Ah, Kindle Road. Such a lovely place right off of One Island- the salty breeze of the sea, the rejuvenating hot springs of Ember Spa, and in the distance, Mt. Ember's peak where blazes lit up the sky at night.

"Hey! I got something!"

I sat on the beach's edge, quickly jumping up as I felt a bite on the end of my fishing line. My hand became something of a blur as I tried to reel it in, and a grin spread across my face as the line in the water got shorter and shorter. The Blastoise at my side perked up too, her eyes scanning the surface for whatever might appear.

The end of my rod started to bend a bit at the weight of whatever was on the other end. "This is a big one, Minako!" I cried, taking a few steps back from the water's edge and digging my feet into the sand.

"Blast!" she happily cried back, pumping her arms a bit in excitement.

Moments later, the water grew dark as a large serpentine figure appeared below the surface, followed by a Gyarados erupting from the sea and spitting my lure out of its mouth. Perhaps it was angry, as the species was prone to be, or perhaps it was the perpetually angry face that all of them wore, but the creature was definitely glaring at us as the beginning of a Hydro Pump started forming in its mouth.

I gave my Blastoise a pat on her shell. "Have your fun," I said with a chuckle.

She was more than eager to do so. The freezing glow of an Ice Beam formed in her own maw, and as the Gyarados shot off its attack, I darted behind her while she shot off her own. Of course, Minako wasn't too bothered by being blasted with water, what with being an aquatic species and all, but I myself was certainly happy to have her sturdy shell as a shield against the Gyarados' watery onslaught. Hardly anything got past her.

A loud growl followed as Minako beamed her target right in the face, and the Gyarados too got an icy glow around its fangs. Its eyes narrowed and it lurched forward with its teeth poised to sink into her, but before it could do so, Minako put her head down and rushed forward with a Skull Bash. For just a moment as she attacked, I stared into the gaping maw of a frustrated Gyarados less than a meter away, and I flinched just a bit- more precarious things had happened in my career, to be sure, but gigantic bared fangs in my face weren't a pleasant sight. Nonetheless, it went crashing back down into the water, Minako's mouth curling up into a smirk as she too disappeared below the waves. The water stirred for a second, and I saw a flip of the Gyarados' tail above it, but shortly, my Blastoise returned, laughing to herself with playfully glinting eyes.

I laughed too, strolling closer to her and rubbing the edge of her shell. "That never gets old for you, does it?"

She only made some more laughing sounds, pumping her arms again.

If you'd asked me at the time, I would've said that day was as normal as any. The weather was lovely, the sun was shining, and me and my team were enjoying ourselves. Kindle Road always proved to be a nice place to spend an afternoon, with its beach-edged mountainous paths, easy access to the volcano off in the distance for taking a hike, no shortage of trainers hanging out to battle with if our Pokémon were feeling particularly feisty, and then Ember Spa to relax at once it was all said and done. There were also sightings of Moltres, the legendary bird, hanging around the area too. I was sure that was indeed the case with the occasional blazes seen from Mt. Ember's peak, but I'd never seen it in the flesh. That was fine- I had already befriended a legendary bird of my own, and besides, I'm sure it was perfectly happy as it was.

… But perhaps I should explain something rather important before I get ahead of myself. I'm Champion Leaf of the Kanto region, and that title, at the time, had been mine for over 11 years. I started my journey along with two other champions, Red and Blue, both of whom I'm sure almost everyone is familiar with- they're legendary at battles too, after all. So legendary, in fact, that they left Kanto to compete in the Pokémon World Tournament in the Unova region, then left again to act as bosses of the Battle Tree in the Alola region. That's not even mentioning Red's stint on Mt. Silver in the Johto region, as apparently being the champion wasn't enough of a challenge for him. I hadn't seen either one of them in years, and that was perfectly fine- it gave me the time to shine brightest in Kanto's eyes while they did whatever it was they were seeking out to do. After all, someone had to look out for Kanto among all the crazy events of our world, and if two of the region's strongest trainers had left to go far away, then I'd remain.

