"Ah, Touko, just in time. I've already collected some starters for you. Three from Kanto, and three from our lovely Kalos region. Would you like to take a look?"
"No, Sycamore, not quite yet. I'd like to take a little more time with my own Pokemon, just a few last farewells before I go on another adventure."
It had been two years, three years, three very long years since Touko had started her first journey in the Unova region. Since then, she'd conquered all foes who stood in her way as champion, and after spending what felt like an eternity of boredom with random challengers- or at least, the few who dared face the wrath of her Samurott- she'd decided she wanted to start again, in a new region. Without much more word to Sycamore, she turned her back to him and left his office, in order to step outside with her six-Pokemon team. The rest of the Pokemon she had, she'd already given up to trainers who she deemed worthy- and more in need of her Pokemon than she.
Her Pokemon seemed so happy to see her. This was the first she'd released all of them at once, something that used to be a common occurrence. Before she could get too caught up in reminiscing, she remembered what she was doing here. This was not goodbye- she promised herself that much. For some reason it didn't make parting any easier.
On the very streets of Lumiose, she explained to her Pokemon, her friends, her partners what she planned on doing. Most understood her very well by now. Krookodile, or as she often called him, Clyde, still sort of snickered at her whenever she was trying to be serious. Her Swoobat—which she promised to only call Sweety in private –made a sad face, but once she had made the same old silly face she made since Sweety was small, happiness relit in her eyes. Flower, or rather, Liligant, gave a curt nod and a smile, while Cofagrigus, Samurott, and Zebstrika all seemed to have seen this coming. She explained to them what she wanted them to do. Sycamore agreed to give her two free starters and an updated (or, well, downgraded) pokedex, but only if she asked her Pokemon to stay with him. He wanted research done on the effects of growing to such a high level, and if Pokemon in the other regions reacted the same to becoming powerful as they did in this region. It was a difficult choice, one she spent a lot of time and effort on. Even if her Pokemon declined, which she knew would not be the case, she could still visit Kalos. She was hopeful for a positive reaction, however.
One by one, all the Pokemon agreed. All, that is, besides Pascal. Samurott always was quite the fighter. As if she knew the language of her Pokemon, Touko knew exactly what it is Samurott had wanted to do, and where he had wanted to go.
"Are you sure, Pascal? If you stay in the region, I'll at least be able to visit . . . is there no convincing you?" she asked, maybe even pleaded, with her long-time friend. It was to no avail, he was as stubborn as she was, and probably always would be. She laughed away any sarcastic remarks she had in store. She'd respect him just as much as he always respected her.
It didn't take long to travel back to Sycamore's office. With one swift phone call, Samurott was on his way back to live in Unova, at home, with Touko's mom. He was happier there, and she knew it, but she'd miss him terribly. She guessed, after the fact, that it was where he belonged. It didn't change how much she'd always love her little Pascal, whether he was a tiny Oshawott, or the big, fearsome Samurott that all of Unova had come to know, love, and piss themselves at the sight of.
"Sycamore, two starters, please!" Touko's tune was much cheerier than she'd thought it'd be, feeling like she'd lost a limb mere moments ago, but she did have to admit how excited she was for her new journey.
"Right, right, well . . . it's customary for me to make you pick from our own list of starters, first. Would you like a Froakie, since water seems to be your usual choice?" as he spoke, Sycamore released three Pokemon before her. To her surprise, not all were male, like they were in her last selection. It was a male Froakie, a female Fennekin, and another male Chespin. Just by looking at them she could see each had a unique set of strengths and weaknesses, but the female starter had stuck out to her.
"Ah, I think I'd rather go with fire this time. Never having a fire type to help me out last time got me stuck quite a few times, more than I'd like to admit!" she said with a laugh, and remembered a run-in with a Klingklang or two. She silently swore to herself to never return to Chargestone cave again, and with that, reached her hand out toward her new partner.
With a tiny bark-sounding cry, she could already tell her and Fennekin would be fast friends.
"I'll call you . . . Lucina."
"Don't get too excited yet, you've another partner to pick, if I remember correctly."
Just as quickly as the first, Touko was faced with another difficult choice. Sycamore was rambling something off about water Pokemon, but Touko wasn't quite listening. He was cute and all, but after listening to the ramblings of Professor Juniper for so long, she naturally tuned long-winded-science-mumbo-jumbo out.
Before long, she remembered something from her previous journey. Something that won her that first gym badge. A kind woman, not too much older than herself when she thought about it, told her something to the tune of, 'You need a Pokemon that is strong against what your team is weak against. Since you started with Oshawott... here! I want you to take care of this Pansear. Treat him nicely, and that first gym badge should be yours!'.
With a quick glance to her Fennekin, she knew which partner she wanted this time.
