Hello! Welcome to my story! Please enjoy, review, and maybe submit an OC!

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, sadly.

Step.

Step. Step. Put one foot in front of the other- just like it had always been.

Step. Step. His sandaled feet looked well-worn, if you could see them under his voluminous hakama. The hakama were pale blue with darker tips, and a miniscule snowflake pattern you would have to squint to see. His entire garb symbolized him as a samurai to passerby, but a closer inspection would reveal dirt staining the expensive cloth, rips on the blue diamonds on the sleeves, grass stains down below the knee. And a few darker stains.

A ronin.

He didn't look out of place on the open road. In fact, he looked quite content. His normally emotionless face had opened into a small smile, the frozen features softened by the sheer beauty that surrounded him.

The sky was a brilliant cerulean blue, with a few tiny clouds, wispy like strokes of a brush on a pure sapphire canvas. And the sky seemed especially vast today. The road the ronin tread upon was surrounded by rice paddies, flat and wet, making the sky look even bigger- not marred by a single tree or house.

Peasants worked in the fields. Others walked down the road. Even though it was a dirt one, and in the country, it was still densely populated by travelers as it connected two important villages. Peasants in their dirty tunics walked by, many carrying all sorts of things. Children scrambled under leg and basket. A few other ronin walked the path- but none of them had in their clothes the splendor that the blue ronin had. He had come from a high-up position in the army of an affluent lord, most likely.

It was amazing to marvel at the sheer amount of people on the road. As he walked, the ronin saw a troupe of women in elaborate kimonos, a monk, a group of traveling performers who sang and did acrobatic tricks to the delight of the villagers, a minor magistrate or something who rode in a carriage, surrounded by samurai who scowled at the blue ronin in disgust- he had no master to serve.

He ignored them, choosing instead to look at the sky. Blue. The color changed hue as the day went on. It made for a brilliant sunset. Well, it would have if no anyone was around to see it. Awakening from his daydream, the ronin wearing winter looked around with eyes of brilliant blue-grey, confused for a bit. Then it hit him.

Sunset. Now it's nighttime. Duh. Most people would be at home now. The landscape had changed as well. Now he was in a forest, newly grown, as the trees were unable to obscure the sinking sun veiled in rainbows.

The road led on, but the light grew dim. "It's time to stop," thought the ronin. He soon reached an old shrine- small and wooden, but with a few rooms for travelers to spend the night- it would do.

He entered, and the first thing he saw was a sculpture of the high god, Arceus. The god smiled at him through wooden lips, sending both a message of quiet love and regal superiority. His clothes, of course, were very elaborate- a long kimono, mainly white, but with seventeen other colors all interwoven into it.

The traveler shook his head, driving away the daydreams. It wasn't a rainbow, like the stories said. It was wood. Any paint on the statue had faded long ago. But it reminded the ronin of his childhood, and the stories he had heard from his mother and father.

After thanking the god for his hospitality, the man chose a room and went in. Time had not been kind to the old forest temple, but the villagers that lived nearby kept it in relatively good condition. As the masterless samurai set about arranging his single sleeping blanket and the food he had gotten out of the small pack on his back, he reminisced about his life before the war. Back when he was with his family, in the house on the hill.

There he stood. Tall for his age, but only up to his mother's stomach. He wore a child's version of the clothing he had on today; shades of blue, decorated with snowflakes and diamond patterns, probably woven by a skilled Bug-type seamstress like an Ariados.

Back then, his eyes shown a bit bluer, it seemed. Before they'd been hardened by all the fighting over the years. Back then, they were like the surface of a pond before any ripples have been made; now, the pond had frozen. As always, he was pale, and had hair that was blue and spiked up.

It was a younger version of him now- the only differences were that now he had a sword. And a single earring.

The younger version stood in the yard outside his house, next to the small pond where the koi swam. His mother was sitting on the porch of the house as the sliding doors stood open behind her, knitting. She looked up.

The boy said, "Tell me a story." He looked slightly angry, as if something had ticked him off earlier and now he needed a story to calm him down.

His mother's eyes softened. They were blue, like his. In fact, everything about her looked just like him- from her brilliant kimono, to her perfect pearl-white skin, to the color of her hair, which she wore long- all the way down her back. "Which one?"

