Rules:

1. Fainting equals death.

2. Catch the first encounter in each new area.
* Gift Pokemon count as an encounter.
* Fainting Clause. One chance.
* Shiny Clause.

3. Nickname all captures.

4. Healing items, repels, and Escape Ropes cannot be bought, but used if obtained.

5. No Revives.

6. No vitamins, in-battle items like X-Attack or Dire Hit, or turning on the Exp Share. Must rely on good ol' fashioned level grinding.
*"EV Grinding", or Super training, is allowed, as a form of grinding

7. No teaching your team TMs. Must rely on natural learn-set.
*HMs can still be taught because of navigation necessity

8. If a Pokemon experiences three near-deaths, it must be retired. Near-death is classified as being left with 1-5 HP remaining after the end of a battle.
*The only exception is a Pokemon with the ability Swarm, Blaze, Torrent, or Overgrow, because their ability boosts their power when they hit red. They must be retired after four near-deaths.

9. Once a Gym is entered, there is no leaving until the Gym Leader and all Gym Trainer are defeated. No potions allowed against the Gym Leader.

10. Yveltal cannot be used outside of Team Flare's HQ.

Arc 1: Taciturn
(adjective)
—(of a person) reserved or uncommunicative in speech; saying little.

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When I was little, Maman told me all sorts of stories from her homeland. One of them goes like this:

Kalos is known for the great, violent war that ravaged it in the Age of Myth, the one that was fought not for freedom, or independence, or justice, but simply out of human selfishness. It killed millions, dyed the land black with innocent blood. Legend has it that you could hear the Grim Reaper laughing, delighting in how the ranks of his domain swelled.

Things finally came to a head when a man lost his most beloved friend. He grieved so deep that he planted a seed that grew into a crystal flower, and he filled it to the brim with all his rage, his pain, and his disgust with the war that had claimed his friend—and so when it bloomed, the armies had no choice but to cease fighting.

The Grim Reaper, though, had loved the carnage too much, and so he slunk into the mortal realm and gifted humanity with magic—a terrible, divine magic, horrific and twisted and damning, and it resulted in the broken world we live in today.

"Celestine!"

A tall girl with a mane of icy black hair that reached her knees and ivory skin and fierce blue eyes glanced up. She had been leaning against the wall, her arms and legs crossed, but she uncrossed them when her companion came into view. One look at the other girl's face, though, and all Celestine Lavieaux could think was, oh boy, here it comes. You know what they say, how you can't have an explosion without expecting fallout.

So brace yourself, girls and boys, it's about to get ugly.

"Was that really necessary!?" Shauna snapped as soon as she was close enough. Celestine had been waiting for her to catch up—not for the fallout she knew was coming. Frankly, if Celestine could, she would have left to avoid it altogether, but she had never been inside this building before and she needed someone—Shauna—to show her out.

It might sound cruel. In fact, it most definitely did sound cruel to think in that fashion, but Celestine and Shauna were not friends. Not really. You couldn't really be "friends" after knowing someone for only a few days, a week tops, now could you? Of the three weeks that Celestine had been in Kalos, she had spent the other two staying with Sycomore-Hakase at his labs in Lumiose. Celestine did not know that man personally and had only ever heard of him through his work, but he was apparently an old friend of her mother, so he had been willing to give her temporary lodging as a favor to her mother. His last favor, no doubt. Celestine hadn't been willing to push it too far.

After about two weeks, she had begun to feel as though she was overstaying her welcome. Not to mention that the aides and a few of Hakase's acquaintances were beginning to get suspicious. After all, why would a world-class, albeit eccentric mind, like Augustine Sycomore retain a sullen seventeen-year-old girl with bladed eyes and an acid tongue? Celestine had begun to grow weary of the whispered speculations and was ready to set out. Unfortunately, her licence request had yet to be pushed through, and without a licence, she couldn't obtain a single Pokemon, nor could she technically leave the city by Trainer Route. Not legally.

Once again, Hakase had come to her rescue. Apparently, years ago, he had been generous enough to give a girl, fresh off the boat from Hoenn, a rather rare starter known as a Chespin. He'd made it clear, at the time, that the gift didn't come without strings attached, and that one day he would come back to collect.

And so he had.

The Gabena family was willing to abide a guest in their house for a few days, especially one that was a friend of the esteemed Professor. Of course, none of them had been expecting someone like Celestine, who avoided the outdoors like the plague and slept in till noon, barred herself from human contact, and was overall very moody. They indulged, nonetheless, and were patient enough to not ask questions, like how she knew Hakase or why she had come to Kalos. It was tolerable.

