CHAPTER 1 UPDATED TO REFLECT CURRENT WRITING ABILITIES ON DECEMBER 21ST 2019

Chapter 1 - Water

"Hey, kid. We're about 5 minutes out from arriving in Petalburg. Don't forget anything when you leave," a voice called from above, echoing off of the steel walls of the small boat.

Logan grabbed his dark blue bag and put his black sneakers on before opening the ship door to get a good look at the Hoenn region for the first time. "Water," he said. "Water everywhere." He wiped sweat off his brow, pushing his wet dark brown hair out of his eyes, and then looked up towards the sun. "And it's hot. Why is it so hot?"

"That's the Hoenn region for you. Hot year long round. It also rarely snows. Maybe twice a year. Won't collect though," the captain said. He reached into his bag and pulled a small towel with Wailmer print on it. "Take this. You're gonna need a towel to wipe your sweat. Take it. I haven't used this one. Brand new. Promise. Usually give 'em out anyways."

"Thanks," Logan said as he gingerly took the towel from the captain. That was a lot of unnecessary information. I'll have to wash it first just in case.

The captain worked his way up a ladder and to the wheel. "So, what are you doing in Hoenn anyways? You're young enough to be a trainer, and you dress like one, but I noticed that you don't have Pokémon on you. And you're not bringing enough luggage to be moving, so what's going on? Business?"

Logan smiled. "You sure are curious."

"That's something you'll have to get used to. Being an outsider, you'll get a lot of questions. Figured I'd break the ice though."

"I see."

"Also, people from Hoenn are naturally curious about that kind of stuff, I think. Not everyday someone comes here. People generally go to Kanto or Johto, ya know?"

"I guess I'll just get used to a lot of questions in that case."

"So, what is it?"

"What?"

"What are you doing in Hoenn?"

"Oh yeah." Logan paused, unsure of how to answer. "I have a lot of reasons. But, for now, I'll just say that I need a fresh start."

"Pokémon Trainer?"

"I was."

The captain didn't respond. He kept his gaze forward towards the dock. "Arriving soon."

"Hoenn."

"Hello! Welcome to the Petalburg Pokémon Center! How can I help you?" asked Nurse Joy. She looked different than what Logan was used to, but she had a familiar smile and pink hair. The Nurse Joy that he had seen up to this point were all familiar in their looks, as they were family, but being in a completely different part of the world, they were bound to look different.

"My name is Logan. Logan Stephenson. I'm from the-"

"Found you! You're scheduled for one night, but you can always extend that if necessary."

"Neat."

"And real quick. It says right here that you need to contact Professor Juniper once you arrive."

Logan sighed. "Already? I just arrived and she's already having me do things."

"It's just a phone call," Joy said nervously.

Logan looked at her and sighed before scratching the back of his head and letting out an exasperated huff.

"You can use the phone over there." Joy pointed in the direction of what appeared to be an arcade cabinet with a large television screen and a clunky phone. "I'm sure she'll be glad to hear from you."

Logan grabbed his keys for the room. "Thank you." He walked over to the telephone machine and typed in Juniper's number. After a few rings, they were connected.

Juniper's face flashed onto the screen. "Hello, Logan! Good to see that you made it safe!"

"Howdy."

"How was the trip?"

"Long."

"How is Hoenn so far?"

"Hot."

"That's to be expected."

"Yeah. What's up?"

"Just wanted to make sure that you made it okay. Aunts will worry like that."

"I traveled around Unova and Alola for two years and we only talked three times, maybe. And one of those times was when you gave me Tepig," Logan replied, slightly bothered. "So, what's actually up?"

"Hoenn is so far, so I worry!" she said before taking a small pause. "But since you're there, I do have a favor to ask of you."

"Of course you do."

"Feel free to say no."

"You know I want to, but I won't."

"Great!" Juniper replied with a wide smile. "Two towns away is a place called Littleroot Town. My colleague, Professor Birch, lives there. We studied together years ago. He's an odd guy, but I think you'll like him. I was wondering if you could go and visit him for me."

Logan glared. "A visit? Is he lonely?"

"He said he wanted to meet you! And since you've got no plans, I figured it couldn't hurt!"

Logan was silent.

"I'm sure that it'll be worth your time! Unless you have better things to do?"

