Chapter 1
Why is everyone always talking about the Kanto Region? I'm not kidding, all of the stories seem to come from there. Stories of two kids who defeat an evil organization. Stories of one kid who travels the entire Kanto Region and enters the Pokémon League just to get shot down after the preliminaries. Heck, they used to make a TV show a while back and that was about Kanto as well. Everything seems to always be about Kanto. Why is it never Johto, or Hoenn, or for fuck's sake even Sinnoh? Why is it always Kanto? What's so special about Kanto that it gets all the attention? Well, I'm going to fix that here and now. My story is about Johto.
Of course, most of you have probably heard that and immediately put the book down now. After all, who gives a fuck about Johto? Well, I do! I grew up there, my journey occurred there, and a lot of stuff happened on my journey there, so I care about Johto. So, here's my story, the story of my journey through the Johto Region, and if you're not a self-righteous bastard who thinks Kanto is the only place where things happen, then keep reading.
. . .
My story begins on the day I was going to start my Pokémon journey, but before that, let me indulge you for a moment. In case you don't know, the Johto Region is set directly to the west of the Kanto Region. In fact, we're actually connected to the Kanto Region through the Tohjo Falls on Route 27. They're not that far away. In fact, my hometown, New Bark Town, connects directly to Route 27. That's right, I grew up in New Bark Town.
Like Pallet Town, New Bark Town has a motto that also basically means we are the starting place of most trainers. To be honest, though, very few trainers ever start here. We're also very akin to Pallet Town in that we have very few houses but lots of land. In fact, if you can count the fact we lived five minutes away, my next door neighbor was Professor Elm. Course, that depends on what you consider "next door".
Professor Elm, though, was a nice guy. We talked regularly, and while he was nice, he was also a huge Pokémon geek. He knew a lot about Pokémon and was known for rambling on and on about them without even realizing it. I guess you could say he was akin to Professor Oak from Pallet Town in that regard.
Now, before I could start my Pokémon journey, I had to go to school to be a trainer. The school for that is in Violet City, which is one reason I question New Bark Town's motto. After all, it seems like more trainers start in Violet City then anywhere else. In fact, that's where everyone gets their starters. You see, when you go to school, you have to pass a few exams. One is a written exam to show that you understand what you were taught in the school. Another is a sort of classroom exam, you basically sit in a chair, a question shows up on a screen on the wall, and you type your answer into the computer in front of you.
Now, the two exams are actually very different, while the written exam tests your knowledge of things such as potions, revives, when to use them and how, the classroom exam is different. It gives you an image and you have to answer things like "When does this Pokémon evolve?" or "How does this Pokémon evolve?" or even "What Pokémon is this?"
Now, I did all right on those two exams. I did better on the written one, but I still passed the classroom exam. After that, there were two more exams you had to take. The first was an exam that tested your knowledge of battling. Based on your answers from the previous exams, you were given a set of Pokémon. You battled another trainer of about your level and they would determine how well you understood the art of battling. If you passed all three of those exams, you got to the final exam, catching Pokémon.
Based on how well you did in the previous three exams, they would give you a single Pokémon and a single pokeball. You were then sent up against another Pokémon they felt you deserved to own. You were tested to see if you could catch it, and if so, you got to keep it. If not, well, you got your Trainer ID, but you didn't get a Pokémon. Unfortunately...I kind of...failed that one.
It wasn't my fault, though, honest! I would have been fine if the Pokémon had been anything other then a Misdreavus...I don't like ghost-types, but apparently they thought it was the one that matched me. I tried to catch it, I really did, but I just...couldn't do it. Ghost-types scare me... But because of that, I was handed my Trainer ID and told I did good, but then was sent back to New Bark Town without a Pokémon.
I was really upset about it, and what made it worse was when my friend, Ethan, came home the next day with a Marill. He and I had been friends since we were really young, and we went to the school together, but he succeeded in catching the Pokémon he was sent to catch...I failed. This upset me for a while and I didn't even want to talk to Ethan for several days afterwords. I did realize, though, that it wasn't his fault. After all, he wasn't the one who had sent against a ghost-type against me.
