FINAL AUTHOR'S NOTES: (Chapter 83?)

So, this isn't a real chapter, but rather a final response to reviews. I'm also gonna give some fun facts about the stories and what-not. At the very end of this, I'll include something that I wrote almost a year ago, but it had to be deleted for many reasons.

So, first! Reviews!

pokemonking0924 - "That was quite the epilogue especially the flash forward two years into the future. Makes me look forward to seeing your next few stories even more." - Let's hope that I can pull it off!

wisdom-jewel - "What a bittersweet chapter. It is sweet that Logan finally realizes how much he has grown he spending time with Yurie. Maybe he'll go see her when she does contests." - We'll have to see! It seems like he'll be busy for awhile.

CrescentApple - "The beginning started casual enough, Logan and Yuri say their good byes, and depart. That I'm completely caught off guard when the 2 year later title appears. I am completely engrossed in every single detail. Up until the very last sentence two sentences. That frustrated me, but in a good way. It's like when you watch your favourite movie, or TV show, and in the very last ending, they foreshadow another story, more excitement. But then it cuts off right there, and you're left stunned wondering why did they stop at the best. Just one more sentence, that's all... And it leaves you wanting to know more. Our it could just be me. O have has this feeling in a while. Usually because I have the internet to look up what happens next. Or I shrug and wait patiently. But here... I can wait. But the ending was good a memorable. Thata the point of my long winded explanation." - No spoilers from me! But, I'm excited to see where it goes! I hope I can keep you engrossed!

Fun facts! I'll split these up to keep them organized a bit.

Character facts:

Logan Stephenson:

So, Logan is based on me. I know it's kind of cringey to write an OC based on oneself, and it's one reason why I was uneasy with having him win the championship. However, I think that I was able to flesh his character out enough in a way that he changed into a different person. He's still based on me, but I'm definitely not as heroic or maybe as oblivious as he is. He can't read people very well, whereas I think I'm good at reading a room and people's general aura (not literally).

The name "Logan" comes from the X-Men character, Wolverine. He's my favorite Marvel character, and I decided a long time ago that I wanted to name my first son Logan. As for his last name, "Stephenson." My middle name is Stephen, and since Logan is my creation, I see him as my baby (not literally). He's the son of Stephen, so… Stephenson.

When building Logan's team from Hoenn, I wanted to give him Pokémon that I rarely, if ever use. As a reminder, his team was Mightyena, Swampert, Slaking, Manectric, Flygon, and Dusclops. Out of those six, I only use Flygon consistently. I have never played with Mightyena, Slaking, or Manectric. I love Swampert, but it's my younger brother's favorite Pokémon, so out of respect for him, I always chose Torchic or Treecko. I was VERY tempted to give Logan Treecko. Also, I love Dusclops, but I have never been able to use one well, as I usually have my Hoenn teams already finalized by the time you can get a Duskull.

When building Logan's team from Kanto, I had to consider a few things. His team ended up being Nidoking, Snorlax, Charizard, Torterra, Electivire, and Poliwhirl. Originally, I was gonna have him shuffle through seven Pokémon, and the seventh would have been Umbreon. I was going to have him trade Mightyena for Umbreon, but I ultimately didn't see Logan managing to trade his new best buddy. Instead, I opted to have him lend Bill Mightyena to help out the shy Umbreon. I wanted to focus on the other six to give them more personalities. I wasn't going to originally evolve Electabuzz, but I think a couple of reviews said they were excited to see Electivire, so I was swayed. I'm ultimately happy with my choice. Also, I love writing for this team, as all of them were problematic, and I think that it made his victory feel a lot sweeter.

Speaking of his victory, my original plan was to have Logan lose the Indigo Conference. I don't really want my characters to be overpowered, but I did feel like enough people liked Logan to where it wouldn't be a bad choice to have him win. It's still something I'm struggling with when it comes to Cyan, as I'm not sure if he should beat Kaarina when they battle. And also, in my original notes for Logan's next story, I have him losing two out of four Elite Four battles. I've since changed my plans for that story, but I won't say what.