"I'll take the Bulbasaur, please." she spoke, and the tiny Pokemon looked almost as surprised as Sycamore did.
"Hm. No water type, pourquoi pas?"
"English, Professor Baguette."
"Aw, you don't like the french? Most girls get dreamy-eyed once I pull out a few words they don't understand . . ."
"Let it be forever written in any and all science novels you write from here on, Sycamore, that not all girls drool over a little bit of the language of love. Now, if you'd like to have a conversation, I'll be thinking up a name for my second new partner." Touko teased the older man, another shock he wasn't quite accustomed to, and without any more hesitation, she sat down to give her new Pokemon a better look.
"Touko, what I had said was . . . and I would have thought, from the obvious pattern . . . are you mad at Samurott for leaving you?"
A brief silence flooded the room. Touko gave a hurt look up towards Sycamore, and he instantly realized his mistake. Were her eyes filled with any more rage, he'd have mistaken her for a raging fire type, ready to singe his freshly-gelled hair.
"I—er, if you'd listened to the rest of what I'd said that wouldn't have come off so harshly—I was simply trying to come up with a reason why you would . . . Touko?"
"Professor, I feel as though leaving my Pokemon with someone so inconsiderate might be the wrong idea. You have one minute to prove to me otherwise," in the middle of her sentence she stood up, holing her unnamed Bulbasaur in her arms, while her Fennekin had taken perch on her shoulder.
In the next few moments, Touko had never heard a grown-man stutter quite the way Sycamore had been. He was much more of a dork than she'd given credit to, and it reminded her of a certain someone back home.
"Wait! Er, I, I just wanted to know if maybe you were mad at your Pokemon, since I was so expecting you to immediately choose a water type, I didn't think Fennekin w...
"I—er, if you'd listened to the rest of what I'd said that wouldn't have come off so harshly—I was simply trying to come up with a reason why you would . . . Touko?"
"Professor, I feel as though leaving my Pokemon with someone so inconsiderate might be the wrong idea. You have one minute to prove to me otherwise," in the middle of her sentence she stood up, holding her unnamed Bulbasaur in her arms, while her Fennekin had taken perch on her shoulder.
In the next few moments, Touko had never heard a grown-man stutter quite the way Sycamore had been. He was much more of a dork than she'd given credit to, and it reminded her of a certain someone back home.
"Wait! Er, I, I just wanted to know if maybe you were mad at your Pokemon, since I was so expecting you to immediately choose a water type, I didn't think Fennekin would have been your choice at all since your last team didn't even have a reliable fire type I-I could have sworn that at the very least you'd have gone with Squirtle since in a sort of way he resembles—Touko?"
By the time he's stopped ranting and being flustered, Touko had already began to ignore him again, and gone back to introducing herself to her new Pokemon. The bulbasaur, she had decided, had an interesting bud on his back—she ignored that his name had the word Bulb, because that name wasn't nearly as cute—and made the decision to name him Bud. Bud and Lucina hadn't ever met before now, but they were becoming fast friends. Touko had already found particular places in which both Pokemon enjoyed being pet, and since her old team still remained in the room, she seemed to have taken to introducing the new Pokemon, to the old.
Sycamore gave his well-known defeated shrug. He had planned to battle Touko with his own set of starters, just to test her strength, but he'd already known there was no reason to do so. A well-seasoned champion such as herself would take good care of the Pokemon that were formerly his, and he took a small pride into the fact that they'd be part of such an important team. He remembered for a few moments fond times in which he did little intricate tests on the bulbasaur—not lab-rattata style tests—but more-so psychological style tests. The Fennekin had undergone similar studies, but seemed to be much less cooperative. He didn't tell her how glad he was that Fennekin was the one she'd chosen. More than one had the tiny fox ruined an experiment or two of his—though if he thought too hard on it, it was always in good fun.
With little more to say to the professor, Touko said her very last goodbyes to her Pokemon, and to him, and set off on her journey. Or . . . rather, she would have, if she hadn't become utterly lost in a matter of minutes. This place was bigger than Castellia City! It had to be twice the size. Maybe three times the size. Four? She wondered idly at why there were so many Pokemon running about. She spotted, only to name a few, a sleeping goat-looking Pokemon that her pokedex named skidoo, a messy-haired cat called Espurr, and a Pokemon she thought she'd seen before, a marill. It took a very, very, very long time for Touko to even reach a place of interest.
Her place of interest, of course, was a very simple Pokemon center. There, she made sure to stock up on pokeballs, get directions, and assure herself that her Pokemon were fully healed and ready go to out on the road. It was shortly after that she'd (finally) arrived at an important milestone in Lumiose. A very obvious sign titled, 'Route 4', the direction she needed to go in order to get to Santalune. Her destination of choice.