And if they returned… it was me they'd have to take the title of 'Champion' from. I was, and still am, totally ready to defend my title against them if they ever tried to reclaim it. They'd have one hell of a time, that was for sure.

All that is to say… I knew battles. I knew Pokémon. It was a way of life, something I lived and breathed since I was ten years old and laid eyes on a lovely Squirtle in Professor Oak's laboratory. She was a feisty one, running all over the place and making playful jabs at the Bulbasaur and Charmander next to her. As soon as I saw her, I knew she was the one, and she seemed perfectly happy to accompany me too. Anyone can say what they like about how Charmander is the cooler starter, or how Bulbasaur matches up advantageously to the first two gyms a budding young trainer in Kanto would face, but I know I made the right choice. She had been with me for over a decade, and if there was any member of my team I could depend upon, it was her.

That day, Minako wasn't the only one out and about with me, though. Niko the Dragonite nonchalantly perched himself on one rock face, eyeing the sea without a care, as he usually did. Silva the Dugtrio spent around half her time under the ground, but she was always popping up intermittently to see what was going on above the subterranean world. Heracles the Heracross liked to butt heads with the Machokes and Machamps of the martial artists that frequented the area, but at the time, he was instead butting heads with Shanra, my Flareon, who was always happy to partake in a friendly rivalry. I had one other ball on my belt, holding Zuma, my Zapdos, but they didn't much care for venturing out on the beach. (Mt. Ember, though, was another story- perhaps because they liked the terrain better, or perhaps to try and draw out another legendary bird.) Had they wanted out, they would've come, and I wasn't going to pry.

Still, while Niko was lounging, Silva was exploring, and Shanra and Heracles were giving each other mischievous smirks, Minako gave me a look that all but said she wanted to go clash with another Gyarados.

"Hey, go have your fun down there if you want to; I'm not gonna stop you," I told her. "You know where to find me if you need a potion or two."

She nodded, pumping her arms again before gently throwing them around me in a little hug, then promptly vanished into the water. I wasn't worried about her at all- I could count on one hand the number of times she'd jumped into the sea and not returned because she'd been KO'd by something in the depths.

I folded my fishing rod up and strolled back to my bag set off to the side, but about the same time, Silva's head popped up from the ground directly underneath it and sent some of the contents spilling out.

"Trio!" she said, looking up at me.

"Hi, Silva," I said back, smiling at her too and giving one of her heads a pat.

"Trio," she repeated, vanishing back below the ground again.

I shook my head in hapless amusement at the contents of my bag being turned out onto the ground- some berries littered the sand and a max potion wasn't in the medicine pocket anymore. As I tried straightening them back up, I heard the sound of rock bursting over where Niko perched, and looked up to see Silva peeking out of the ground at him too with another 'Trio!' cry. The Dragonite gave her a nod of acknowledgement, and away she went again, never staying in the same spot for long.

Yet, as I was stowing my items away again, I caught sight of something else that I didn't recognize in my key items pocket. It was a ferry ticket, but obviously not my Tri Pass or Rainbow Pass that I used to traverse the Sevii Islands. On one side was a lovely depiction of an aurora, on the other what looked like a map to a triangular-shaped island that I was completely unfamiliar with, and… it all glowed beautifully. Surely, I would've remembered having something like that… but there was no way I'd placed that in my bag myself. It wasn't mine, and I had no idea where it could've possibly come from.

"What the…?" I said to myself, eyeing it confusedly.

Someone surely had to have lost it, and it looked quite valuable. How it ended up in my bag, I had no idea, but I figured that the owner was definitely missing it. Maybe it was some private ferry that I'd never used, a ship from a completely different region, or maybe it was just someone's pretty artifact- one way or another, it didn't feel like something I should've kept.

I darted over to the rock Niko perched on and called up, "Hey! Niko!"

He looked down at me, blinking his eyes. "Nite?"