Or it would have been, if the Gabena's daughter Shauna, the owner of the Chespin she had named Mint, didn't constantly try to bond with Celestine. The girl was pushy and chipper to the point of grating on Celestine's nerves on certain days. Today, Shauna had made a rather grand attempt that involved dragging Celestine kicking and screaming to Shauna's high school—academy, prep school, whatever the hell this was—where some of her friends were taking summer courses. For all Celestine's struggling, Shauna's grip was iron and her body was strong, which was startling for a girl that was only five-foot-three. It was even more embarrassing for Celestine, who was almost six feet, to be dragged around like a rag doll.

Now, to fully understand the situation, one must understand that Kalosian secondary schools offered condensed courses over the summer for those who wanted to graduate early, brush up on some skills or dip their toe into the water without making any commitments, or to make up for any lost credits during the regular school year because of too-low grades. Two of the three people in Shauna's friend group were attending summer school there, and the group got together every day at lunch. Shauna's ultimate plan, it seemed, was to thrust Celestine head-first into social interaction, introvert or no.

Surprisingly, it had worked out alright, at first. While initially on edge, Shauna had a taste in friends who were patient with socially withdrawn people. After fifteen minutes, a semi-easy flow of conversation had been established between the four. And it was almost perfect, but there should have been five, not four. One of Shauna's friends had been MIA.

Shauna had gone inside to search for said friend, only to return five minutes later, incensed, to grab Celestine by the wrist, dragging her through the polished white walls of this preppy prep school, and deposit her in front of a strange boy while demanding that she kick his ass in a Pokemon battle.

Celestine had been bewildered, rightfully so. She didn't know what had happened between the two—an argument gone particularly sour was her best guess—or how Shauna knew anything about her battling prowess, and no way was she going to battle someone she had no grievance with herself. She was not an attack dog, for the Sacred Birds' sake.

Then the arrogant little prick openly chastised Shauna, and Shauna had looked absolutely frustrated to the point of tears. And Celestine had decided that, screw it, he was going down.

It went sour from there, and one could mostly argue that it was a clash of cultures that had sparked it. See, Celestine had grown up in Kanto, which was known for its rigid and severe culture, as well as its ferocious zeal about the art of battle. It was a view that was not unique in the Old Continent—the eastern continent that was home of conjoined twin regions Kanto and Johto, and their boreal sister region Sinnoh—but it was particularly strong in Kanto. And in Kanto, if one did not announce their intent to keep things friendly and lighthearted, then both battlers defaulted to a serious, all-or-nothing battle. These "Reaper Battles", named for their to-the-death nature, were seen as duels of honor.

In the New Continent—western, the amalgamation of Kalos to the northwest, Unova to the south, and conjoined by a stretch of land without a League to give it a proper name—views were the opposite. The sanctity of life was valued above competitivity or a Trainer's honor, so unless a Trainer was feeling particularly competitive or bloodthirsty and announced their desire to engage in a Reaper Battle, then the battle was kept non-lethal. Besides, Reaper Battles were viewed as abhorrent—a view that would later reach Hoenn and Alola down in the south—because the only way it ended was if a Trainer lost their entire team or forfeited mercy money in exchange for their Pokemon's lives.

Celestine and Shauna had, in fact, discussed this once before, so she had known that when Celestine's borrowed Pokemon had shot her opponent's Flying-Type right out of the sky with all the intent to kill, it wasn't out of cruelty, just social expectation.

Her opponent had not.

There had been a fight. A huge one. The boy had gone after Celestine, calling her a Berserker and a brutalist. Celestine had in turn called her opponent naive, inexperienced, and had coldly suggested that he stop being a Trainer, if he couldn't stomach violence. That had been the end of it, too, because Celestine had stormed out immediately after, taking the last word with her.

Now, she eyed Shauna with a frown. "Define 'necessary'."

Shauna huffed and tried to glare up, but it was difficult, given the enormous gap in their height—nearly nine inches. It was also a bit of a ridiculous sight, as Shauna was dressed in pink and frills and sequences, her mocha hair pulled back from her make-up accented caramel face and her minty eyes narrowed, and it made her look decidedly less threatening. Celestine couldn't help but think she looked like a pissed-off hamster.

Anyone looking their way would have doubtlessly thought to themselves, What an odd pair.

