Steel (Poke)Ball Run
Chapter 23 – VS THE OLD WORLD
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In the old world, the region that was known once as Isshu but now Unova, there is a story of twin heroes and two legendary, almost godlike Pokémon. Representative of truth and ideal, their story is that of tragedy.
Stepping out of seeming nothingness, came a small family known as the Tao Trio and a dragon. They were placed upon a gorgeous land and given the divine direction to cultivate it. To create a home for themselves. That land was to be called Isshu.
The older brother sought the ideals of the world. He wished to pursue philosophy. He held a belief that he had purpose in the world. He often spent time pondering humanity's place alongside Pokémon. He wanted to live a peaceful life of understanding. The Isshu that he wished to forge across the land was that of humble origins. People are born, they live, and then they die: they return to the waters in which they were born from. Perhaps, their soul remained. Lingered upon this mortal coil and became part of the winds and dusts of the region.
The older brother did not believe in grandiose displays of ostentatious wealth or ownership. He believed in ideal that was that people were as much as an extension of the land as the Pokemon and as the flora. For there to be peace, there had to be balance. Good could not exist without evil. To avoid harm, perhaps it ought to be a land of each to their own: wanderers and nomads; those who settled and those who would only know their land. Therefore, Isshu ought to be a land of loosely connected simplicity.
The older brother, he somewhat sheltered his young brother. As such, the younger brother came to desire truths. He had his own worldview. Yes, his brother was the most important person in his life, but they had a disagreement. The younger brother believed that the Isshu that they forge together should be one of unity. He believed strongly in the idea that all people and Pokemon are inherently good and therefore incapable of betraying the deepest, most intrinsic kindness. The Isshu that the young brother desired was one built upon sentimentality. His Isshu would be one of familial bonds that extended countless distances.
These twins shared a magnificent Pokémon the likes of which the world had never known - and have not known since. It was powerful and flowed with all the energies of truth and ideal. It was a dragon by nature but tamed. It would be the beast to help these heroes forge their ideal Isshu as per their fate.
Unfortunately, as the brothers grew older, their base values continued to deepen. These values became the core of the twin heroes' very essence. As they journeyed through the land and sought challenges to strengthen themselves and their dragon, they met all sorts of people. These people, they all belonged on a spectrum of truth and ideal. Some agreed with the older brother, some agreed with the younger brother, and then there were people with no opinion at all. Still, it was informative, but it was also what brought them to the brink of catastrophe.
The twin heroes began to fight. From the internal conflict, their beloved and faithful dragon was torn into two: unable to pick aside so it separated itself. To the older brother, a dragon known as "Reshiram" sided with it: a gorgeous dragon with white feathers and azure eyes. It could breathe a powerful and gorgeous flame from its mouth and was able to resist heats unknown This dragon would come to represent ideals.
And to the younger brother, the dragon known as "Zekrom" was born. It was a ferocious looking creature that hardened, black scales and vermillion eyes. Its call could summon horrific storms and its will came as swift strikes of lightning. This dragon would come to represent truths.
From the original dragon, its skin became a husk that grew deathly cold.
The twin brothers, with their twin dragons, by their sides decided to settle their conflict through a righteous duel. Their dragons clashed and clashed. The elements of fire and thunder at war with themselves in a seemingly useless cycle. The creatures, the brothers, were evenly matched. No side could conquer the other and so, the land they had sworn to unite, and foster turned to ashes.
That was, until, their younger sister who had abided by them both in the best and worst of times came forward. She was much younger than them both but allegedly, as wise as time itself. Though she was a gentle soul who believed in equilibrium, she had never once taken up arms - let alone against her dear older brothers, but she did.
With a caring caress upon the husk that was once the original dragon, she was able to awaken what was left of the creature's sentience. From her kindness, it awoke and a new being was born. A Pokémon that would come to represent neutrality, or what is left when there is neither truth nor ideal. A creature of ice yet unafraid of fire and lightning, it would fight. A creature of grey scales with lifeless, yellow eyes, a creature to be known as Kyurem.
Under the sister's command, Kyurem's roar parted the fighting and its master strode through the chaos. She was unafraid of the burnings surrounding her as she waded through the charred land that was once beautiful Isshu towards her brothers.