"Uh, I gotta go see if this belongs to anyone," I explained, holding the ticket up. "I just told Minako I'd be here, but if she comes back up and I'm not back, can you tell her I'm still around?"

"Nite," he nonchalantly replied, giving a nod.

I quickly stuck the ticket into my bag for safe-keeping, threw it over my shoulders, and bolted back off to the rockier mountain path nearby where Shanra and Heracles were messing with each other. Shanra crouched down and held a few embers in his mouth, while Heracles shoved his horn under a smallish rock in preparation to hurl it, the both of them hardly giving me a glance as I darted past.

Ember Spa had its usual company- two black belts out for a run in front of it, and in the rockier cliffs south of the entrance, two martial artist siblings, a brother and sister, were out meditating while their Machamp and Primeape practiced some moves on the rocks.

"Hey! You guys!" I called.

The ones running paused, and the two of them meditating were jolted out of their zen mood.

"Leaf?" one of the running ones piped up, studying me a bit. "Something up?"

"What is it?" the sister of the meditating duo said, sounding just slightly annoyed.

"Did any of you… lose something?" I asked, not sure how else to put it.

Four sets of eyes studied me.

"Lose what?" the other of the running duo inquired.

"It's… a ferry ticket," I elucidated. "It looks pretty valuable. I found it in my bag but it's not mine, and I don't know who it belongs to."

A few glances travelled around the martial artists, and two of them went rummaging through their things while the other two shrugged.

"Nothing lost here," the brother of the meditating duo said, peeking through their bag and holding up a Rainbow Pass. "This is the only ticket we have."

"Same here," one of the running ones said.

That cut out four people it could've reasonably belonged to, at least. I told them to have a nice afternoon and went about asking the rest of the people on Kindle Road, all to similar answers- the picnickers weren't missing anything, the swimmers weren't carrying anything valuable out in the water, and the fishermen had no lost tickets to search for. I debated venturing over to Mt. Ember and asking the trainers there, but no, I hadn't visited the volcano at all that day and therefore there was no feasible way for the ticket to get in my bag if someone over there was its owner. I shrugged and shook my head, digging the ticket back out and giving it a befuddled look.

"… You're not here for no reason," I remarked, mostly to myself, since a piece of glowing paper obviously couldn't talk back.

With no luck, I returned back to the beach, where Minako, dripping wet from the sea, had come back and perched on the sand again with Niko taking up next to her. I obviously couldn't tell what they were saying exactly, but from Minako's gestures and intonations and Niko's nods and nonchalant smiles, she was probably telling him about some giant Kingler she'd gotten into a tussle with. My Blastoise looked at me and came running up, making some more cries before motioning at my bag.

I chuckled, opening the flap and taking out a hyper potion. "Here you go, girl," I said, spraying her with it. "Hey, look- you two can hold the fort down for me for a little while, right? There's something I need to check."

Minako didn't seem to care much, but Niko in particular took interest and gave me a funny look. Dragonites were smart, after all- he knew something was off.

"Nite…?" Niko's voice trailed off as he gently placed one of his hands on my shoulder.

"Don't worry, Niko," I assuaged him, giving his hand a pat. "I'm just gonna go talk with the nurse for a second." I turned to the only ball on my belt that wasn't empty and inquired next, "Zuma? Mind giving me a ride back to One Island?"

At that, the ball burst open and a shower of sparks made all of us back up, the large electrical avian freeing themself of the ball and perching in the sand. Zuma didn't have much to say, and instead knelt down enough for me to crawl onto their back. Their feathers always felt a bit tingly, but with an Electric-type, that was to be expected too. I gave Minako and Niko a little wave, and they too waved at me as Zuma flapped their wings, creating a little gust that kicked up some of the sand as they took off.

"Thanks, Zuma," I said softly. "I'm not sure what to make of this."

"… Zap," came a nonchalant utterance back.

I chuckled just a bit. "Have I ever told you that it never gets old having a legendary that lets me sit on their back?"

"Zap."

Zuma didn't seem to think much of it, but that was par- it was hard to ruffle a legendary's feathers as it was.