It didn't take long for her to realize that Lucina had a preference of being outside of her pokeball, while Bud didn't care for being either in or out. As she walked, she had to continually remind herself to never, ever step on the small fire-type's tail. First impressions, as she knew with Pascal, were always difficult to rewrite. She tried hard to forget the time she'd tripped on the tiny Pokemon, sending them both down a ledge, thus also causing them to have to go through a particularly annoying patch of grass.
While fond memories stirred in her, she'd hardly realized how little attention she was paying to where she was going. She needed to focus on what was going on now, and a little less on what was going on then.
Once she'd finally gotten onto Route 4, the sights she was forced to take in astounded her. This place was huge! With maze-like gardens, and more flowers than she could make out, she almost began to feel a little overwhelmed. In Unova, she at least had an idea of what to expect, but Kalos? She'd hardly even read a pamphlet about the place.
Going back to such a standard level of training proved more difficult than Touko would have liked to admit. After what felt like hours of training on different colored flabebe for Bud, and a full list of grass Pokemon fell to Lucina's fire type moves. Once her Pokemon were tired out, or simply out of moves, she started for the exit.
Before she'd gotten too far, though, she came across another Pokemon. It was pink, and about the size of the two she'd already obtained. The pokedex named it Skitty, though she had a different name in mind. With only a few attacks it was weakened enough to capture, and with an expert toss, another member was added to her well-balanced team.
The newly named Whiskers was only half the level of the Pokemon she'd already had. It'd be a while of training before she decided to challenge the fast-approaching gym. She smiled brightly with her Pokemon, each and every step of the way. She really was right in going on this journey.
After she visited the Pokemon Center of Santalune, a shop she hadn't seen before caught her eye. A clothing shop? Her curiosity was soon to cost her much more than time alone. One hat she saw there in particular had interested her, a white and black cap with a tiny purple button. Memories gently flooded her mind, and she thought about frequent battles she had with N. How his green hair looked silly under his black and white hat. How when he was happy his voice was like that of a child's—the opposite being true when he was mad. How when he cried he looked down, and the cap to his hat covered his eyes . . . it was a few too many memories for Touko to manage at once.
"1,600 poke . . . not too bad of an impulse buy, is it, Bud?" she asked outside of the shop, before handing her Fennekin the small purple button. Bud smiles a seemingly-knowing smile, and Touko laughed with her three Pokemon. The group had grown close to each other quickly, something she was glad for, as it made things seem less lonely. Pokemon had always made her life less lonely, it seemed.
After more training—much, MUCH more training—she decided she was ready for the gym. With a fire type, any trainers who opposed her weren't half of a match for her snew Pokemon's trength. Viola seemed much less happy than she allowed to lead on once she was defeated, her bug Pokemon now faced with burns that would need immediate treatment. Once presented with a badge, she made short work of leaving Santanlune. Though it was a nice little town, she'd no interest in staying in one place for long. As a former champion, anyone who caught on to who exactly she was, and word would be spread throughout each and every town she went to. Trainers from across the globe would challenge her, something she simply did not want to experience. At least, not yet.
Lumiose was just as confusing as it was the first time she'd visited, but this time, in the midst of being lost, she did find another interesting shop. With her long and distinct hair, she was easily recognized. Another impulse decision was made, though this time she was smarter about it. She only allowed her hair to be cut enough to make her look different, not totally unrecognizable. If someone she knew were to see her, she'd be recognized. She'd have gone with a totally different hairstyle were it not for the fact she planned on visiting Sycamore eventually. Or, rather, her Pokemon. She didn't truly care for the professor's company. Though she had to admit, he was fun to look at.
She made quite short work of Route Five, and after being sure to catch a Pancham. Fighting types were supposedly very good for battle, and she decided he'd be essential to battle. She named him Twig, because of the tiny leaf he kept in his mouth.
Once in Campriher Town, she was told a long line of people were willing to battle on Route 6. Drawn by the want to train, she followed the path, defeating each trainer until she got to the castle that was at the end of the road.
Astounded by yet another one of the sights this place held, she traveled into almost every room and realm of the castle, until she found the large yard outside. As if by fate, the first thing she noticed was a small statue of a Pokemon she once owned. Zekrom, the dark dragon, stood half it's actual size before her. Her hands shook while she stared, and her small Pokemon showed their concern by nudging at her leg. She shook her head and turned away, not wanting to think much of her past ordeals. She decided she'd walk straight, and enjoy the rest of the sights this area had to offer.
It was then she saw a bright light in the shy, shining bright orange. A light she knew too well. A flash of white streaked over the sky above her head, and she knew exactly what had landed on the side opposite of the one she was leaving. With clenched fists, and a quick word to her Pokemon, she ran towards the sound, knowing only one thing could be here. One person.