Seeing their sister fight using her own method which was peace, the twin heroes came to a realisation wrought with despair over their actions. So, the fire burnt out and the thunderclouds which had brought lightning dispersed. Isshu was no longer in danger but the conflict hadn't been resolved.
The only answer to the questions that the twin heroes were asking was that there was no answer.
Isshu did not require absolutes. It required a nuanced vision in order to construct a region in which all the people of it could be satisfied. As so, the brothers parted. The older brother became a nomad. With him, he took those who were migratory, and they became the types of people without fixed homes. They called rest wherever they laid. For them, it was good enough and they developed lifestyles and cultures around the principle of change and travel. This was their simplicity; there was to be no return for that would-be sentimentality.
The younger brother, however, chose a plot of land and with those who agreed with him, he constructed a society which suited him. He and his people raised crops and secured a lifestyle that was fixed. The only change was the betterment of buildings. This was their sentimentality; there was to be an utmost cherishing of the past for without it, they would have nothing.
As for the sister, it is unknown as to what happened to her. After all, there are no solid records of these siblings, just tall tales. Some speculate she journeyed to Alola after these events, but others say that she passed away not long after she and her brothers made their pact.
Before this Tao Trio parted, they made a pact. They promised each other that they would no longer fight and use the dragons as their weapons. The dragons known as Reshiram and Zekrom were deemed too powerful so as much as it saddened the siblings, they made the decision to seal the dragons away. The consecrated bodies of the dragons were then scattered across Isshu so that their power may never resurrect and cause calamity. As an unexpected effect, without the original dragons' existences, Kyurem ceased to exist. Its body turned to an icy stone also.
For a long time, it was unknown if this was true. This story belongs to a larger pantheon of beliefs of animism and multiple gods. Now, in 1890, it is hard to decipher if there could be any truth to it. After all, it seemed quite far-fetched. It had to be the lore of the Isshu-man to describe how the land had come to its unusual land shape. Not to mention, it totally contradicted what the colonising Kalosians believed so it was deemed heathen-like and as a result, purposefully destroyed and defiled so that it aligned with the monotheistic worldview of the Kalosian people.
Due to the destructive intervention of Kalosian people, most of that story had been lost and had become fragmented. Old families carried different stories with different influences. However, the existence of the sister had become obscurity until a discovery of a map.
The map was uncovered in a tomb in Alola a century and half after the Kalosian conquest of Unova in 1607. The map was a relic belonging to a woman named Lili; an immigrant woman famed somewhat in the area as one capable of speaking to the deities. Some records of her likened her to that of a saint but the truth of her renown is much simpler. She was likely a theistic scholar or something akin.
Lili was a journeywoman from Isshu who famously crossed to Alola, wherein she naturalised, and with the local people, she helped construct the Ruins of Conflict of Melemele Island; this happened before the Kalosian calendar, allegedly. Her motives for her pilgrimage to Alola are unknown as are how she even crossed to Alola.
Still, her map of Isshu era Unova became famous as the way she had drawn it. Had it not been for the outside detailing of her map, indicating that this land was in close proximity to Alola, people would have assumed that the drawing depicted a fantasy realm. The shape was unrecognisable as Unova for it was missing the peninsulas which Unova was famous for. However, it was the markings on her map that truly caught the imagination. It was unknown if those were settlements or if it was simply marking out safe camping spots for nomads. These cross-like markings were scattered across the map; nine in total and in whole, not all of them corresponded with a landmark such as a town, city, or even natural feature of the landscape like a waterfall or the like.
With the world always evolving with curiosities and peculiarities is unsurprising to decree that Lili's map did not remain famous for long. It took two, perhaps three, years before it became an obscure curiosity. Though at some point, this map was stolen, and it is unknown if it was destroyed or if it still in some thief's ancestor's safe keeping.
It's fate unknown that is, until 1890 and now Stephen Steel is looking at its parchment perfection. He can't believe it. He'd heard legends of it during his travels in Alola but at this point, he didn't think it was real. It had to be fake. This had to be some replication of it. But he knew better. He knew far better to grip onto such skepticism and denial; not when he was faced with what he knows.
Within the seeming simplicity of such a statement - Mr Steel had come face to face with a legendary map - there is quite complexities surrounding it. There are two circumstances surrounding such a sentence. One of which involves someone in conjunction of himself and the other of which involves two young heroes who have yet to realise their courageous mantle.