppose I should stay around here... help grandfather with the Castle and such. Train some more, perhaps."

Satoshi blinked, and thought a bit.

"I guess I'll stay for a bit too," he said "Help mom and whatnot... I also have to do something about the Tauros herd. If I manage to keep it here, it'll be a huge asset for the village, if only for the milk, but we definitely need to clear some forest for them to stay here permanently. But I'm not done traveling yet. As soon as possible I'll leave again... visit Johto, maybe. After I go to Cerulean and Pewter City, of course."

"Cerulean and Pewter? Why?" Master Okkido inquired.

Shigeru smirked here, and Satoshi blushed a bit; Shigeru knew the answer and now was his chance to make fun of Satoshi. It was just a friendly jab, of course.

"Satoshi made some friends there." Shigeru said "Especially in Cerulean."

"H-hey!" Satoshi exclaimed, clearly flustered. The reference, of course, was to one of the Cerulean City's female Pokémon Masters, whom Satoshi had a notorious crush on.

Despite Satoshi's discomfort, however, Master Okkido laughed heartily at this, and so did his apprentice, and so the conversation from there carried onto other matters. Over dinner and drink, they eventually spoke of many things, of the past, of the future, of the present, of Pokémon, and of the world; they also spoke of trivial and petty things:

"Hey, Satoshi," Shigeru remarked at one point "It's lucky that, despite all our battles, we never became enemies... how weird would that be if we weren't friends?"

"I know, right?" Satoshi said "That would be weird."

Indeed it would be.

However, even as they spoke, and even as night fell over Kanto, had anyone been on the small dirt path leading from Viridian City to Pallet Town, they might have seen several rather shady and rather less friendly-looking figures, fully armored and clad in black, making their way to the small village of Pallet Town. They were threatening men, trainers, soldiers from the bigger city. There, they had also heard news of Satoshi and Shigeru's victories, but they were not exactly coming to congratulate them sincerely.

In fact, even before Satoshi and Shigeru's victories, trouble had been brewing in Kanto. The bigger cities, especially certain factions there, were bidding for more power. A young Champion, indeed, two if you counted Shigeru, from an insignificant village like Pallet Town was more than likely a fluke. But it was the sort of thing which had to be dealt with early on, lest it pose a threat to the not-very-transparent schemes emanating from Saffron and Viridian City.