Yurie Kawahara:

Yurie was originally very loosely based off of my ex that I was dating at the time of writing the first chapter for Healing in Hoenn (January of 2019). It's where her original sleepiness and obsession with food came from. I very much changed her character and direction within a few chapters, as I knew that the relationship wasn't going to last (we weren't compatible).

Her name's origin, however, is very different. I was playing a game called Custom Robo, and there's a girl named Yurie in that game. I fell in love with the name Yurie, which I later came to find out is considered an old lady name in Japan. So, Yurie has an old lady's name! "Yuri" means lily and "e" means picture/painting. So, her name is "painting of lilies". It's one reason why she's in love with flowers. "Kawahara" comes from one of the people I met in Japan when I was studying here. She helped me learn Japanese, so I gave Yurie that name, as she was set to teach Logan about Hoenn.

When building Yurie's Hoenn team, I wanted to give her all sorts of Pokémon. Her team was Torchic, Masquerain, Aggron, Minun, Turtwig, and Shuppet. I don't think I did a very good job on developing their personalities with the exception of Torchic, Aggron, and Turtwig. I really loved building on Aggron's arc in that story. I tried to focus on cute Pokémon for her, because I felt like she wasn't too interested in Pokémon at first. She needed a Pokémon like Masquerain to get her interested. She caught Aaron to help him. Minun was caught alongside Plusle with her sister. And she had a motherly connection with Turtwig since she hatched from an egg. When it came to Shuppet, Yurie was finally used to Pokémon. Originally, she wasn't going to hatch Turtwig, but I got the idea to give her an egg from The Imprisoned of Hell.

When building Yurie's Kanto team, I tried to have it mirror Michika and Reina's teams. Yurie ended up with Torchic, Minun, Wartortle, Bellossom, and Eevee. I shortened the team so that I could focus on their personalities, but I'm still yet to find something that works for Minun (she'll return in Sinnoh). I loved writing for Bellossom, who was a glutton, and Eevee, who hated getting dirty. She ended up giving Grotle to Logan, and he used her in his final battle so that he could have Yurie fight alongside him in spirit.

People seemed slightly disappointed in Yurie's loss in this year's Grand Festival, but I decided, ultimately, that if any of the three main characters had to lose, it was Yurie. I knew from the start of KiiK that Yurie was going to go to Sinnoh, and I was almost sure that I was going to write a fourth story for Yurie, so she has plenty of time to get that victory. And when/if it happens, I want it to feel as good as Logan's victory.

Seshiru Egawa:

Seshiru is named after one of my students. I had never heard the name before, and I was told that it's an incredibly rare Japanese name, so I went with it. Egawa has the kanji for river, and since she specializes in Water-types, I saw it as befitting.

When setting up her team, I went for Water-type Pokémon that I loved throughout the years. Her four main, Poliwrath, Kingler, Quagsire, and Floatzel, are all favorites of mine. But I felt like she needed something more than Water-types, so I gave her Wigglytuff and Ursaring. I justified it with their cuteness. I also wanted to test out main characters with legendary Pokémon, so that's why she got to battle alongside Zapdos. I don't think that I'll ever have a main character use a legendary Pokémon that's too strong (Lugia, Palkia, Mewtwo for examples), but I can see a justification for the smaller legendary Pokémon/mythical.

Also, the choice to have her Vaporeon pass away is something that I was interested in trying. I don't believe I will ever write a Pokémon death, as I don't have the heart to do so. But, I'm willing to build on Pokémon being real creatures that breathe, eat, and pass on. My newest story The Outlaws of Orre will play more with Pokémon sickness.

Seshiru wasn't originally set to join the Indigo Conference. Instead, Yuta would have lost to Haruto in the semi-finals. In fact, I was going to have her lose her second battle against Jindai. If I was going to have Logan win the league, then I believed that both Seshiru and Yurie should have felt the taste of defeat in their respective journeys. However, I decided that I could set up Seshiru as another rival for Logan, ultimately raising the stakes of the league and giving a bit more of an unpredictability to it.