We patched up our friendship afterwords, of course, but it still bugged me that I hadn't caught a Pokémon. That is, until one day, Professor Elm came to our house. He told me he could give me a Pokémon, but under one condition, I would have to sign some papers and claim myself as his assistant in his lab. However, he told me that that would simply be a front. I wouldn't be helping him out very much, and I would be free to do what I wanted unless he absolutely needed me. However, I did have to understand that if something came up and he had to call on me, I had to come to him.
I agreed, reluctantly. What else could I do? I didn't have enough money to buy pokeballs, and even if I did, I didn't have a Pokémon to use to weaken any Pokémon I ran into so I could use the balls. It would be like going to the Safari Zone, except much more dangerous because standard wild Pokémon aren't tamed like they are in the Safari Zone. Besides, I was certain that whatever Professor Elm gave me would be better than any standard wild Pokémon.
And that leads me up to now, or rather than, when I started my journey. It was early morning, no later than about 8 o'clock. I had gotten out of bed, showered, and was getting ready to start my journey. I dressed myself in a simple outfit, a spaghetti-strap, black shirt and a pair of blue jean shorts. The shorts were kind of short, though, as they only came down a little on my legs, but it's not like they were so short that I might as well have just been wearing underwear. There was legs to them, just not much.
I then stood at my mirror and examined myself over. I liked the outfit I was wearing, but I knew something was wrong. If I had gone out like that, my mom would have had a fit, and not because of how short my clothes were, but because I hadn't put on a bra. I actually opened one of my dresser drawers and stared, trying to decide if I really wanted to put one on or not. I really didn't, those things are uncomfortable. I decided I would try to hide it instead and grabbed a jacket out of my closet.
The jacket was my favorite out of the ones I owned. It was a red one, and was short-sleeved. It wasn't a heavy jacket either, just a simple thing meant for nothing more than being pulled on over a standard shirt. I then walked over to my mirror again and started tying up my hair. For the last three years I had kept the same hairstyle, two little pigtails in the back. Once I was done I smiled and nodded, I was just missing one thing.
I reached across my dresser and grabbed a red and black cap off of it. This was one of my favorite hats as well, and since I was wearing my favorite jacket, why not wear my favorite hat as well? I pulled it on, examined myself in the mirror once more, then turned to walk out of my room and down the stairs.
"All set?" my mother asked as I came down the stairs. She was standing there waiting, and I wondered why. It's not like she was going with me or anything. Maybe she just wanted to see me off? I don't know.
"Yeap," I spoke with a smile.
My mother's eyes seemed to stare at me, and I swear she was looking deep into my soul. It was kind of an odd feeling, but one I was used to. She did this a lot, and it always worried me when she did, because it usually meant she was displeased with something. "You're seriously wearing those clothes?"
"You bought them for me, you can't complain too much."
"True." Mother reached forward and grabbed my jacket. "But I can complain about this." She pulled one side of my jacket down. "I bought you bras, why don't you ever wear them?"
I groaned. I knew that was coming. "Because they're uncomfortable, and they're not necessary." I pulled my jacket back up.
"Not necessary?" my Mother asked, as if horrified by the statement. "Do you want the world seeing your boobs?"
"No, but I have a shirt on, it's not like they can."
"Not exactly, no, but your boobs may stick out of your shirt if you're not wearing a bra."
"Rather have them stick out then have my bra stick out. It looks really bad when you can see a girl's bra through her shirt. Besides, I wear loose clothes for a reason, Mom."
Mother grumbled and sighed. "I still think you should wear a bra."
"Mom, I'm not wearing one, okay? I'm 18, I can make my own choices now, and you can't even say 'as long as you live under my house, you live by my rules' because I won't be living here anymore. I'm leaving to go on my journey, I'm becoming an adult. It's my choice what I wear now, okay?"
Mother sighed again. "Fine..." she spoke. "I won't complain as long as you're wearing panties."
"M-Mother!" I shouted in embarrassment. "You know I wouldn't be caught dead not wearing them."
Mother smiled and nodded. "Good. I don't want you following after the example of that Kanto girl from three years ago."
