Chapter 25: Ingénuo's diary

Day 1

Dear Diary:

Sure technically I should still be using the date, but I feel it is more symbolic to ditch all my old ways. I'm finally a pokemon trainer, clinging to things that are the normal for life in towns and cities like the date is not for me anymore. I am free to roam and live by my own rules. Still, keeping a diary of my life helps keep my stress level under control.

I am a little worried about Lilac though, sure she got a better head start than me on her pokemon journey, being given a ninetales as her first pokemon, but she looked like she's lived a way too pampered life to really know what she's doing. The casual attitude wasn't the only give away, as even if her clothing didn't look like much I can just tell it was made of woven together strands of expensive fur... probably eevee fur, just like my uncle wears, though apparently such clothing is made only from fur steaded during spring.

My day started off far too normally considering what was going to happen. I slept in till noon, got up, got dressed, pretended I had been up for ages and then ate lunch. I'm thankful my parents never check in on me, thinking I'm a perfect little angel. Still such grace and perfection seems to come easy for me as long as I remember my parents will only be so trusting as long as they hear nothing that says they shouldn't be.

Then it wasn't too long before I found myself at Professor's Birch's lab. What a disappointment. The place was nothing like I expected, no weird bubbling test tubes, no unidentifiable lab equipment, absolutely nothing that looked like it belonged to a mad scientist from some cheap horror movie. I know Birch mainly does field research, but that's no reason for his lab to be so boring.

I politely informed him of which starter I wanted from him, and was a little surprised that I got my first choice. What are the chances that that the other two trainers had a different opinion on which starting pokemon they wanted? Well, considering I only chose Torchic because I heard those two idiots deciding to race each other to be the first up so as to get the torchic, the chance should have been zero. Not my fault they slept in longer than I did.

And so my journey began. A quick walk and I was out all alone, with a map in my hand, a slight worry that perhaps Lilac didn't have a map at all, and unable to think of an appropriate name for my first pokemon. I set up camp when the sun started to set, and had a little play time with my torchic... she certainly wasn't as harmless as Kitsune, but I finally convinced her to be helpful and light a fire. Pokemon training doesn't seem hard so far.

Day 2

Dear Diary:

Despite it still being winter, the southern part of Hoenn is never really cold at night. At least that's what I though before last night. If it wasn't days away from it being February I would of frozen to death out in the wilderness. Still some hot food and drink cooked on a fire lit by torchic made up for it. I'm glad got the fire starter, those other two idiots will probably not make it very far without such a great fire lighter... I'm sure even Lilac would do better than them, due to having a handy fire pokemon herself.

It struck me on this second day of my journey of how few pokemon I was actually seeing. I only caught the occasional glimpse of some yesterday, but it never really sunk in till now. How could I catch any pokemon if I could never come close. Still, it wasn't long till I noticed a single zigzagoon following me. It was getting far closer than any other pokemon had, but it didn't look too strong even if I didn't count the nasty looking bite marks on it that looked like they only just started to heal. Certainly not worth catching, at least that's what i thought then

It's amazing how one's walking speed increases when they are being followed, I thought I was making great time. I was wrong big time. It wasn't too long before the zigzagoon darted out in front of me, then darting off. It kept coming back and darting off in the same direction. I thought at the time it must have been going insane due to some infection in the bite injury. Not my problem, so i just ignored it till I realized how long ago I should of reached town.

Finally the zigzagoon got to me, it was getting dark and I should of reached town hours ago. It led me right to town in less than ten minutes, before vanishing. How could a stupid little pokemon navigate better than me when it didn't even have a map? Thanks to it I get to spend the night comfortable in a pokemon center, but next time i see it I'll catch it for sure.

Day 3

Dear Diary:

The day the storm was hitting Hoenn. Not like such a thing worried me, my ego was inflated due to being a pokemon trainer. It seems like I learn more about my misconceptions about pokemon training everyday. Bad weather is bad weather no matter what you do with your life. Still I had most of the day to travel safely, so I wasn't a complete idoit.

The zigzagoon showed up again, trying to indicate that I should go back to town. It was either quite attached to Oldale, or it knew what was coming. Still it gave up after the first hour and merely followed me, darting off only when I called out torchic to battle. Wild pokemon are such cowards. Another day without seeing many pokemon, getting a second pokemon looks a little unlikely at this rate. It was when the zigzagoon got in front of me and seemed to be trying to lead me across the country side that I really gave up on catching it. It was trying to keep me close to all sorts of empty caves, hollows in the ground, any place which would be good for when the storm hits. I refused to follow such a zig zaged path and rushed ahead.

Late afternoon the storm hit. I was caught of guard, the strong winds actually knocked me over and knocked my back pack open, though I didn't lose anything too important apart from the dairy I wrote in before starting this journey and my pokedex. I was panicked and in trouble, the winds quickly getting worse. If the zigzagoon hadn't reappeared, then I would have been done for. Battered up as I was when we got to a hollow in the ground to rest in, the zigzagoon was in much worse shape. The bite wound had been reopened, thus i did my best to treat it but there will certainly be a bit of scaring.