Himawari Watson:

Watson comes from Watson. No surprise there. However, Himawari is my Japanese nickname! It means sunflower, and I'm originally from the sunflower state, Kansas. So, that's why I went with it.

When I made Himawari's team, I couldn't use Manectric, as I knew that Logan was already going to have one, and I don't want repeats. Instead, I gave him Shinx. I also gave him Magnemite, as I thought it was a cute Pokémon, and I was interested in giving one personality. And I gave him his Raichu to serve as the powerhouse of his team. His journey in HiH was about finding the confidence to be a strong gym leader, so I had his team be kind of weak for the majority of that story.

I didn't intend for there to be a traveling companion in Hoenn. I added Himawari to the group on a whim. I had written out his character as the referee/grandson of Watson, and I loved his description and attitude so much that I felt like he was perfect for the two. As for the dragon's blood, I added that in as an element, because I thought it'd be hilarious if Himawari was the one to save Hoenn. He could then use the fact that he rode Rayquaza during the Battle of Sootopolis and his dragon's blood as a way to pick up girls. I didn't really intend on doing much else with it. It was kind of sloppily written, and it's something I may go through and rework in the future. While it's not clearly stated or written, he is related to the ancient people who took care of Rayquaza. His mother never told him about it.

One fun fact about each rival!

Yuta Kato: his name is a mix of my male Japanese best friend's first name and my female Japanese best friend's last name.

Yui Kawahara: I wanted to establish that battling wasn't in Yurie's genes, and that's why I had introduced Yui, who had failed in her first year as a trainer. Because of their natural lack of battle skills, the Kawahara have to try extra hard to earn their places.

Michika Imamura: sticking with the name theme, Imamura is the first name that I gave a character that's NOT based on anyone I've met (besides Yurie). Almost everyone else in the story has a name based on someone I personally know. Not Imamura.

Camille Bealieu: I kind of dislike the Kalos games, but I don't want to dislike them, so I added in Camille (who's from Kalos), so then I'd be forced to write more Kalos Pokémon, and in turn, maybe I'd fall in love with them.

Finn Denholm: I haven't told almost anyone in my personal life about my fanfiction except for the person that Finn is based on. He requested that the name be Yuichi, but after I had written the character and finished HiH, I went back and changed the name to Finn. He'll be the lead of an upcoming story that takes place in the Crown Tundra.

Kenta

Luna Devons: I still don't know if she and Logan were a couple or not.

Kenta Itou: Most people really hated that Kenta came in and won the Ever Grande Conference without any build, so it was my goal to make him a likable character in Kanto. It was my original intention that Logan was inspired by his loss to Kenta, so that's why he continued his journey in Kanto.

Haruto Kawahara: With romance being one of the genres, I thought that there would be no one better as a rival for Logan than his crush's older sibling. I knew from the moment that I wrote that Yurie had an older brother, he'd end up being Logan's biggest challenge.

Sora Fujiwara: He's a recycled character from an old fanfiction of mine that I never got to post. I'm a huge fan of Daredevil, and it's where the original idea for Sora being blind came from. Luckily, Pokémon has established aura, so that's why I went with him being able to see that.

Reina Eguchi: It was hard to write for this character, but I wanted someone that Yurie could sort of tutor in the coordinator world. I think that Reina was great to show how much Yurie has grown.

Maleah Kalani: My BIGGEST regret in my stories is Maleah confessing love for Logan. It makes zero sense and was just a way to have someone be a thorn in their sides.

Omori Kitahara: I'm the opposite with Omori. He ended up being one of my favorite foils to write. I originally based him on the president of my tea club in Japan.