"I wanted to go visit Mao, but that can wait. I guess I'll go."

"Great! Call me when you get there!"

"No."

"And, Logan."

"What?"

"Look who it is!" Juniper said before messing with the camera a bit to reveal various Pokémon standing behind her. "They wanted to say hi!"

Logan paused. "Emboar, Zorua, Fraxure..."

"I can send them to you any time, ya know?"

"Emboar!" The Fire-type said with a smile.

Logan closed his eyes. "I'm sorry. But for now, I think this is best. Juniper, when I get to Littleroot, I'll contact you." With that, he ended the call.

Logan spent the night in the Pokémon Center, and woke up early the next day. The morning was considerably cooler than the day as expected. It felt familiar to Logan, like a Unovan summer.

The afternoon was a different story.

"Why is it so hot?!" Logan cried out. He had made it roughly three hours into Route 102. The Hoenn heat was starting to get to him, and his dark brown hair was once again drenched with sweat and sticking to his forehead. "What did I do to deserve this?!"

Logan pulled out the blue towel that he received from the captain. He washed it the night prior, but he was still nervous about using a towel received from a stranger. He wiped the sweat off his face and placed the towel on his head. He removed his dark blue vest to find his white undershirt soaked through with sweat.

"This is ridiculous!" He suddenly stopped walking when he saw a group of small, black Pokémon all huddled together, making quite a bit of noise.

"Poochyena, I think." He inched closer to see what was causing such a commotion.

The group had formed a circle and in the middle, two Poochyena were battling one another. One looked already incredibly tired, while the other one was clearly dominating the fight. The tired one attempted a lunge of sorts, but it was easily dodged, and the faster of the two answered with his own lunge, knocking his opponent to the ground. The stronger of the two Poochyena slowly walked to the weaker one and placed his paw on his opponent's neck, preparing to deal a final blow.

"That's enough," Logan said calmly.

This startled the group of Pokémon. They all turned towards Logan.

"You've won. You've proven your point."

Two of the Poochyena that made up the circle started to growl and lower their heads, anticipating orders to strike.

"I probably shouldn't poke the bear. I read that you're all great pack hunters," Logan said. He took a deep breath. "But I'm going to ask you to step away from that weak one."

The group of Poochyena looked at the stronger Poochyena from before. His gaze towards Logan was unwavering.

"You won. Walk away."

It lifted its paw from the defeated Poochyena's neck, barked at the group, and they all slowly retreated into the forest. The leader Poochyena, didn't once take his gaze off of Logan until they were a safe distance away.

Logan let out a sigh of relief and ran to the fallen Poochyena. He knelt over to pick him up, but suddenly the Pokémon attempted to bite, snapping his dangerous maw down near Logan's fingertips. Logan swiftly retreated his arm and glared.

"I'm gonna ask you to not do that."

The Pokémon let out a soft, pitiful coo before passing out. Logan removed the towel from his head and wrapped it around Poochyena.

"It's about an hour left of walking to Oldale." Logan looked at the sun. "I'll try to get you there sooner though." With that, Logan started to run as fast as he could.

Logan arrived in Oldale roughly 20 minutes later. He frantically looked for the Pokémon Center, seeing the building's red roof from afar.

"So, close." He took a deep breath. "But so far. And so hot!" He began his stride again, blowing past people on the street who shot him confused looks. Within a few moments, he arrived at the Pokémon Center and rushed through the automatic doors. He was met with a baffled Nurse Joy at the counter.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Pooch-fight-please-" he managed to choke out.

Nurse Joy nodded. "Okay! I'll take care of 'em!"

Logan handed over the Poochyena. "Thank you," he said before whiting out.

"Professor Birch, have you prepared the Pokémon for today?"

The professor looked up from his stack of papers. "That's today?!"

His assistant sighed. "I figured that was the case. I'll get them ready for presentation."

"Thank you, Tania. You should be running this operation." He then returned his focus back to his papers, and the lab got silent for a few small moments.

"What are you researching?"

Birch laughed. "It's something that's relatively new. But there's a chance that some of our little Pokémon here might have a hidden evolution of sorts. I'm hearing about it from the Kalos region. They're calling it Mega Evolution."

"Sounds interesting."

"It definitely is. I've invited a strong trainer to our lab to see if they can help us with some of the research." Birch smiled. "Who are the candidates for today?"