Still, in a few minutes, we landed on One Island and I jumped off. They stayed out of the ball and strolled alongside me to the Pokémon Center, where I strode straight up to the counter with the ticket in my hand, and the nurse took note of me right away.

"Leaf!" she greeted, scurrying over. "I see Zuma's in good health; did that Blastoise of yours get into another huge fight?"

I giggled, thinking that perhaps Minako was doing just that while I was on the main island, but shook my head. "No, I'm not here for healing," I replied. I stuck the glowing ticket on the counter. "You see a lot of trainers come by; has anyone lost something like this? It isn't mine and I don't know where it came from."

The nurse's eyes went slightly wide on seeing it, and she picked it up to study it. "You say you don't know where it came from?"

I shook my head. "I literally found it in my bag, but I know it's not mine. I've been using these ferries for a while and no one has ever given me something that looks like this, and I didn't go hunting it down either."

The nurse looked at me. "Well, you've been at this for a while, Leaf… You know that trainers sometimes have deliveries sent to the nearest Pokémon Center for them, and there have been special events in the past where items would be handed out to those who came by… This looks vaguely familiar, but I couldn't tell you what exactly it is. The ferryman in Vermilion sees a lot more people than we do out here in the Sevii Islands, so if I were you, I'd ask him."

I nodded, filing that bit of information away. "Thanks," I said, sticking that puzzling item back in my bag. "I think I'll do that."

I turned to walk back out with Zuma close behind, the nurse's call of 'Have a nice day, Leaf!' getting a little wave from me in return as I left.

I sighed haplessly, looking to my Zapdos. "Well, I guess that's what we'll do. Mind giving me another lift? I gotta go round everyone up again, then I'll hit the ferry back to Kanto."

Without a sound, they knelt down, and I climbed on.

It took me a little while to get ahold of the captain in Vermilion, busy man that he was, but as soon as I showed him the ticket…

"Lassie! It's been almost sixteen years since I've seen one of these!" the burly sailor exclaimed, clutching up the glowing ticket and staring at it in sheer disbelief. "Where did you get this?!"

He carefully stroked it with his fingers and held it up to the light, as if trying to look for some sign that it was a fake but not finding such. His eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets.

His reaction surprised me. "I… I don't know," I answered, smiling awkwardly. "I just… found it in my bag."

His eyes turned even more intense, and they turned on me next. "You just found it, lassie?"

I nodded. "I'm guessing it's valuable…?"

"'Valuable?!'" he cried. "Lassie! Valuable doesn't even begin to explain it!"

It was my turn to get wide eyes. "R-really?! I mean, I figured it was important, but…!"

With a swift motion, he thrust it back into my hands, and my hands furled around it as if my life depended on it.

"Lassie, that there is an Aurora Ticket," he explained. "That island you see on the back there is called Birth Island, and no one's set foot out there in over a decade. It's been so long since I've been out there myself that I had almost forgotten it existed until you turned up with this!"

That came as a definite surprise. I had a name for the ticket and the island on the back, which I was definitely happy about, but I was deeply intrigued by the rest of what the captain said.

"Here's the thing, lassie," he continued. "The fact that you found it can't be a coincidence. You don't ever hear of this happenin' anymore around Kanto, but way back in the day, sometimes, a really small number of people would find special tickets and other items like that mixed in with their things one day that they didn't put there, or some strange man at the Pokémon Center might hand them something like this and then never be seen again. We called 'em mystery gifts, and this here ticket was one of those items that a few folks got mysteriously gifted."

'Mystery gifts.' I'd never heard of such before, but I definitely filed it away in my memories.

"Really…?" my voice trailed off again. "So… this is a mystery gift…?"

"Sure is, lassie," the captain replied. "I can't believe I'm seein' one again after all these years, especially to an island like that."

"What's the deal with the island?" I pressed, perking up. "Birth Island, you said? Why does no one go there?"