"Amanda?"
"Yes."
Amanda was the current Kanto-Johto Pokémon League Champion. She was a strong trainer, and it's said that her and her boyfriend fought and defeated an evil organization three years ago. I don't remember their name, though. What I do know is that she is famous for not wearing panties and then wearing a short skirt. She's also known for riding her Charizard everywhere, which of course means everyone can see right up her skirt while she's flying around. I had no interest in anything like that happening to me, not one bit. Course, I wore shorts not skirts, but still, the point still stands.
"Obviously, I'm not that stupid, Mom."
"I know..." my Mother spoke with a sigh. "I just...don't like how you flaunt your body..."
"I don't 'flaunt' my body, Mom. I'm just not as modest as you." Which was true. I wear low-cut, loose stuff, she wears...a full body dress with an apron. Sometimes I wish my Mom wasn't so modest. I mean, does she have to wear a full body dress? Can't even be a dress that ends at her knees? Maybe a V-neck shirt or something? "Besides, it's not like I'm running around naked, right?"
Mother looked like she was about to panic at those words. "I guess you've got a point there." She and I giggled a little and I stepped towards the door. "Oh! Before you go! I bought you this." She reached over and grabbed a brown purse off of a nearby table. "I thought you might like to have a new purse, since your old one got ruined."
Since my old one got ruined...ha! That's a funny statement considering that it wouldn't be ruined if she hadn't taken a meat cleaver to it...but that's a story for another time. I smiled, took the purse, and hugged her. "Thanks, Mom."
"Oh! One last thing!" Mother reached into her pocket and pulled out a small red device. "Your Pokegear came back from the shop this morning. They said it should work perfectly fine now."
Should work perfectly fine...sure...like the last three times they said that. I'll probably boot it up and it'll blue screen again. Oh well. "Really?" I took it and strapped it to my wrist, then booted it up. Sure enough, it seemed to work fine. "Awesome! It does work!" I turned up to look at my mother again and was surprised to see her smiling yet a tear was rolling down her cheek. "You okay?"
"It's just...I've been waiting for a long time for this day to come...and now it's finally here...and I don't want it to be."
"I know, Mom." I smiled and hugged her. "I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you, too, Kotone."
We stayed in that embrace for a few moments, I can't tell you how long exactly, and then finally separated. I walked over to the door and pulled my shoes on, then opened it. "I'm leaving now." I smiled as I turned back. "Good-bye, Mom."
"Good-bye, Kotone."
I walked out after that. However, I hadn't gotten far at all. In fact, I had only just shut the door and taken two steps, when a blue blur smacked into my chest shouting, "Marill!" I fell to the ground and looked down at my attacker. It was a blue ball that had a white underbelly and small circular ears at the top of its head. It had a long squiggly tail that led to a blue orb at the end. It was Ethan's Marill.
"Arceus damn...ETHAN!" I shouted.
Immediately, Ethan came running towards me. "Sorry, Kotone!" He reached down and picked up his Marill. Ethan had his standard backwards hat on. His was black like mine, but where the red in my hat was, his was yellow. He also wore a red jacket and black knickerbockers, which are kind of like sweat pants only they only go down to your knees.
"Can't you keep that damn thing under control?" I grumbled as I sat up. Damn it all, Marill's attack had caused my jacket and one of my shirt straps to slide most of the way down my arm. I pulled the shirt strap back up, then pulled up my jacket.
"Sorry, Kotone, but she really likes you."
Likes me, my foot. "Ethan, she attacks me every time she sees me. On top of that, I've seen the way she looks at me. She has that 'Stay away from my man' look on her face."
"Nah, she could never be like that, right, Marill?"
Marill gave a cute squeak and I groaned. That was pretty typical. She would attack me, then play all cute an innocent to Ethan so he would never suspect anything. "Whatever, I don't feel like arguing about it right now...I just want to get to Elm's and get my Pokémon..." I stood to my feet. "I'll see you later, Ethan." I waved as I walked away.