Story facts:

Healing in Hoenn:

I have no idea why I started to write this story. I used to write fanfiction with a partner/friend/girlfriend (in our ten years together, we went through different levels of our relationship), but that was almost eight years or so ago. A very long time. I didn't write fanfiction for almost five years. Never even considered it. But once me and my old friend finally ended our friendship/relationship, I was very lost. I ended up working on Healing in Hoenn for therapeutic reasons. Logan was running away from everything he knew, and at the time, I was looking for a job in Japan. Throughout the course of Hoenn, Logan learned to deal with his guilt of running away, and he learned to be selfish (in a positive way), whereas before Hoenn, he felt obligated to others even if he had his own goal. While writing Healing in Hoenn, I managed to heal from the grief of the end of that friendship. I remember breaking down and crying when I wrote Logan vs. Luna, but after I let it out and cried, I felt fine, and I haven't looked back since.

At first, everything was meant to be a distraction, but then as it went on, I realized how much I enjoyed storytelling, and that's why I not only continued, but I also started Awakening Alola.

I started writing HiH while I was on a shinkansen (bullet train). I wrote the first chapter on yellow notebook paper. I had no intention of posting any of it. I also had no intention for Logan to take on gyms. Instead, he was going to help Yurie become a trainer while he studied mega evolution, collecting different Pokémon to mega evolve. I think I just wanted to write for the sake of writing.

My original reason for having Logan to have already traveled Unova and Alola and be 12 when he arrived in Hoenn is kind of funny. I wasn't very fond of Unova at the time, so I didn't want to write about his journey there. However, he is based off of me, which makes him American, so I felt that he needed to have traveled through Unova. As for Alola, I hated it at the time of writing. I thought Sun and Moon were terrible games. But, something changed inside my brain, and I'm a generally less critical and more happy person now. And now, I love Alola. I don't like Sun and Moon as much, but I do like USUM. However, at the time, I did love Alola Pokémon, and I wanted Logan to have some of them. I just didn't want to write an Alolan Adventure (now I've written two). I think that taking this approach was a really fun way of introducing a character.

My biggest regret for HiH is that I wish I would have taken a more original plot when it came to Team Magma/Aqua. I also think that I messed up the last arc with those villains, but I loved writing it at the time. I also wish that I would have written the movie stories into the story instead of separating them.

Kickin' It In Kanto:

My biggest goal for Kickin' It In Kanto was to have a satisfying ending, no matter where I went with it. If Logan lost, or if Logan and Yurie didn't confess their feelings, I wanted it to still feel satisfying and complete. I had originally written out the entire plan for KiiK, chapter by chapter when I was starting the Ever Grande Festival in HiH.

I added in the King of Kanto tournament for a few reasons. I wanted to flesh out Logan's rivals and make them look like threats. It's why Logan lost in the second round. Also, I was set to partake in a pro wrestling tournament called the King of Kyushu last year. But because of a certain pandemic, that was canceled. I figured I could honor that tournament with my fanfiction. Kind of weird, huh?

I knew that I wanted to bring in Cyan to the story to fight beside Logan against Mewtwo. Because of this, I started developing Cyan's backstory with Giovanni and Team Rocket. I wanted to give Cyan a real reason for coming to Kanto, and I decided to make it personal. But that backstory all came from the fact that I wanted Logan and Cyan to reunite.

I actually don't have a lot of interesting facts about KiiK except for the fact that it went through the most changes, plot-wise. I constantly changed what I wanted for the last 20 or so chapters. For example, I wanted Logan to lose two Midori twice before winning the third time. However, in my original plan, he was going to beat Midori before they battled Neo Team Rocket. I decided to make the final gym battle afterward, as it made it seem like Logan had no time to train for the conference.

Speaking of the conference, I changed the order of battles several times. I wasn't quite sure what order he should take on his rivals in, but I knew that it had to be Haruto in the finals. The original order was Sora, Maleah, and Aaron, and then Maleah, Aaron, and Sora, but I think that Sora, Aaron, and Maleah was the perfect order. When I added Seshiru to the mix, I almost, ALMOST, switched up the last battle to be Seshiru vs. Logan, but I couldn't bring myself to go against what I had built up for nearly 75 chapters.