He got a small smirk, crossing his arms and chuckling under his breath. "Ya see, lassie, those Aurora Tickets used to be used only by researchers and the strongest of Pokémon rangers back when the island was first discovered, since it's a place that ain't safe for the general public to go. You only got ahold of that ticket if you were the real deal. It's an absolute terror out there in more ways than one."

I perked up even more, eyes going wider. "How?" I asked intently. "Is that why I've never heard of this place?"

"That's right, lassie. It was all secretive business. The currents out there are dreadful, storms whip up at a moment's notice, and if you got a device like a phone or a radio, it stops working. Hell, the motor on our boat went out once and that was a huge ordeal- thank the gods someone had a Gyarados and a Lapras that helped us out. All that's pretty bad on its own, but the real issue is whatever's hiding out there, 'cause it's strong."

If nothing else caught my attention, then that did. "What is it?" I asked, more akin to a police officer interrogating a suspect. "Do you know…?"

"No one ever found out for sure," the captain replied. "Damn near every time we were out there, something would swoop down lightning-fast and attack the research group, or beams of energy would just start raining out of the sky. It's a Pokémon, but what species it is, we have no idea, aside from it probably being a Psychic-type judging by its attacks."

I nodded, taking that in as well. A strong Pokémon hiding on a nigh-unreachable island piqued my interest like nothing else. Clearly, it probably didn't like visitors, but the mere fact that no one could even deduce its identity spurred something within me.

"But Leaf, you're the champ," the captain continued, smirking a bit and looking me over. "I've heard all about your battles in the League. I know you've got some mad skills. Maybe that 'Mon isn't there anymore, but if it is… I bet you of all people would be able to get closer to it than the ones I used to ferry out there. The fact that you're gettin' that Aurora Ticket all these years later just proves it in my mind."

I thought about it. All these years of filling the Pokédex for Professor Oak, all these years of defending my title as the champion… and yet apparently there was something out there, something strong and evasive, that had eluded everyone for such a long time. If such a perfect combination of everything I'd ever worked for had presented itself, that was it.

I looked up at the captain, grinning. "Oh, I'm interested." I turned to the balls sitting on my belt. "What do you guys think? You up for battling something no one's ever laid eyes on?"

All of them but Silva jumped out onto the pier. Minako pumped her arms with a wild grin, Heracles and Shanra both looked ready to go and gave some happy cries, Niko gave a nonchalant 'Nite,' and Zuma merely nodded. Even if Silva wouldn't jump out onto the wooden boards beneath our feet, from the way her ball shook, I could tell she wasn't protesting it either. I turned to the captain, who gave a hearty laugh in turn.

"Alright, lassie, I'll take you now if you're ready," he said.

"Let's do this," I agreed. "I have to see this, even if that place is empty."

Soon enough, he was motioning me onto one ferry, one rather empty and small ferry with only me, my team, and him on it. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't bubbling with excited intrigue, and Minako looked like she was ready to fire off her cannons then and there. Wherever that mystery gift had come from, I was happy to have it.

… Little did I know what waited for me out there, however.

Author's note: Well, here I am again with another story that, much like the Mystery Dungeon fic I've been working on, I've had in my head since around 2017. The idea for this one came about as I was trying to shiny hunt Deoxys in LeafGreen after the wonderful people over at the Digiex forums made recreating the Aurora Ticket event distribution possible over a decade after it had ended. (I was rather young at the time it happened and missed it, alas, but for anyone like me, it's now possible to get it legitimately!) I was soft resetting before bed one night and had a dream about Leaf and the ferryman heading to Birth Island while having a conversation on the boat, and… well, that imagery kinda stuck with me, so the idea for this story started taking form. I'm sort of going with the idea of what would be happening if, say, there was indeed a little universe inside the GBA cartridge, and while the actual player is pulling the strings, the characters themselves are the ones having the experience. I'm using Leaf as the representative of the female player character while trying to stick reasonably close to mainline game lore (with some obvious adjustments and add-ins since this is a story and not a game), so Leaf's team is the same as mine.

Anyways, may the new year be better to us all than the previous one was.