A/N: I've been absent for a while so I hope this isn't too rusty! This is gonna be the novelization of my Nuzlocke challenge of Moon, and I'll be taking some artistic liberties, but it's not going to deviate too much from the plot. Also the name is only temporary until I think of something better.

Nuzlocke rules-

1. Fainted pokemon are considered dead and will be permanently boxed.

2. I may only catch the first pokemon encountered in each area. (I'll be considering each registered area with a differing name a new area, and catch 1 pokemon from each trial ground after beating the trial.)

(*the specie/dupes clause will be intact, as in previously caught species may be ignored.)

(*I will be catching only pokemon with unique Alolan forms, such as Alolan pikachu and pikipek. Pokemon like slowpoke without any unique forms will be considered null.)

3. All pokemon must be named.

4. I will be boxing my starter after catching its replacement (in the wild) the first moment I reach a pokecenter. However, static encounters (ingame pokemon) will be counted valid.

If you'd be so kind to read and review, it'd definitely make my day! Any and all constructive criticism is greatly appreciated as well.

I hope you enjoy!

Sasa felt a pulse of pure anxiety burning from her core crawling up her insides, inching up her throat, clawing behind her eyes. Her teacher was talking but she heard nothing as she stared, unable to speak, unable to think, unable to breathe.

After some time passed and she was once again able to form words, she turned on her teacher. "What do you mean you don't know?" Her voice was as steady as steel, hands trembling as she moved them to her pockets.

There was no official name for the line of work they had, although they were generally referred to as 'jacks' by their clientele. It was the name for a jack of all trades, an anything for hire, a handyman who would do anything from theft or assassination or seduction to body clean up or dangerous delivery. She was his only student, and he had once been at the top of his field, implied to be involved with a dozen world leaders at some level or another.

And he had gifted his one and only student with an I O U.

"You shouldn't look down on the possibility of a first pokemon, Sasa."

She scoffed shakily, rolling her eyes. "You had a murkrow for a starter pokemon, Gorou. It fits the business. What if we need to split and its slow? What if we're being chased, what if we're against some dark type, and its psychic? It's not like a all pokemon can fly, or surf, and not all can be relied on for sneaking around. I need to know what it is. If they can't be used to quickly and efficiently knock someone out and they aren't outstandingly powerful they might-"

His hand covered her mouth and the toxic stench of alcohol offended her nose. "Sa, look. I don't know what it'll be, but the fun part is learning how to deal with all that. Most of all, you need to learn to be patient."

"I can be patient." Sasa snapped, pulling his hand from her face, certainty and strength returning to her as she sent him a dirty look. She was going to haunt him from the grave, she promised herself. "You know I can. If 14 hour stake outs mean anything-"

He shook his head, messy long hair gently swaying. "Not that kind of patience, Sa."

Gorou was sombre and while he wasn't exactly being unreactive, he wasn't engaging in their usual banter. Which likely meant that they had an extreme job, or something was up.

If he knew they had a job, why did he drink? He was strictly professional when they had jobs, no matter how small, right until they were completed. Then he became the world's largest slob, but that was neither here nor there. The real issue was that he hadn't given her the mission right when they got it. Something was off.

"What's going on, Gorou?" Caution edged into her words, and she temporarily forgot about the issue of the empty pokeball.

He attempted to rake a hand through his hair but only resulted in fighting a mess of tangles. "Sa, you aren't asking the right question." He gave up the fight and slumped in the chair, suddenly looking something beyond ancient, beyond exhausted, or fragile. He took time before he spoke again. "I know you're too clever to be oblivious- but unfortunately I can't wait for you to ask it."

Words failed her once more, and it dawned on Sa that the matter at hand was as serious as she initially thought, if not much more serious. She forced her hands lax with great effort. "Why are you giving me a pokemon?" She barely managed to get the quiet sentence past her thick, unwilling tongue. "And more importantly… why do you not know what it is?"

He nodded with an approving look, and despite his state beyond being ancient and fragile, managed to give her a warm smile. "Very good, Sa. Very good." He produced a thick manila folder from his bag and handed it to her. "I'll be going away soon. For a long time."

