Chapter 3: Sakura
She wondered how her sisters were doing back home. Home, she missed it. After all, home was where the heart is. And right now, she was nowhere near her home back in Ecruteak City. At this very moment, she was getting further and further away from her home. She was on her way to Kanto, to Pallet Town, where she would start a brand new journey.
It wasn't about traveling and meeting new people that had her nervous. After all, she had just finished her first ever adventure all on her own. And this wasn't the first time she had traveled to Kanto either. No, it was the weight of expectations that had her nervous.
Although she was the first one amongst her sisters to ever compete in the Pokemon League, they were still far superior than her in every way possible. She wanted to prove to them that she had what it took to make them proud. The Johto Conference had only shown her that she was yet to be on the same level as her sisters or even friend and rival Misty.
Speaking of Misty, she would make sure to stop at Cerulean City and say hi. She also had her Cascade badge with her, the symbol of her first steps into the Kanto Pokemon League. She barely made it past the round robin stage of the Johto Conference, but this was a new start for her. She had brought Espeon with her and kindly asked her sisters to take care of her other Pokemon.
Her mind drifted back to Misty, the girl that helped her decide the Pokemon League was something she wanted to do in her life. Last time they met, Misty was no longer traveling with that hot head trainer, Ash. Instead she was now the new gym leader at Cerulean. When they first met, she had thought Misty and her traveling partner Ash to be a couple in the making, but after seeing Misty with that boy Tracy last time, she was beginning to have doubts.
Speaking of Ash, she wondered where the hot headed boy was now. The time she had visited Misty, she had told her that Ash was now traveling in Hoenn, but that was months ago. Misty had once told her that she and Ash would make a perfect couple, but Sakura was never in love with the boy. No, her feeling towards Ash was that of admiration, Ash was everything she wanted to be as a trainer. Head strong, never heistating, and someone who never gave up, she on the other hand were none of those. Maybe she should have taken the offer to travel with him afterall, she would have picked up on some of ways of training Pokemon. Maybe then would she be a better trainer.
The feeling of nastagia was not something to start off a Pokemon journey with, so she pushed the thought out of her mind. Maybe she was just anxious, she decided would head for the ferry's launge, some soup would calm her down. Afterall, doing nothing but watching the clock in her cabin would not make it go any faster, rather it actually seem to make time move slower. And there was some ways to go yet until she arrived in Pallet Town.
After a considerable amount of time wandering the halls lost in her train of thought, she arrived at the launge. It was quite empty, not surprising as she had opted to take the overnight to Kanto. At the moment it was barely past dawn, but after months of traveling by herself, she had become accustomed to earily mornings.
"Some soup please", the lounge wasn't one of those fancy restuerants, you simply go up to the counter, tell the cooks what you wanted and sat down.
"Isn't it a little early for soup miss?"
"Oh, I'm just a little nervous about my new Pokemon journey", she hated it when people questioned her, especially this early in the morning.
"Well miss, your in luck, just got a fresh supply of berries all the way from Shinn'oh", Shinn'oh wasn't a new word for her, she had actually debated with herself where she wanted to go next, but seeing as she was already one badge down in Kanto, it was the obvious place to go next. She had heard there were two spots in Shinn'oh which she could evolve Eevee to Leafeon and Glaceon. She and her sisters were known for their Eevee evolutions, maybe her sisters would go up to Shinn'oh when they weren't busy with their Tea House.
She decided to seat herself close the giant tv, getting the lastest Kanto news would definitely help her avoid any delays she would have from getting to Pewder City.
"Our morning headline, the Shinn'oh Conference ends with the crowning of a new tournement winner! Furthermore, local boy Ash Ketchem of Pallet Town finishes as one of the Top 4 trainers!" she was shocked that Ash had gone ahead of her so much in so little amount of time.
Had she been wrong to go on her own, afterall, Misty and Ash both wanted her to travel with them, but she declined. Sure her sisters were worried, but she wanted to prove to everyone she wasn't just princess who had everything handed to her. But she had to ask herself, what if she had traveled with Ash.
For one, she would have been a drag for Ash on his adventure, if she had followed him they would have both competed for gym badges or even revisit the cities that he already had badges from. She wasn't so sure she would have became a pokemon trainer at all, maybe she would have became a coordinator.
Yes, definitely a coordinator. She wouldn't have slowed Ash's progress in his gym battles. And her, being a Kimono sister, contest would have been easy with her elagence. She would have spent more time with Misty and established a better sister bond. And maybe, she would have gotten to know Ash much better.
Thinking back on it, a relationship with Ash wouldn't be so bad. Afterall, she would have spent most of her time with her imaginary boyfriend and her sister Misty. But she realized that this was her fantasy, she didn't make any of those choices, but she wasn't unhappy. Looking back, maybe traveling by herself wasn't such a bad idea. She already lived in her sisters' shadow and certainly didn't want to live under Ash's.
She had decided, Ash would certainly be returning to Pallet Town soon. She would delay the start of her Kanto journey for just a few more days. A battle with someone who finished Top 4, didn't sound like such a bad idea.