"The one about us. About how we came here." He climbed up and sat next to her, staring as he waited for her to begin.

She smiled. "Well…"

Long ago, before our world was here of course, was Arceus's world. We don't know if it was his first- all we know is that it was the one he made before ours.

He looked down on it, and was happy. Sure, it had its flaws, but that's what happens with humans and Pokemon.

The two species coexisted perfectly. They were friends, and helped each other out all the time. It was a good world, in need of no help.

Arceus decided it was time to create a new world. And so he did.

Arceus's main theme for our world was one of beauty. Green forests and plains, beautiful ponds, lakes, and streams. He made our beaches, and our cherry blossom trees, and of course, you're favorite, the snow.

He put humans into it. And Pokemon, too. But these humans were different from the ones before. They were primitive. I've heard that in the other world, humans moved around in carriages that moved by themselves- without even horses! Not here.

Those humans were wise. And with wisdom came understanding, of Pokemon. The humans of our world did not have that understanding. Here, the wild Pokemon were treated as animals, gods, demons, and all sorts of things. They did not understand the powers we possess.

Arceus was saddened by this. He hid the Pokemon away, and they passed into the myths and legends of the humans- no longer existing, besides in their imaginations. He left this world alone, for five hundred years, they say.

After waiting his chosen number of years, Arceus returned to the world. He appeared in the form of a human, so they would understand him, but also was symbolic of a Pokemon. He saw what the world had become, and he was happy.

Even if they could not understand Pokemon, they could understand his vision. They had developed into a civilization that revolved around beauty- intertwining their buildings and man-made environments with Arceus's nature in they way they still do today.

Overjoyed, Arceus invited his pantheon of minor gods to come visit- in the form of humans. They agreed with him- this was a nice world, a fine world even. And they wanted to bring Pokemon back into it.

Arceus was not so sure. Instead, he began to bring Pokemon here a different way- in the form of humans. Yes, like you and me. He chose eight lords to represent his power over humanity. And he brought the rest of us. Even more appeared over the years.

But we're not allowed to tell normal people that we're Pokemon. It's a secret between Pokemon. Pokemon that demonstrate their powers are simply thought to be powerful heroes touched by the gods, spirits, or mythic beasts. Yes, I know the kids at school make fun of you because you look different. But you're a Pokemon, that's why. Yes, born here, not brought by Arceus.

I know you can't use your powers yet, but I'm sure one day you will find your Emblem. You want me to tell you about Emblems again? Very well.

Each Pokemon in this world has an Emblem- an item that allows us to channel our unique powers through our human bodies. I know you haven't found yours yet, but one day you will. Like I found my earrings. What, you want to hear that story too? Come on now, look at the sky. See? It's almost time for your bedtime, dear Glaceon. Sleep tight.

Glaceon, now eighteen, did just that, in his little room in the roadside temple. As he drifted off to surprisingly good dreams (for once), he smiled. Thanks, mom. Thanks, Arceus.

Five hours later, an eye snapped open. Reflex. He rubbed his head as he yawned and sat up. "Hunh…?"

Glaceon listened, wondering what made him wake up, and heard the clip-clop, clip-clop of a horses hooves, running at full speed. What was a horse doing that for, at midnight…?

Glaceon slowly trudged forward, blinking. He looked at the statue of Arceus, wondering if he knew anything about the mysterious horse.

I really shouldn't bother, it's none of my business. He shook his head, trying to wake up bit more. Well, it sort of is… after all, they did wake me up… and that's rude.

Just as he slid open the front door, the horse shot by at full speed. There was someone riding on it- a girl, with two viridian braids flying behind her.

In one split second, she noticed the door with Glaceon in it, climbed onto the side of her horse, and launched herself into it, like a swimmer's dive, straight forward, knocking him down.

As he fell back with an "Oof!," he couldn't help but marvel at her skill- that leap was near impossible. No, it was impossible. He had seen a glimmer of transparent diamond-shaped wings as she launched herself, though. Pokemon.

The girl, who was also sprawled on the floor with him, looked up, red-faced, instinctively squeaking, "Sorry!" She had green hair in two braids, and reddish-brown eyes. Her outfit consisted of samurai armor in different shades of green with an occasional red embellishment. A naginata (spear-like weapon) was strapped to her back.