I spent a few minutes walking to Elm's. Like I said early, to get there is like a five-minute walk. No one lives close to each other, and each house is at least a minute away, if not more. As for Elm's, his was a fancy lab sitting on its own with acres of land in all directions. His family lived on the top floor of his house, and he had stairs on the outside that led down. He did that on purpose, actually. His wife is quoted as saying "If the stairs were inside, he would never leave his lab to come see his family." The very fact the stairs were outside kept him from staying in his lab all day.
I walked towards his lab, when I noticed something. There was a red-haired kid standing at the far window, peering inside. I quickly walked over. "Hey! You! Kid there!" I shouted. He turned to look at me. His hair was long, at least shoulder length, and he wore a black shirt with red trimming and purple pants. "Yeah, you, what are you doing there?"
"None of your business." That was all he said. He then turned back to the window.
None of my business? Like hell it wasn't. That was my neighbor's window he was looking through. "Hey, I wasn't done talking to you!" I stepped over and grabbed his shoulder.
"Fuck off, lady." The boy threw his shoulder back, making me let go.
"Did you just tell me to fuck off?"
"Yes."
I growled. "Well, I have no plans to. That's my next-door neighbor's house you're looking into."
"Well, good for him."
What the hell was with this guy? "Listen here, kid-"
"No, you listen," the boy spoke and turned towards me. "You're being annoying, so get your whiny-ass away from me."
Annoying? Whiny? Ass? Oh, he did not just say those things. "No!" I shouted.
"Fine..." He reached his hand forward and before I knew it, my hand had been grabbed, twisted, and then shoved behind my back. My entire body had been twisted around in a single move, and my back was now to him. "Will you leave now?"
"Fuck no!"
The boy growled again. "If you won't leave..." He pulled down on my arm and I felt myself buckling and dropping to my knees. Then, before I knew it, my shorts had been dropped down to my knees.
"Strip me all you want, but I'm still not leaving until you tell me what you're doing!"
"Really?" the boy chuckled. "In that case." He pinned me to the ground and I began to feel my jacket being pulled on. Soon he had pulled it off of my free arm and was now pulling it down my other arm.
"Houndour, attack!" I heard a voice shout. The boy let go of my arm and jumped to his feet, but when he did, I heard the sound of my jacket tearing as he pulled on it. I watched him take off as two black dogs with skulls on their heads and bones on their bodies ran off after him. I saw my jacket in his hand, one of the sleeves had been torn completely off. He let go of the jacket a moment later as he continued to run. It pained me to watch the dogs then charge over my jacket, shredding it with their claws.
"Why?!" I whined. "Why my favorite jacket?"
"Kotone, are you okay?" I heard the voice from before speak and I looked up. It was Professor Elm! He was wearing his usual white lab coat along with a blue button up shirt underneath and a pair of green pants. His glasses were set oddly on his face, and I wondered if they had gotten jumbled in the excitement. He soon corrected that.
But now the question comes...did I look fine? I mean, my shirt was mangled, my shorts were down at my knees, my jacket had been shredded...Did I look fine? Did he really think I was okay after that? I sighed. "I'm fine," I spoke and pulled my shorts back up, then adjusted my shirt. I then pulled off the remainder of my jacket off my arm and then walked over to the rest of the remains. I lifted it up and sighed. "My jacket is ruined..."
"Maybe my wife can mend it?"
I held it up, showing the many many holes the Houndour had made in it. It looked like swiss cheese. "You think she can mend this?"
"Ahh...no..."
"I didn't think so..." I sighed. A moment passed and the Houndour came rushing back. One of them had a shred of the guy's pants in its mouth. "Well, I guess he got some of what he deserved."
"Bad dog, don't buy people's pants off," Elm corrected the Houndour and it gave its sad little puppy face. After a short moment, the two of use stepped into Elm's lab. His lab was full of all kinds of gizmos and gadgets, half of which I had no idea what were or what they did. A computer sat on one side and a small circular machine sat on another side. He showed me to that one.
"In this machine are three pokeballs, however, before I give them to you, I must confirm that you are okay with being my aide. As you know, I can't give you a pokeball unless you're willing to help me with my research."
"I know, Professor, I'm fine with it. What is it you need me to do?"
