On the map, Geosenge Town is nothing of importance. It is the second smallest town of Kalos, lined with mysterious stones and encircled by strange ruins of old. The Town is located at the western part of Kalos and can only be accessed by two routes, namely Route 10 and Route 11. What's odd is that Route 10 is lined with countless stones in such numbers and arrays that it overwhelms anyone walking past it.

The sight just gives you goosebumps, period.

However, years of trying to uncover the truth behind the story of both the Kalos War and the Kalos King always point me here somehow. No matter what point of angle I approach the myth from and no matter what clue I found, I always found myself back here. I had been to this backwater town many times, but each time I went back empty handed.

Now I'm back here again. Out of the many dusty rusty boxes that I brought back the other day, I found an ancient drawing within one of them that talks a little about the Kalos King. Whatever little clues on it pointed me back here to Geosenge Town.

There's honestly nothing of interest here other than the unusual rock structures at the centre of the town. I had even asked the locals here and even they don't know what these rock structures, also known as menhirs, are here for, only that they had been here even before Geosenge Town was founded.

At this point, I know that there has to be something in Geosenge Town. All my clues point me back to this place, it cannot be a coincidence. Problem is, what is in here? What history lies here in Geosenge Town, waiting to be unearthed?

Out of habit, I looked through the various clues and ancient texts that I had found and stored in my Holo Caster as hologram images. I was born with a photographic memory in this world and I considered myself lucky for it, but no matter how I try to recall I cannot remember any clue that might point me further beyond coming to Geosenge Town.

Is Geosenge Town a dead end or an end point?

My feet subconsciously carried me back to the centre of Geosenge Town with Berg, Tinen, and Solid walking by my side. I placed my hand on one of the stone spires standing erect in the town center, wondering just what secrets it holds.

It couldn't be here simply as decoration, does it? Why didn't the founders of the town move it away or break it down when they first built Geosenge Town here? Why build the town around the stones? Why the hassle?

Too bad there's nothing I can do to find out more about it because there are no more clues to trace.

"I heard from Lysandre that you came here again."

The sound of a familiar voice got me to turn my head, and I brightened up the moment I spotted who it was.

"Malva!"

Malva and I greeted each other in a hug. Malva is a close friend of my uncle and I had seen her many times since my childhood. She's like a big sister figure to me. The both of us often bond in the shared pain of dealing with Siebold's weird antics and also talk about girl stuff in general. She would share what she did in her job as a news reporter and I would tell her what new history about our region that I recently uncovered. We often help each other look out for things that might interest the other.

"Looking for clues on the Kalos King again?" Malva asked as she looked at the stone structures. "Found anything new?"

"No." I sighed. "All my clues point me here but there's nothing to find here."

The two of us ended up finding a cafe to rest and simply talk. Malva brought up a topic that caught my interest.

"Team Flare?"

"That's what Lysandre is planning to name it." Malva nodded. "A non-governmental organisation that is secretly funded by Lysandre Labs, with the sole goal of trying to make the world a beautiful place. Scientists, trainers, inventors, anyone who shares the same ideals, he will welcome them with open arms."

"Couldn't he had picked a better name?" I raised an eyebrow upon hearing this news. "It sounds like a villain group if you ask me. Team Rocket, Team Magma, Team Aqua, you get my drift."

"Then it's up to him to show the world that Team Flare is different, no?" Malva replied. "Unlike many others, Lysandre still hasn't given up hope yet. He still thinks that it's still possible to make the world beautiful. Eternal beauty, that's what Team Flare is trying to bring to the world."

"This world is already beautiful." I gave my reply. "Uncle's standards are just too high. I know he means well for the world, but what he is chasing is an ideal, not a realistic possibility. Beautiful things often don't last, but that's also why they are beautiful. If there aren't any ugly things in this world, how else will we know what is beautiful? It's because of the unfortunate ugly things that we know how to appreciate the beautiful things around us, right?"