For a second they sized each other up, an employed samurai and an unemployed samurai. She was even younger than him- sixteen maybe. Probably a newbie samurai.

Noticing his road-worn look, in one swift motion she had her naginata pointed at his throat, her eyes steeling. "If you're a bandit, don't try anything," she said coolly. "I am a high-ranking samurai in the employ of one of our eight lords, and I can-"

Her statement was cut short by the clip-clop of horses' hooves outside, again. Except instead of one it must have been five.

As Glaceon was about to say reply, she leapt up and jumped into the back room. Again with the hint of wings- a faint outline seemed to sparkle and shimmer behind her as she jumped.

"If you value your honor-" she began, peeking out from behind the sliding door. Hoarse voices, yelling, were heard over the approaching horses. She slammed the door quickly with a start, and from behind it, Glaceon heard, "I'm not here! I can pay you!"

The ronin in blue stood up, rubbing his forehead with two fingers. Well, that went well. I'm out of practice for ambushes- all I could do was sit there, half-asleep. At least he would be prepared if the other horsemen tried to come in. Which they might- the noise had stopped, right outside the temple.

One voice said uncertainly, "I could've sworn I saw a shadow leap off the horse here."

An argument arose between the horseman, with phrases such as "that's impossible!", "at this speed…?", and "you must be seeing things."

Finally a stronger voice rose above the clamor, quieting the tumult. "Whatever you say, that horse is still sprinting ahead of us and getting farther as we argue. Kenichi, are you positive you saw someone jump off?"

A younger, meeker voice, said, "Y-yes, sir."

"Alright!" the man in charge roared. "Take Ryuusuke and investigate the area. The rest of us will ride down that horse." Without further words, the three riders were gone in a flurry of hoofbeats.

A few minutes later, the two men left behind opened the door slowly. Glaceon had taken out some of the food from his pack and was preparing a midnight snack- how could he sleep with all that racket around here?

"Umm, excuse us," said one; a younger thin man. The voice of the one who had noticed the samurai girl from earlier's jump. His partner was a man of much larger stature than him, and a bit older. He had a gruff face and didn't look all that intelligent. Both wore matching samurai armor- cheaply made, in a dull gray.

The bigger man pushed the smaller one aside (who let out a small "Eep!" but made no further retaliation) and stood in the center of the small temple front room, hands on hips.

He looked around angrily. "I can't believe you made us stop for something stupid you thought you saw, idiot," said the big soldier. Kenichi cringed.

Ryuusuke's gaze moved around the room lazily until it landed on Glaceon, who simply stared back without showing any emotion. The big warrior's lip curled. "Well, well, it looks like we've found ourselves a filthy little ronin."

He paced back and forth in front of Glaceon, whose eyes followed him. "Don't…" said Kenichi weakly from behind. His fellow samurai whirled around. "Shut it, shrimp! You're the one who got us stuck here anyway, on this stupid detour. Might as well have some fun."

Kenichi whimpered but didn't say anything more, as Ryuunosuke crouched down in front of Glaceon, a dangerous smile decorating his features. "Hey, little ronin, who doesn't have a lord to serve. Have you been paying your taxes to us? Our lord rules here, you know, and demands taxes from all the little peasants like you." Without waiting for a response, he made a disapproving noise. "Ah, you bad little ronin. Well than why don't you pay them to me, a far superior samurai who can actually keep a job!" He looked down, noticing Glaceon's meager snack. "And your food, too. I'm hungry."

Glaceon shifted where he sat on the floor, growing agitated. The comment about "keeping a job" had gotten to him, although you would never notice it unless you looked very closely. Even as his fists grew slightly more clenched, he kept the same expressionless face.

Finally Glaceon stood up, eye level with the older samurai. He looked at him for five seconds, then asked, "Where you the ones chasing that girl?"

Kenichi tried to interject, "Yes, under our lord's orders-" but his partner interrupted loudly. "Oh, so she IS here! You're not such an idiot after all, Kenichi!" he glared at Glaceon. "So where is she, you scumbag samurai?"

Glaceon tilted his head towards the door the girl samurai hid behind, but as Ryuunosuke went towards it, the ice Pokemon held out a hand to stop him.