"I wanted to bring that up. One of our candidates, Tokimura Yudai, had to pull out. His mom isn't yet comfortable with him traveling on his own. He's got problems with allergies, and she's not willing to take the risk."

"That means that one of the Pokémon will go unpicked," Birch said with a sigh. "And the other two?"

"Kato Yuta, the top-ranked student we've had in years. Scored 100% on most of our tests. He excels at battle and strategy. He also knows a fair share about Pokémon in general: a walking Pokédex, so to speak."

"Anything he doesn't excel at?"

Tania laughed. "He's not good at making friends. I think he's shy and doesn't handle it well."

"I see. And the last candidate?"

"Yurie! Wake up! It's already noon!" Yurie's mom screamed from downstairs. "You gotta be at the professor's lab in less than an hour!"

A thin little girl, now aged 10 years old, stirred in her bed. She pulled her blanket over her head, but her long dark brown hair still stuck out. "I don't want to wake up…"

Her mom opened the door, letting the light make its way into her pitch black room. "Don't you want your first Pokémon?"

Yurie sighed and from under the blankets said, "If I'm honest, I'm indifferent. Battling is so aggressive and kind of disgusting."

"It's not all about battling, ya know?" She grabbed the blanket and pulled it from Yurie. "Now get up!"

"No!"

"Kawahara Yurie. She's a bit lazy, and if I'm to be blunt, sir-"

"Please."

"-a moron."

Birch laughed. "Even morons could use at least one Pokémon. Someone took a chance on this moron many years ago, and now we're here."

Three hours had passed since Logan fainted in the Pokémon Center. He woke up in a bed with one of the worst headaches he had ever had. A large and plump pink Pokémon, Chansey, sat next to him. When she saw that he had woke, she handed over a bottle of water.

"Thanks." He grabbed the bottle and took a big gulp of it

"Chansey!" the Pokémon cried out before leaving the room.

Logan tried to stand, but he stumbled. He took another drink of the water, and tried to balance himself by using the post on the bed. His vision was still blurred, and the light from the hallway felt as though it stabbed him in the eyes.

Nurse Joy entered the room with a worried look on her face. "Don't push yourself too much. And drink water! You'll die of heatstroke."

"How's the Poochyena?" Logan asked.

"Nothing I haven't seen before. You should take better care of your Pokémon though."

Logan took another drink. "Not my Pokémon."

Poochyena walked into the room, holding the Wailmer towel in his mouth. His tail was wagging vigorously, and he looked up at Logan with a fresh glimmer in his eyes. He let out a happy bark.

"Gonna try to bite me again?" He took note of the towel, now soaked with what looked to be Poochyena slobber. "Looks like I have more laundry to do."

"Why didn't you catch him and then bring him in? Would have been easier on both of you probably."

Logan smiled sarcastically, and said with an unfounded sense of pride, "I don't have any Poké Balls." He took one more drink of the water, finishing the bottle. "Where can I get a pack?"

Two hours later, Logan found himself on Route 101. The wild Poochyena had followed him this far out although Logan had encouraged otherwise. Anytime that Logan would look back, Poochyena would return the smile with his tongue dangling from the side of mouth.

"You didn't have to come with me, ya know? I'm a tough guy. I can handle myself."

The Poochyena barked and wagged his tail.

Logan smiled. "Oh yeah? You think I need a bodyguard?"

Poochyena barked again and ran ahead of Logan.

"Eye for an eye. I get it. Regardless, thanks for the company, I guess." Logan took a swig of water.

Suddenly, Logan and Poochyena could hear a voice calling from afar. The two stopped, and Poochyena took a defensive battle position which Logan couldn't help but laugh at.

"Pound!" the voice commanded.

The duo looked over to find a green Pokémon swinging its tail into a scruffy-looking brown Pokémon. The brown Pokémon fell over, and not soon after, a Poké Ball connected with it, absorbing it with the bright red light. The Poké Ball rocked for a few moments before letting out a soft ding. The boy who had thrown the ball retrieved it, and pulled out his Pokédex.

"Not too strong. Probably not worth keeping around," he said calmly. He noticed Logan staring at him. Logan thought for a moment that the boy's eyes had widened, but maybe he was just imagining it. "Hello." The boy had lengthy pitch black hair and wore a short-sleeved green shirt with a hood.