I know it is unfair, but I sort of accidentally dropped a pokeball on the weakened zigzagoon and I'm certainly not letting it free now. I think I'll name it ziggy, I mean it's name isn't as important to think about compared to my starter pokemon.

Day 4

Dear Diary:

Too tired to write much. I awoke to a familiar looking girl lighting a fire just outside the hollow I slept in. She slept there with me after she fond me fast asleep. When I said familiar, I meant I had seen her on TV, as she got second place in the Jhoto league tournament last year. Quite a mark of achievement. Her name is Kenni and she's going the same way as me and actually gave me quite a few tips on pokemon training. It's actually quite exhausting and frustrating work, the training part of being a pokemon trainer. I can't believe I forgot to do any of that the past 3 days. Lilac is either forgetting about training too or suffering far more than me.

Day 5

Dear Diary:

Plane and simply, the map helps with nothing when you are lost and Ziggy can't seem to help navigate here. Kenni says its because he's outside his home range, not that it's out of spite for being captured, but I'm not so sure. Still, she also yelled at me a bit for referring to Ziggy as an 'it' when he's clearly male. As if a pokemon cares about whether you know its gender or not.

Day 6

Dear Diary:

Yep, we're still lost. Still, Kenni says being lost actually gives a trainer the time required to train their pokemon. A quick stop at a lake to train and I got to see the pokemon she had, really it wasn't surprising she hadn't changed her team since the league. I collapsed mid afternoon and had to rest with my back to a tree. While noting how my torchic certainly didn't like being near so much water, something fell out of the tree and onto my face. Not the way I like to catch pokemon, but my head was harder than its, and I caught it before it regained consciousness. Adding a slakoth to my team wasn't the only good thing it brought, but knowing what sort of areas they live in just proved we over shot Petalburg city somehow... A chance to have a night in a bed in a pokemon center was too good to inform Kenni that there was no gym there.

Day 7

Dear Diary:

It's hard to write while riding on the back of a gyrados. But when we finally found Petalburg City and then were told that Rustborro gym was temporarily closed due to serious injury of one of the gym leaders pokemon we had to change our plans a bit. Kenni certainly wasn't going to wait around doing nothing so we had to move on to the next nearest gym. No boat from Petalburg to Dewford island, and Kenni didn't want to waste time going all the way to Rustburro just for a boat. Somehow she convinced me an overnight ride on Rage, her gyarados, was a great idea. Rough scales, waves splashing over me occasionally, plus having to hold on if I don't want to fall off is not my idea of a good night's sleep.

Day 8

Dear Diary:

I hate Lilac. She is so annoying. I found out as soon as I reached Dewford that he had been injured, so i went to visit her. She's already got 6 pokemon, including two ninetales, an absol, and an umbreon. Ninetales, absol, and umbreon aren't meant to even be in the areas she's been though. No trainer is that good, how could she possibly have that sort of luck? Not to mention the fact she never gotten lost even though she's never carried a map with her.

The absolute worst part is she's actually got the guy who got fourth place in the Jhoto league, Ryan, training her starting pokemon for her. A pokemon trainer is meant to do the hard work themselves, not pass it on to someone else when it gets the slightest bit difficult. Kenni seems annoyed about it too, but she's unusually nonvocal about it. Something about Ryan gets on her nerves more than a trainer like Lilac can. Perhaps Ryan's her ex-boyfriend?

Things get worse from there. She explained what happened to her, with stories of the adventures she's had. I mean, she gets all the luck, powerful pokemon with little effort, exciting things like an assassin after her, and a friend who is willing to train her pokemon for her. Then she asked me to find her mightyena that had run away due to being shot at. Passing off the hard work again, but i couldn't say no due to her condition.

When one thinks of Dewford, they think of the beach front and tanning themselves in the sun. Most people wouldn't even know of the swamps further inland. I spent several hours searching those swamps with Kenni and a few of Lilac's pokemon. Tracking down a lost pokemon through rouge and dirty terrain like that is only made worse when the tracks end up leading round in a loop and back to the pokemon center. Mightyena are meant to be impossible for beginner trainers to handle, it's meant to be impressive for a trainer to have one under control, but again Lilac got that the easy way by having the wimpiest mightyena ever.

To top it off Lilac wanted to trade pokemon with me. How could she be so stupid not to know the value of her own pokemon? She wanted to trade Huxian, her male ninetales, for Ziggy. She pities me and wants to trade just so she doesn't feel so bad. How can she possibly do such a thing? Does she realize how bad that makes me feel about my accomplishments? Sure, I traded, a ninetales is always a great pokemon to have mainly due to their life span. Most pokemon reach their peak after a little over 5 years then start to get weak, usually dying before the age of 20, but a ninetales is certain to out live the trainer, thus no stress of losing a partner, plus they don't suffer effect of aging and thus never stop getting stronger.

Kenni wants to get the gym battle over with as quickly as possible before moving on, as do I. I have to get some distance between me and Lilac if I'm going to becoming strong enough of showing her how bad a trainer she really is. From now on I'm her rival, and it's my job to make her feel how hard things can be...