"I need you to go to my friend on Route 30. His name is Mr. Pokémon. He's always prattling on about this thing or that thing, but this time he claims he found something genuinely strange. He wants me to examine it."
"So you want me to go there and get this 'something' from him?"
Elm nodded. "Correct."
"Fair enough."
Elm nodded. "All right, then. Assistant!" he called for someone else, who came walking in a moment later. He was carrying a fire extinguisher. "First off is this one, Chikorita." He opened the circular machine then pulled a small red and white ball out of it. He held it forward and it opened, unleashing a red light then turned into a green plant-like Pokémon. It had a long leaf on the top of its head. "This one is very energetic and loves to fight."
He then pulled out another pokeball and opened it, releasing what looked similar to a blue alligator. It had a white V-shaped chest piece and it yawned as it came out. "This is Totodile, This one is actually a bit lazy, which is odd for Totodiles. Most are pretty energetic." He then reached for the last ball, but he did so carefully, as if worried it would bite his hand off.
When his hand took hold of the ball, he held it forward. "This one is Cyndaquil." He released the Pokémon from the ball, and the moment it appeared, it breathed in deeply and began to shoot embers from its mouth. Elm quickly returned the Cyndaquil. "That one is always scared..." I noticed Professor Elm's aide was now running around with the fire extinguisher, hitting each of the embers. Elm sighed. "Unfortunately, every time I release it, it lashes out like that."
I looked over the two Pokémon in front of me, then looked up at the pokeball in Elm's hand. "Maybe all it needs is a good trainer?"
"Are you saying you're willing to try to train it?"
I nodded and smiled. "Yeap."
"A-all right, if you're sure." Elm held the pokeball out for me and I took it. I knelt down and released the Cyndaquil.
"Hello, little one, I'm your new trainer now." I should have realized that it would lash out as soon as it was out of its ball. Embers flew out of its mouth and I jumped back. It caught one of the straps of my shirt and snapped it. I quickly put the flame out before it could do any more damage. I then had to wonder...why was everything going for my clothes all of a sudden? Does Arceus hate me or something? Was he trying to tell me "You shall not go on a Pokémon adventure!" I groaned and grabbed hold of the Cyndaquil.
The moment it was in my hands, it curled up in a ball. It was scared, and I could feel it shaking. However, this finally gave me a good chance to look at it. It was a blue creature with a long mouth...or maybe that was its nose? It had a cream-colored underbelly, and four red spots on its back. I had noticed that when it used a fire attack, the spots had burst into flames for a moment, so I hoped it wouldn't do it again, since the spots were against my stomach. "There, there, you're a nice little fire Pokémon, aren't you? You don't need to be scared of me. I won't hurt you." I pet it a little. "I need a nickname for you, little guy."
"Actually, that one's a girl," Elm spoke up. "Totodile's the only male of the bunch."
"Really? That's interesting." I continued to pet Cyndaquil for a moment. "What should I call you? You're a cute little fire-type so...maybe Blaze? That sounds like a good name." Cyndaquil squeaked, as if approving. "Blaze it is, then."
"Interesting...Kotone, could you do me another favor?"
"What is it?"
"Could you, by chance, keep that Pokémon out of its pokeball? I'm curious about how the interaction between a Pokémon and its trainer works when the Pokémon doesn't stay in its ball."
"Sure, Professor, as long as Blaze doesn't burn the rest of my clothes." I snuggled Blaze and surprisingly, it seemed like it was trying to snuggle back. Elm seemed to stare at this.
"You just got it, yet it seems to really like you already."
"Maybe I just have a way with Pokémon?"
"Perhaps..." Elm said that slowly, then stared at me and Blaze a moment longer. He then seemed to snap back to reality as he quickly pulled his eyes away from Blaze and looked up at me. "Well, you should be heading on to Mr. Pokemon's place now."
I nodded, then set Blaze on the ground. "Come on, then," I spoke to her. "We're about to start an adventure." I then stood up and began to walk out the door. Much to my surprise, Blaze followed behind without a problem. And that was it, that was how my journey started. I had no idea what lied in store for me on this journey, I could only hope it would be an enjoyable one.