It was extremely rare he ever took jobs that he didn't take her on. He fully believed in the value of experience, so he took her on almost any mission they'd ever received- for better or worse. The few he didn't were never especially long and he was always worse for the wear after them. He would come back cold, drained, quiet, unhappy, like a dead thing alive without purpose.

He sighed and slumped further into his chair, no visible energy in his body at all. "You won't be coming with me. I have another mission for you. My last mission for you."

She processed the information slowly, one bit by one. Backwards, forwards, upside down, they still failed to make sense. "But… I'm your student. I've only been with you for 8 years- why are you- what is this supposed to-"

"Hush." He grumbled, frowning. "I'm going to tell you."

She glared at him for a while, effectively shut up.

"It's come to my attention in the past couple months that you're skilled enough to be on your own. While I've certainly enjoyed my time with you, I can't be with you forever."

Sasa wished she knew other jacks like them- to have some sort of reference to compare their relationship to, but Gorou seemed to avoid them like the plague. Gorou stayed with his teacher for longer, but he had also been recruited younger. She wanted to say it wasn't enough, but without anything concrete to back up her argument with, it'd be nothing more than useless complaining.

He scrunched his face, as if to scare off some of his drunken lethargy. "You'll be going to Alola. A very good friend of mine requested that I send him someone to sniff out the hidden shit in the region, and I thought that no one would be better than my own pupil. It's supposedly the most peaceful region in the world, but only on face value. Due to his position, he can't do anything directly without threatening that and he can't even look for concrete evidence directly- that's of course, going to be part of your job. Your mission details are in there, but…"

A beat of silence passed. "But what, Gorou?"

The guilt weighing his features wasn't a good thing- she definitely wasn't going to like whatever he was about to say.

"You are going to…" He started, slowly fumbling with each syllable. "... have to go find your mother."

Sasa chuckled with an empty bravado. "Is that all?"

They sat in quiet for a while before his concerned gaze sent her trudging off to her room, unable to bear it any longer.

As if to avoid thinking, she analyzed each item in her room- however, there weren't many. Hidden weapons were everywhere, but as for possessions, she cared for little.

A baby pokemon calendar. A simple bed with plain blue bedding, harboring a gun stitched into the box frame, a knife under her pillow. A bookcase containing a variety of books, and a few hollow books with smoke bombs and one with lighter fluid gently contained in a flimsy container.

Her dresser contained a wild variety of clothes from various missions, some simple blades within slots in the wood, and a small safe, one of the most expensive on the market. It would explode with forced entry, which would require a master to unlock anyway.

Inside were photos and little knickknacks from missions, and more pictures of her and Gorou. One of her grandfather and mother, although it was so faded it was nearly useless to discern anything from.

On her bed she kept a worn slowpoke doll, and a newer but still used pikachu doll. They both had blank, bored, unrelenting stares that bore into her soul. As it pressing her to move, to think, to do. Judging her for being useless, and wanting to stay with Gorou. Wanting to stay his student, for hesitating to find her mother.

Arceus… She cursed to herself, flopping on her bed. Ma…

Sasa knew why she needed to find her mother without bothering with the manila folder. It was a solid plan Gorou had given her too, despite however much she hated it.

Alola was notorious for being safe- but also for being extremely difficult to get into. Someone couldn't get into there without a verified, pristine ID. The security was so tight that not even needles or hairpins would be overlooked on a person's body and she had yet to hear of a fake ID or unclean criminal record to have been granted travel.

Many oKantonese were traveling to Alola, as if the nation was trying to forget the crippling economic issues a decade previous, and the Kanjoh war that nearly happened. The shadow was slowly lifting its weight from the region, but the conjunction of the Kanto and Johto Leagues was still a heavy reminder.

Her mother was a spotless, happy-go-lucky Kantonese, and would no doubt be granted travel and citizenship in the region.

Reluctantly, Sasa grabbed the folder and began to flip through it, curious just what important mission would be tearing apart her life.