Another BIG change was when Logan confessed to Yurie. I was going to save it for the very end of the story, but after my most recent heartbreak (which kept me from getting out of bed for two months), I decided that the world needed more love. I had Logan confess to Yurie because I wanted to see them be a couple for a while before the end of the story. I actually had written out that last scene almost immediately. The last thing that I'll leave you with is that!

Deleted Scene!

Originally, I wasn't going to have Logan or Yurie confess their feelings until the very end of the story, and this is what I wrote.

"Yurie, I'm not good at speaking."

"I know."

"And-and I'm especially not good at goodbyes."

"Is this goodbye?"

Logan was silent.

"Logan, this isn't goodbye."

"It's not goodbye."

Yurie smiled, and she looked down.

"As I was saying, I'm not good at speaking," Logan said before reaching around and opening up his bag. He pulled out a small plastic cone. On the inside was a small red flower. "But I know that you like flowers, and I know that every flower has a meaning." He handed it over. "Let's meet again someday."

She looked at the flower closely. She could feel her heart racing, and she wanted to cry. It was a red tulip, which told her everything that she needed to know. She just hoped that Logan knew exactly what he had given her.

It was quiet now. Yurie stepped onto the boat and immediately turned around to face Logan. The two stared at one another as the sailors got everyone else on board. But most of their senses had dulled, and they could have been anywhere in the world with however many people, but to them, it was just Yurie and Logan in this final moment.

It didn't take long, and all of the passengers had boarded the ferry. It started to rumble, and they closed the gate. There was no going back for either one of the trainers. Soon, the ferry started to move, and slowly, the distance grew between the two of them.

"I'll watch all of your battles," Yurie said, tears now starting to roll down her cheeks. "You better win every single one of them and become champion!"

Logan nodded. "I will. And I'll be there when you win the Sinnoh Grand Festival!"

"You better!"

"I will!"

The two found themselves unsure of what to say next, and tears now completely clouded Yurie's vision. Logan, shaking with anxiety, raised his arms to his chest and tried to focus on slowing down his breathing.

"Yurie!" he screamed. "I'll miss you so much!"

"Me too!"

"And… and…" he started, but words became too difficult. "I-I want you to know something!"

Yurie wiped away her tears and looked at Logan one last time as clearly as she could.

Logan's body shook, and he felt like he could pass out at any moment. "Yurie, I-I… I lo-"

"Me too! I do too!" she screamed. She held up the red tulip. "I do too."

They both paused and looked at one another. The two knew it, and Logan understood that he didn't need to say anything more. His body felt all of the tension wash away, and Yurie's tears had come with a smile. She raised her hand, lightly waving back to her friend. The two stood still until they could no longer see each other. The ferry faded away from Logan's vision, and Pallet Town became as blurry as a painting.

But finally, the two understood their feelings.

FINAL AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Not sure if the original ending is better or not, but I like the final line.

Anyways, thanks for reading! And thanks for reviewing!

Thanks to pokemonking0924 for being the first to review almost every chapter. Thanks to wisdom-jewel for all of your reviews and interesting thoughts. Thanks to CrescentApple for submitting Clint and essentially becoming a part of my small team. Thanks to UKEagleClaw for all of your lengthy and thoughtful reviews (especially those last few). Thanks to pokestets23 for years and years of encouragement. Thanks to the Imprisoned of Hell for your reviews; I'm always excited to see that you've left them. Thanks to Kunoichi69 for your occasional review and speculation. Thanks to BigEater for a review. Thanks to SceptileBlade for your reviews and supporting Logan; also, thanks for calling me out on my mistakes. I genuinely appreciate it. Thanks to Pizzaking for existing. Thanks to Negative EX for your reviews and messages; keep writing. And thanks to SudiptoDam19 for a couple of reviews!

I appreciate all of you! Let's look forward to my next few stories. In the meantime, please give Ascending Alola a read!