"New trainer, I take it? It looks like you've made off with a strong Treecko," Logan said with a smile.

"Thank you. I believe that I chose correctly," he replied. He noticed the Poochyena. "I have yet to have an official battle though. My classmates either dropped out or weren't worth the effort."

Logan sighed. He knew what the boy was hinting at. "This isn't really my Pokémon."

"I see," the boy replied. He appeared disappointed.

Poochyena ran out in front of Logan and barked. Logan paused for a moment, took in a deep breath, and then forced a smile. "But it appears that Poochyena wants to have at it. If you're okay, I'd like to have a battle."

The boy smiled. "Yes."

"Yurie, he's so cute!" Yurie's mom screamed out while picking up Torchic. "You definitely picked the best Pokémon you could!"

Yurie glanced at Torchic. "Okay, but what now? I leave? I go on some great adventure and beat the Elite Four? I challenge the champion of Hoenn? I go out and get lost on Mt. Silver?"

Yurie's mother clicked her tongue and shot an angry look at her daughter. "That was someone's daughter, Yurie."

Yurie avoided her mother's gaze. "Sorry."

"You can do whatever you'd like. You're given at least one year to go see the entire Hoenn region! Do with it whatever you'd like."

"Couldn't I have done that without a Pokémon?"

"Your Pokémon is there to keep you company, Yurie! It can get lonely on the road," she replied. "Also, worse-case scenario, Torchic is there to protect you." She put Torchic down in front of Yurie.

Yurie sighed. "Seems a bit selfish, don't you think?"

"Torchic!" the Pokémon cried out happily.

"I don't need sass from you," Yurie replied.

Yurie's mother handed over Yurie's white backpack. "Everyone does this. I did it. Your father did it. Your brother and sister are on their own adventures. Everyone does it. Go out, make friends, memories, and take a lot of pictures!"

Yurie hesitantly took her bag. She hated taking pictures.

"And if one year passes and you're not happy, you can always come back and help me run the flower shop, alright?"

"Alright."

Yurie's mother gave her a hug. "Now go find what makes you happy!"

Yurie turned and started walking towards the door.

"Wait! I forgot!" Yurie's mother ran to the back. She reemerged holding two white flowers. "Daffodils! They symbolize a new beginning!"

Yurie took them. "You want me to carry around flowers?"

"Plant them somewhere along your journey, sweetheart."

"Got it," Yurie replied. She took a small whiff of the flower, taking in its sweet scent, and smiled. "Thank you, mom. Let's go, Torchic."

With that, the duo were out the door.

"Alright, Poochyena. This will be our first battle together. You think you'll listen to me?" Logan asked.

Poochyena smiled and let out a bark.

"I believe you. That's good to hear," Logan responded.

"We must not lose!" the boy said. Treecko responded by leaning forward, preparing to attack.

Logan laughed. "Calm down, kid. We'll start." He didn't know Poochyena's attacks off the top of his head, but he had to make due with what he could assume Poochyena would have. "Poochyena, use Tackle!"

Poochyena let out a howl and then dashed forward.

"Dodge, and then use Pound!" the boy responded.

Treecko dashed quickly to the left and then rammed his tail into Poochyena's side. Poochyena yelped and fell over but quickly recovered and prepared to attack again.

"Treecko, use Quick Attack!"

Treecko bolted forward quickly, but Logan had a quick response.

"Sand Attack!" he commanded.

Poochyena dug his paws into the ground and flung sand into the air. It collided with Treecko, making the Pokémon stop in its tracks.

"Now, Tackle!"

Poochyena drove his body into Treecko once again, knocking the Grass-type over. Treecko quickly recovered and promptly waited for its trainer's command.

"Quick Attack again!" the boy said.

"Then we'll use Sand Attack!"

The Pokémon repeated what they had done before, and it appeared like the results would have been similar, but Logan's opponent was ready.

"Dodge, and then use Absorb!" the boy said.

Treecko jumped into the air and spun to avoid the sand. Upon his descent, he latched onto Poochyena and began to absorb energy from the Dark-type. Poochyena let out a pained yelp.

"Not good," Logan muttered. "Try Howl!"

