Disclaimers: Refer to prologue.
Notes: First go at a pokemon fanfiction; humor me.
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Chapter One: The forcefulness of being something you ain't
Something in the back of her head told her that she should actually be up already or something similar to that, but she didn't feel like it. Not that that was a hard notion not to follow, as it was quite comfy and warm in her bed and the prospect of leaving it was horrible.
But it wasn't like she had much of a choice on that, either, as her mother came charging into her room without even knocking and was followed closely behind by her older brother. "Mitsuko! It's time to get up! Why did you have to go to sleep so late yesterday, girl?"
Mitsuko groaned in annoyance at this and mumbled right back, head in pillow; "Leave me 'lone…"
"Sorry sis, but you know the rules," her brother chortled, tugging at her blankets. Bad move.
Blindly groping, the girl managed to get a hand on her rather solid alarm clock and threw it at him without even looking. It hit him square on the head and he fell back with a yelp. Rubbing her eyes as she finally attempted to wake up, she scowled at both mother and son; despite the fact that they were family, she could not – and would not – forgive them for waking her up at such an ungodly hour.
"You have a long day today!" her mother reminded her sharply, waving a finger around, "And you know that you must get ready and leave as soon as possible! Oh, what would your father say?"
"Not much, remember?" muttered the black-haired girl as she tried to locate her brush and failed in doing so. Her father – her brother's father and mother's husband – had divorced from them five years ago and was currently residing in Goldenrod City without much of a thought for any of them. It wasn't that he was a bad father; just… highly misunderstood. And he hated the pokemon fetish almost as much as she did; thus came the radio's most unpopular show 'What's the point now?'. The funny part was that he had managed to make quite a small fortune with that show; how, no one knew.
They left her room and she grumbled to herself as she tried to make her hair free from tangles; a hard and tiring job without a brush, but no matter. At the foot of her bed sat the sort of clothes that she never wanted to wear in her life and, ignoring them, rolled out of bed and stumbled to the wardrobe in an attempt to find what she was looking for.
She grabbed her backpack and stuffed some extra clothes in them before adding her oddish doll and alarm clock and then, changing into a shirt, pants and parka before tugging shoes and socks on and leaving the room to get into the bathroom.
Wondering what else she would have to bring was a big problem and question for her, seeing as she would probably never come back her for as long as she lived and that… was sort of depressing. Sure the place annoyed her, but honestly.
So a couple of minutes later she tripped down the stairs, uttered words that made her mother reprimand her, and then finally managed to get into the kitchen without losing more than her dignity; if she had any, anyway.
Her brother smirked at her, "So what're you thinking, little sister?"
Again with the questions; she rolled her eyes, "Why the hell are you here, is one thing? But other than that, I just wanted to stay in bed. By the way, my alarm isn't broken, surprisingly; did you get brain damage from it then?"
"Shut up, Mitsu."
Sticking her tongue out in reply, she started on breakfast while her mother bustled around, chucking more stuff into her backpack all the while. What confused the girl was how she was going to be able to carry all that in the first place. Oh, the worries of it all. Then…
"Oh no! Where did it go?"
Now that her own mother was charging around the place, Mitsuko stifled a sigh and finished breakfast before standing by the door to watch her mother charge up and down the place like mad. Was she so desperate to get rid of her own child like that? Well, that was parents for you.
Half an hour later finally had her backpack organized and ready to go but the girl stared at it doubtfully. "How heavy is it?"
"Oh don't worry, you'll get used to it," her brother told her, patting her on the back. She stepped purposely on his foot before turning to other matters.
"And why do I have to go to New Bark Town anyway? It's too far away and it's dangerous. I mean, what!"
"It's just like that," her mother informed her before handing over something over, "And take this Pokegear. Call when you've made it safely across, okay? All the functions should be working." She kissed her daughter on the cheek and stepped back. "Take care now."
Mitsuko stared at her like she'd gone insane and then shrugged, stepping out of the house. Grabbing and straightening the bicycle that had been leaning on the fence, she turned to face her brother. "Why aren't you coming to help your dear little sis, hm, Taro?"
He scowled at her, "I'm here to challenge the gym leader, not to take care of you."
She raised an eyebrow at him, "And it took you five long years to get here. Good on you." Sarcasm wasn't her strongest of points but it was their way of showing affection to each other and she walked away, knowing that she was being watched but no longer caring.
The strongest emotion in her at this point and time was a sort of mixture between boredom and sulking; if either one was a true emotion. Not wanting to leave but being forced to really, really annoyed her as well, and now look what she was about to do. "I'm gonna be a pokemon master!" She snorted; that was so not going to happen.
"'Suko! Hey!"
At the sound of her name, she turned and watched as a girl two years younger than her stumbled over. "Arina… what are you doing here?"
The younger girl smiled slightly, "Just thought I'd say bye before you left forever and ever. Oh, and bro left early this morning as well." She added thoughtfully. Mitsuko blinked at this piece of information.
And then…
"So?"
"So?" Arina seemed indignant at this; a funny thing for an eight year old, "Don't you even care!"
So that was it… "Not in particular. Well, I better go before my mum tries to get me on my way with a frying pan." Without another word she sped off on her bike, leaving the child to pout to herself.
Bumpy and rocky roads were bad; riding them on a bike was worse. Of course, it was the fastest way to get down the large rocky trail of route whatever it was, not to mention that the wild pokemon tended to ignore freaks who were speeding past on two wheels.
But keeping the thing upright was another story and she had to put her entire focus on keeping it up than admiring the wonderful rocky cliffs that surrounded her; okay, so she wasn't missing all that much in the end.
The indignity of being where she was now without her consent pounded in her brain but she knew that there was no way for her to show it without being considered rude and selfish and all that usual stuff; so she had to hold it back and then explode unexpectedly one day.
These thoughts didn't stay long as her bike gave a sudden lurch and she shot forward with a yelp. Somehow managing to perform a summersault to avoid major injuries, she stumbled forwards, nearly unbalancing herself from the weight of her backpack. Really, what had her mother put in there?
Gasping for breath at the unexpectedness of it all, she glared at the rock that had stopped her ride's progress and approached it again, heaving it upright. She started when she heard a reedy voice behind her.
"New to all this, I believe?"
She turned around, suspicious the second her eyes fell on the old man who looked like he couldn't hurt a fly. "Yes, I am, as a matter of fact." And not at all excited about it either, she added to herself.
"Well, come with me; I can give you some handy hints on how to be the greatest master of them all--" the old man continued, but then noticed that she was already peddling off. "Hey!"
Ignoring the calls for her to come back, Mitsuko shook her head and continued on her way. It was slowly becoming less rocky and bumpy, but she still wasn't going to enjoy all this.
Well, unless she got eaten by a caterpie, it looked like the pokemon journey for her – which she didn't want to get involved with – was about to begin. Well, whoopdeedo and all.
If she had a flag that read 'sarcasm', she would have waved it around right now.
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And thus the wheel turns.
chrnoskitty: I know, I'm surprised myself; as much as I used to love it and all, it just flopped out. Blame me for playing the old silver version again and stuff XD I would never forget my other stories because of this, but… god, I'm so slow… XO
marthawolfer: I haven't decided what she starts with (if she ever gets there :D) and we just need another wavelength for this :) Thanks.