"You and your philosophical talk." Malva shook her head. "Sometimes I wonder what's in that head of yours."

"Logical and rational reasoning that I use to view facts in an objective and unbiased manner." I gave my smooth reply as I sipped on my coffee. "Basically, using the thought processes of a historian to piece the most logical picture. You should try it out sometime."

Malva slipped me an old and tattered book that she took out from her handbag.

"I was reporting on an interview with Dr Handel in Lumiose, your previous history professor. He told me some interesting things he found on the Kalos King just yesterday and told me to pass it to you since everyone knows how interested you are in that tale."

I picked the book up, only to find many images drawn on it as if trying to tell a story. The colours have nearly faded completely and some pages are obviously missing.

"A picture book?"

"Dr Handel is guessing that what he just received from an archeology team was probably what was a children's picture book. A picture book parents use to tell their children about the tale of the Kalos King. Dr Handel said that it might or might not provide some insight for you. You can also keep it since he is more interested in other parts of Kalos history like you already knew."

"For a children's picture book, this is surprisingly detailed and well drawn." I commented as I slowly flipped through the pages. "It may be more than just a simple picture book."

"Have fun trying to crack its secrets." Malva said in a silky voice. "If there's even any secret to it at all."

"The Kalos War, huh?" I wondered out loud as I flipped to the page where two pages merged into one single picture of a full blown war, humans and pokemon each taking their respective sides. "Definitely about the Kalos King."

"I need to get going now. Elite Four duties and all that." Malva excused herself as she stood up from her chair. "Have fun with reading the picture book."

"Have fun dealing with Siebold."

"Please don't remind me about that man-child."

"That was the whole point, Malva."


It's late at night. I'm in my own room, lying on my bed with the book Malva had gave me resting on my lap.

A picture book about the story of the Kalos King, huh? I know Dr Handel is not interested in this tale because many find it to be just a myth. There are no concrete scientific or historical evidence that were uncovered so far that can help prove that such a thing had really happened before in Kalos' history. If it did, someone did a very thorough wipe of our region's history books for there to be so little clues left for us to scavenge.

I turned on my night lamp and flipped the book open. What greeted me was pictures with a line of ancient text inserted artistically into the pictures that narrates the story. I had learnt a few commonly encountered ancient languages by exploiting my photographic memory, so reading the ancient text on its own like that is no problem for me.

I began to read the picture book.

"Once, a man, he had a pokemon he loved very much."

The first page was of a drawing of a tall man with long black hair holding a small floette in his hands. Their faces were happy. The man drawn is the Kalos King.

"But an age of war had begun"

The next few pages were filled with numerous drawings of armies of pokemon fighting each other. There was a steelix firing a Hyper Beam, easily killing a small group of pokemon. Huge fires raged in the background and smoke filled the skies. Devastating attacks that easily levelled buildings were fired. Moves that devastated the environment were carelessly used.

For a supposed picture book meant for children, it is surprisingly detailed and graphic. I'm starting to think that this is no mere picture book.

"During the fierce fighting, his dear pokemon was sent to the battlefield."

The next few pages was of the floette leaving the man, a sad expression on its face.

"Several years later, he was given a tiny box."

The very next page was the man looking at a small coffin. His eyes were soulless. The floette must have died in the war, similar to the bedtime story that I was told by my parents about the Kalos King.

"No matter what it took, he wanted to bring his pokemon back. So he built a machine to give it life, and brought back his beloved pokemon. The pokemon lived again through the power of eternal life."

The next page is something which I had never seen before. A drawing of a tall crystalline structure that is broad at the bottom but narrow at the top, with a surge of bright light shining right at the top of the structure. The page after that had a revived floette drawn on it.

At this point, I cannot help but take a pause and think.

The possibility of eternal life, a part of Kalos' history and the story of the Kalos King that many found it to be a myth. Most people believed that the Kalos War did happen, but nobody believed in such a thing as eternal life and revival of the dead.