Poochyena stopped screeching and then start to howl. Treecko released his attack, and backed away a bit, observing as Poochyena's body was surrounded with a light red aura.

"No matter. Let's go for Pound!"

Treecko dove forward and twisted his body again, swinging his tail.

"Bite!" Logan commanded.

Poochyena opened his mouth and bit down onto Treecko's tail.

"Got 'em!" Logan said.

"Fight through the pain!" the boy ordered.

The Treecko stopped screeching and glared at Poochyena.

"Use Pound!"

Treecko jumped into the air, Poochyena still attached. He twisted his body and flung Poochyena towards the ground, smashing the Pokémon hard into their makeshift battlefield. When the dust had settled, both Pokémon barely stood, their legs shaking aggressively.

"Poochyena, you okay?" Logan asked.

Poochyena let out a battle cry and smiled, determined to carry on.

"Fantastic!" Logan responded, but his smile soon faded once Poochyena collapsed from exhaustion. Treecko soon followed, falling onto his opponents back.

The trainers both ran to their Pokémon. Logan knelt down and softly pet both of the creatures on their heads.

"You did great, Treecko. Next time, we'll win," the boy said as he stood above them. He absorbed his Pokémon into its ball.

Logan picked up and held Poochyena in his arms. "Not bad, buddy." He turned his attention to the boy. "And you won this one. Poochyena fell first, so you and Treecko are the victors."

The boy shook his head and said, "I only want to accept victory if it's a total victory. Treecko fell at the end, so I'm considering this a draw. I look forward to any of our future battles."

Logan smiled. "So, strict."

"I assume you're in the Hoenn region to take on the league?" the boy asked.

Logan shook his head. "Nope. I'm here to rest."

The kid looked surprised. "That's disappointing. I was hoping I'd get to battle you again."

There was a small awkward silence as the boy seemed to be looking for the right words to say.

"I've watched your battles on TV, and it'd be an honor for us to go at it at full power someday," he blurted out. But, he was unable to make eye contact with Logan.

Logan was taken aback. "So, you've seen my battles?"

"Yep. Eliminated in the semi-finals of both the Unova and Alola leagues."

"Okay, well. You don't have to remind me."

"But you were always really fun to watch. My name is Kato Yuta. You can call me Yuta. I'm going to become the Champion of Hoenn."

Logan smiled. "That's a lofty goal, Yuta. I hope that you'll make it."

"I'd like another chance to battle you when I've created my team and mastered my skills," Yuta said with a deadpan expression on his face. "I want to prove myself against one of Unova's best."

Logan nodded. "I can't promise you anything, but if we ever see each other again, and the circumstances are right, I'll battle you, Yuta."

"Thank you." Yuta turned away. "Jah. See you later."

With that, the two were off on separate paths, Yuta towards Oldale Town and Logan towards Littleroot.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Hello. Thank you for taking the time to read this. For a little bit of background, I used to write a lot of Pokémon fanfiction for this site about 10 years ago with a partner. We eventually stopped writing because of college and such, but I currently have a lot of free time, so I figured I'd try writing Pokémon fanfiction again. I find it very relaxing.

This story is sort of based on true events. I don't want to spoil anything, but essentially, I moved to Kyushu, Japan (Hoenn is based off of Kyushu), and I'm basing a lot of what happens to Logan (and Yurie) off of my real world experiences here. For example, Kyushu is incredibly hot (and so I'd imagine that Hoenn would be too). Also, Logan's reasonings for coming to Hoenn will mirror why I originally moved to Japan. Small things, but yeah. I hope you enjoy what I do with this.

One thing that I am curious about doing is making some of the characters from Hoenn speak Japanese. Just small phrases. I wouldn't write out whole conversations in Japanese, because that'd be unfair. For example, Yuta said "Jah. See you later." which is a play on Japanese "Jya. Matane." (Okay. See you later.) Is this okay, or would it annoy people?

Jah. See you later.

A QUICK NOTE ON POKEMON CAPITALIZATION

I understand that there's this little war going on within the community, and I just want to say that I don't want to be apart of any of it. I've decided to capitalize the way that I want to. I own countless official Pokemon storybooks that I read to kids, and they capitalize Pokemon names and such. I don't care if you do or don't. Don't waste your time reviewing that aspect of my story. It will fall on deaf ears.

Be kind. Rewind.