"You know what I mean," Shauna said. "That wasn't a Reaper Battle. You didn't have to go all-out like that."

"He didn't say it wasn't a Reaper."

"He didn't need to. We don't need to in Kalos."

"Well good for Kalos," Celestine retorted, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Shauna sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She knew that Kantonians in particular were highly passionate about battling principles, almost obsessive. And it made sense, given that Kanto was the wellspring, the origin, of the League system, which almost every region had since adopted. And Kanto was proud of that. Battling had become the cornerstone of their culture. It was the region's lifeblood, heart, and soul.

"It's an unspoken rule," Shauna tried to explain patiently, "that you don't try to kill the other person's Pokemon unless they say they're betting their lives. I know it's different in Kanto. It was different in Hoenn, too. Like, in Hoenn, you had to, like, say if it was either Reaper or Non. In Kanto, it's always Reaper unless you say otherwise, right? But in Kalos, it's always Non unless you say otherwise. It takes adjusting, but no one comes out and says they don't want to Reap here. They just assume you won't."

Celestine threw her arms up, and for her the first time in the conversation, her composure was gone. "How am I supposed to assume that without clarification?"

"To be fair, I don't think that really crosses anyone's minds," Shauna pointed out. "I mean, other than your accent, you don't look foreign, so no one can really tell. And you don't explain your culture to someone who looks like they grew up in the same region as you. That'd just be weird. Plus, cultural differences and stuff aren't exactly what you think about before a battle."

Celestine raked a hand through her bangs. "Well it should."

Shauna began to chew her lip, saying nothing. She had that look in her eye like she wanted to say something, but was too hesitant to say it out loud. Celestine only recognized it because it was the exact opposite of the bold glow Shauna usually radiated.

"Okay, what?"

"...if you'd known it was Non, would you have still...?"

Celestine blinked, stunned. Did Shauna really have such a negative opinion of her? "Of course not."

Shauna laughed in relief. "Yeah. I thought so."

Celestine frowned. "Then why did you ask?"

"I dunno. You were just, kinda..."

"Brutal?" Celestine offered.

Shauna seemed a bit unnerved by how brazenly unapologetic the taller girl was. "Little bit."

"Well, I thought we were both going all out," Celestine said. "If he had fought back more, his bird might be in better condition. That fact that it didn't is what got it so badly injured."

"Fletchinder," Shauna corrected.

"Gesundheit."

"No, the bird. It's called—" Shauna broke off with a laugh. "Never mind. But, uh, you should probably go back and apologize, yeah?"

Celestine glanced back at the direction she and Shauna had come from, where the doors to the gymnasium awaited, still and silent and solemn gray in contrast to the white of the hallways. She sighed. "Probably. Okay, wish me luck."

"You don't need luck," Shauna told Celestine cheerily as she headed off. "Just make him see that you're a good person deep down."

Celestine hesitated briefly, her whole body seizing up as if she had been struck, but she was moving again before Shauna could ask what was wrong. She slipped through the door soon after with another word.

Hi everyone! My name is LunaKat and I'm thrilled to present my Nuzlocke story, "C'est La Vie". This is my very first Nuzlocke, so I hope you all enjoy it, and I hope you'll stick around to follow it.

Now, before I move on, I'm just going to address a few anticipated questions.

—Yes, Celestine is Kantonese (from Kanto). No, her name doesn't sound Japanese. There's a reason for that. Yes, there is going to be some Japanese cultural and linguistic references interwoven (i.e. Celestine referring to Sycomore as "Hakase", which is what the Professors are called in Japan). This information will mostly be gathered from various internet sources, Google translate, and anime. If anyone thinks I got something wrong, feel free to correct me.

—No, I didn't spell "Sycomore" wrong. Okay, well, technically I did, but "sycomore" is the French spelling and Kalos is based of France, so there.

—This will not be a simple retelling of Pokemon Y. In fact, the amount of deviance will be astonishing. If you're interested, keep reading. If not, don't flame.

Okay, the prologue... Other than the ending, I'm proud of it. I didn't want to use this scene, necessarily, for the prologue, but it's too important plot wise (and character development wise) to scrap and it felt wrong to include this in the first chapter. Felt too much like a delay. So... prologue it is.

I've put a lot of time and effort into this fic. I first posted it on the Nuz forums with some positive feedback, so I'm putting up here to see what others outside the Nuzlocke community think. This first couple chapters are not my proudest work, but it gets much better around chapter three. I sincerely hope you enjoy it.

Yours truly,
Luna