But this is the world of pokemon. To me, such things may very well be possible because I knew this world used to be a fictional world. In a fictional world, anything is possible.

When a world once fiction becomes your reality, then anything in reality is possible. What's possible and what's not is only affected by your sense of perception.

I sighed and opted to continue reading the story that I had long since memorised. At least this time, there are pictures to go with it.

"However, the man had suffered too much, and his rage still had not subsided."

The next page showed a dark look in the man's eyes.

"He could not forgive the world who had hurt the pokemon he loved. So he took the machine, and turned it into an ultimate weapon."

The next page showed yet another drawing that I had never seen before in any historical documents. The crystalline structure in the previous pages actually opened up like a flower, a beam of energy at its center. If this book's account is accurate, then this should be the true form and appearance of the "ultimate weapon" that is so prevalent in the bedtime stories of the Story of the Kalos King.

A flower built in remembrance of the man's floette. It's fitting, and it goes to show how much the Kalos King loved his floette. If the book is drawn simply based on the artist's impression and imagination of what went on in the Kalos War, then he or she must have a very vivid imagination.

I continue to read the book.

"The man became a bringer of destruction."

The next page showed the beam of energy being fired and landed onto the warzone, bringing about untold destruction. The huge ball of fire drawn reminded me a lot of how a nuclear explosion would have looked like.

I'm glad that I wasn't born into this world 3,000 years ago into that era.

"And he ended the war."

I flip to the next page, which shows nothing but a barren wasteland.

"The pokemon that was given life must have known, that the lives of many-"

This is the part with the missing pages. Only part of the text that narrate the story remained. It's like the pages with the drawings that goes with the narration was purposely ripped off. Even without the missing text, I knew what it was supposed to say. Every Kalosian would know from the bedtime story.

The lives of many pokemon were used to revive the pokemon that was loved by the Kalos King.

I continue to read the picture book.

"The pokemon that had returned to life left the man."

The floette floated into the sky, a sad expression on its face once more. However, this time, it left on its own volition. The man had his hand reached out, trying to grab onto the floette and trying to get it to remain by his side but to no avail.

The floette floated away until it is a small speck in the sky. The man is now all alone.

"Now, he continues to wander eternally, still searching for his pokemon."

The last page of the book was a picture of the back of the man drawn with him walking down a lonely and barren path. All that is left is the utter destruction that the ultimate weapon had caused. This is also where the story of the Kalos King end, the full tale of the bedtime story that every Kalosian would know by heart.

The moral of the story is to warn people of the horrors of war so that we wouldn't make the same mistakes. People view the idea of eternal life explored in the story to be an exaggeration, an addition to a possibly factual part of Kalos' history which is the Kalos War, all to make it more mysterious. Everyone knows that eternal life is impossible to achieve, so they reasoned that part of the tale must be false.

Is it really though?

It's not like there aren't any picture books available in the present day that tells the Story of the Kalos King, but this is probably the oldest one in Kalos. This book is at least a thousand years old and that is a very conservative estimate. The book is also incredibly well-preserved. I had no idea how Malva managed to convince Dr Handel to part with the book and give it to me, but she had always been a doting big sister figure. Her status as an Elite Four also gave her a huge degree of influence in Kalos, so I shouldn't be too surprised.

No one truly knows how the ultimate weapon looked like, so there are many interpretations of it drawn in all sorts of ways. However, this is the first time I had seen a drawing of the ultimate weapon to possess a structure similar to those of a blooming flower. Was the artist simply that imaginative, or did he really saw how the ultimate weapon really look like?

Also, what about the missing pages? Why were they ripped out? Was there something drawn on those pages that someone doesn't want anyone to find out? Maybe I'm thinking too much and that it was ripped off by accident?

Why am I so bothered by the missing pages? Why does this book keep giving me the feeling that I am missing something crucial? Am I really overthinking things?

No, my gut feeling as a historian is telling me that whatever is bothering me is something I have to find out. So, what is that something?