"So you were chasing her," he said slowly. "Which means you guys are what made her make all that noise and wake me up. Than you kept me awake with noise of your own!" he cocked his head slightly. "So it's all your fault that I was woken up from the first good dream I've had in ages…"

His unnaturally colored eyes seemed to bore into Ryuunosuke's skull, as he finished with, "…isn't it?"

"Huh!" the thug samurai said. "Is that a threat? I'll cleave you in half for speaking to me like that, you sack of dung!" he whipped out a heavy looking mace, an unusual weapon, and attempted to swing it down upon Glaceon's head.

Glaceon continued unnerving his adversary by keeping his eyes locked into the other man's. Ryuunosuke noticed them flicker as Glaceon casually unlocked his katana with one finger. Instantly the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees. His attacker's eyes widened, and his expression turned from one of smug pleasure into slightly fearful, momentarily stopping his swing.

Finally, Glaceon's expressionless face moved- a slight smile, as he slowly drew out his katana. It was a beautiful piece of metal, overly long for a sword, and covered in frost.

He swung it lazily, not even making contact with his opposition. This made Ryuunosuke's spirits go up for a split second, thinking the mysterious ronin had missed, when he was blasted in the face with an Icy Wind attack. It pushed him and Kenichi back towards the door.

Glaceon touched his sword, and slowly drew his finger down the entire length of it, causing it to expand into a much larger blade made purely of spiky ice. "This is my Ice Fang attack," he told the watching samurai. "It really, really hurts. I suggest you make a run for it. Yeah, run long and far."

The two samurai sprinted out the door, stumbling over themselves and soon thudding feet into the dirt road, disappearing into the early morning blackness, even forgetting their horses. The samurai with the sword of ice walked out the door of the temple after them, calling as he stopped.

"And Kenichi! Stick up for yourself more! It's the guy you're with who's the idiot!" Sighing, Glaceon put his sword away. The ice simply disappeared and it went back to being a simple steel blade in a sheath.

He strode back inside, walked past the statue of Arceus and the Pokemon girl peeking out from the other room, into the room where his blanket lay. Without ceremony, he flopped onto it and was asleep within minutes. That got my adrenaline going- I haven't had that much excitement in ages.

Haha, sorry it's so long! Anyway, I should probably go over a few things.

1.) this world is not Japan- it's just based off of feudal Japan. So it's allowed to have anachronisms and not be perfectly historically accurate. It's not history, it's fiction- and it's more fun that way.

2.) this world has animals in it, like the horses from this chapter, not Pokemon. I don't know how a medieval-era world would work without any form of animal life, so this one gets both regular animals and Pokemon, as gijinkas.

3.) I'm accepting OCs! The OC form is below. The only limitations are: no legendaries, except the eight lords. And even then, they can only be minor legendaries that don't have godly powers (I'll need all 8!). The lords can also be very powerful normal Pokemon.

also, one OC per person unless they are related (ex: a lord and his personal bodyguard)

Until next time! I can't promise fast updates, except for maybe the first arc. After that I'll have to take all the OCs into consideration and do a lot of pre-writing.

OC Form

Name: (the name they take, when talking to humans)

Species: (what Pokemon they are, or human if you want i guess)

Gender and (Apparent) Age:

Personality:

History:

Appearance: (what they look like physically. they're gijinkas so anything goes! just remember: their ears, tails, wings, etc. aren't visible normally, only spectrally when they're using their powers)

Outfit(s): (submit multiple ones if you want, just don't make it too modern)

Emblem: (the item they channel they're powers through, and how they do it (like Glaceon's katana). if they're young and don't have one yet, tell what it would be)

Class: (that's probably not the right word to describe this; but basically what they do and how they do it- samurai, ninja, ronin, shrine maiden, lord, princess, etc)

Fighting Style/Skill Level: (if they fight, that is. notable weapons and accesories. also how talented they are, or if you want what level they'd be as a Pokemon)

Favored Moves: (basically the four moves they'd use as a Pokemon)

Attitude towards this world: (how do they feel about living here? do they take advantage of their power or keep it secret? do they like arceus for leaving them here, hate him, or not believe he exists at all? do they want to visit the other Pokemon world? etc)

Romance Interests (Optional): (what type of people do they like? i may try to play with shipping haha, though only with the OC creator's permission and suggestions)

so that's it! See you next time! Try to PM me the OC form, so the reviews aren't clogged up. Although I encourage you to review too haha!