I idly flipped the picture book from front to back and from back to front numerous times. There's something off with the book that made me keep thinking about it all day long.

Had I seen it somewhere before? No, I would definitely had remembered about it if this were the case. Is there anything in the book that was drawn that could give me clues as to where the present location of the supposed Kalos War was held in the past? No, at least none that I can identify. It's another dead end.

The drawings though… It really was surprisingly detailed and believable, like the artist for the book had been through the entire ordeal. I can feel myself immersed in the world the artist had drawn simply by looking at the pictures. The pictures are just that lifelike and believable.

I checked the book to see if the name of the artist and the author was written on it. I only managed to find something after going back to the very first page. Right at the very bottom were two ancient symbols that when translated into the english language that everyone is using today, spells out the alphabets 'AZ'.

Initials of the author, perhaps?

The initials of the author consisting of the letter 'A', the first letter of the alphabet and also 'Z', the last letter of the alphabet gives off a poetic feeling, considering the content of the story of the Kalos King. The beginning and the end. Where something starts, it will end. When something ends, something else will be born anew. There is no eternal life, but the meaning of eternal can take form in more ways than one.

Really reminds me of my uncle's belief in eternal beauty.

My uncle's belief in building a beautiful world that can stay beautiful for eternity is too idealistic for me, because I don't see any beauty in eternal. The pursuit of eternity probably won't end too well for anyone, like how the story of the Kalos King ended. To wander for eternity alone, searching for that one thing that left you because of the price you used to bring it back. How lonely is that? How is eternity beautiful in this regard?

Sure, the death of the Kalos King's pokemon was sad, but I'm sure that there are many happy times that they shared before the war broke out. Instead of giving eternal life to his pokemon against its will, forcing it to walk the earth forever without rest, shouldn't he had just cherished the brief yet beautiful moment that they shared?

Eternity may seem to be a blessing at first but it can also very well be a curse. To see everyone around you grow old and die, leaving you alone in the world, how lonely is that? Is eternity truly beautiful in this regard?

To some, maybe that is considered beautiful, but not for me. Things are beautiful because they don't stay the same forever. If they do, we grow used to it and expect more and when that happens, things start to get ugly from there. When everything becomes beautiful, nothing is beautiful. Because there is a comparison, we then came up with the notion of ugly and beautiful. To remake all the ugly things in the world into beautiful ones is to kill the very concept of beautiful.

Hence, we should all count our blessings. Every single beautiful thing and moment in this world is to be cherished because we never know when things might turn ugly, like how war separated the Kalos King and his pokemon.

My uncle is a stubborn man when it counts, especially when it comes to his beliefs. I just hope that my uncle's pursuit of eternal beauty doesn't lead him down the deep end, but he seems fine to me thus far.

Still, I'm going to have a talk with him about this 'Team Flare' first thing tomorrow morning. I don't know if Kalos was a 'canon' region in the games in my previous life because I never got that far, but Team Flare's name itself really gives me the villain vibe that comes with all the pokemon games that I know of in my previous life.

Hopefully, I'm wrong about this.


AN: The narration of the story was taken from the Pokemon Generations episode, Redemption. The idea of having a picture book came from me watching that episode and I thought that it would be interesting to have a picture book version instead of watching it through a video. The imagery described here are also all referenced to what is shown in the Redemption episode.

Hope you enjoyed the story.

Character and pokemon list:

Nova Labelle, Age: 26, Female, Ground Specialist, Historian, Niece of Lysandre

Pokemon on hand:

1. Mamoswine (Berg), Male

2. Golem (Crust), Female

3. Excadrill (Solid), Male

4. Golurk (Drift), Genderless

5. Garchomp (Core), Male

6. Claydol (Vision), Genderless

7. Whiscash (Seis), Male

8. Marowak (Tinen), Female

9. Torterra (Terra), Female

10. Gigalith (Mantle), Male

11. Tyrantrum (Jaws), Male

12. Aurorus (Sail), Female