A/N: Even though I haven't got much more written, I did say yesterday that the next chapter might be coming that same day, so even though it was just a 'maybe,' I thought you might like it if I upload this now. However, I will warn you that the wait between uploads will probably get longer as the story progresses, since I've noticed that these newer chapters have been taking a bit longer to write. Maybe it's because of trainer battles, which I find aren't as simple to write as the parts where Kris isn't battling. When she's not battling, it just comes to me so easily, her thoughts, her actions, it all seems obvious to me sometimes, so I write it so quickly. Battles aren't so simple. Usually I look up the attacks the Pokemon in the battle can learn so I don't, for example, make Rattata use bite when, as it turns out, (according to Bulbapedia) it isn't one of the moves Rattata can learn by level up. It can, however, learn hyper fang and super fang. Strange, but whatever, good thing I looked it up.

By the way, in case it wasn't obvious, I'll be using an underlined P for the symbol for Pokedollars. So, when there's a P after a number, that's what that means.

I don't really know when I'll have the next chapter ready, but I'll write as much as I can and try not to keep you waiting too long.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.


As I wake up, I notice a warmth beside and partly on top of my feet. I lift my head up to see a green shape leaning on me.

"Good morning, Chikorita." I said with a yawn. She stirs slightly, but I don't think she's completely awake. "Someone's been sleeping on my bed, and she's still there!" I say in a childish voice, referencing the well-known children's story of Goldilocks, who went into the house of Mama Ursaring, Papa Ursaring and Baby Teddiursa and ate their porridge, sat on their chairs and slept in their beds. I smiled as I realised that Chikorita must have decided that she wanted to be close to me and so came to sleep on me bed with me. Plus, my bed must be more comfortable than the makeshift bed I made for her out of a cushion and blanket on the floor. Finally, after a yawn and a stretch, Chikorita walked to the edge of the bed, jumped down, and then looked up at me.

Feeling a wave of excitement as I remembered just what had happened yesterday and what would be happening today, I flung the covers aside and jumped out of bed. Careful not to trip over Chikorita, I quickly made my way around my room to gather my clothes for today. Since I usually wore light colours, I changed into yellow shorts and a red shirt. It was a warm enough morning and I wasn't cold yet, so instead of putting on a jacket for now I instead put my white jacket next to my bag, knowing I'll need it later. I brushed my hair and then grabbed two hairties and left them around my wrist for now to tie my hair in my usual two ponytails later. I finally looked down at Chikorita, who had been looking around the room as if waiting for me.

"Come on. Breakfast?"

"Chiko!" I headed down to the kitchen with Chikorita bounding along ahead of me. I look to the kitchen, where I see Mum, who seems to have also just gotten there as I see here start to kettle to make herself a coffee.

"Good morning," She says.

"Good morning," What else is there to say? What do you even say to someone when you're going to be leaving them soon? I grab two pieces of bread and put them in the toaster. While I wait for my toast, I pour the contents of the packet of Pokemon food I got from Professor Elm into a bowl and put it on the floor for Chikorita. When my toast was ready, I spread Bluk Berry jam on it and then poured myself a glass of Oran Berry juice.

"Here, put this on your Pokegear." Mum said and handed me a cartridge to install some sort of app on my Pokegear. I grabbed my Pokegear and put in the cartridge to see what it was. "It's a money transfer app. A lot of travellers use them, so they don't have to carry around their money. Instead, the money's all digital. They have a device in shops so that you can pay just by scanning your Pokegear. And after a Pokemon battle when the losing trainer pays the winner, they tend to just transfer the money by typing in the other person's account number. The best part is, if you ever want to send money home to me to save up your money, you just click on my name, since you can save account numbers under a name like you do with phone numbers, and you can send money through."

"It looks great Mum, thanks." I said, looking around on the new app.

"And look, you've already got a transfer. I sent you 3000P to get you started." I looked at my balance to see that I did in fact have 3000P in my account.

After I finished my toast, I took my plate to the sink and washed it. Seeing that Chikorita was done eating, I then washed her bowl and then put her into her Pokeball. It occurred to me that I'd probably need something to give her food in if I'm not in a town, so I found a small plastic bowl and took it. I also noticed that even though Chikorita had stopped eating anymore and was clearly full, there was a bit of food left in her bowl. Had I given her too much? Or maybe she's just not hungry. Regardless of the reason, I grabbed a container and saved her leftovers for if she wants a snack for later.

Finally, I went back to my room to pack my bag. I figured I'd need a bigger bag than my usual bag, so I grabbed a backpack. I packed some essential things, like a few sets of clothes including my favourite pyjamas. Plus, my hairbrush, my toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste, as well as a few spare hairties in case I lost some. Then I packed all the Pokemon-related items, such as Chikorita's bowl and the Pokeballs and potion Professor Elm's assistant gave me. But I slipped Chikorita's Pokeball just in a small pocket in the front of the bag, knowing I'd need to grab it quickly if I were attacked. I considered, but then decided against bringing a sleeping bag, seeing as I don't think the routes in Johto are too long that I'd be too far away from a town when I needed to go to sleep. Deciding I should have something just in case of emergency, I grabbed my favourite blanket, which if need be, I could have one side of it underneath me and fold it over to cover myself similar to how a sleeping bag works. The blanket wasn't very thick and so, when folded the right way, didn't take up much space in my bag. I tied my hair into my usual two ponytails, put on my yellow hat, put on my socks and shoes and my white jacket, hung my Pokegear around my neck. It was a weird feeling. It was like I was scared to admit that I was ready. I was ready to go, ready to leave home.

"Don't forget this," Mum said as I got back downstairs. I put the container of leftovers into my bag. "You can save money on lunch today."

"Don't worry, I won't spend money willy-nilly on restaurants all the time. I can always make something to eat." Even just something as simple as buying a loaf of bread to make sandwiches with, I thought. One loaf of bread can last a while and could save me the money I would spend at restaurants. "I am going to miss your cooking, though."

"That's why I made your favourite dinner last night. As soon as I found out you had a Pokemon, I just knew you'd want to be a trainer and go travelling. I knew you wouldn't be able to resist. So, I made your favourite as a nice little send-off, and to celebrate the start of what could be an adventure and an amazing experience for you."

I smiled at her words and set my bag down on the floor beside me. I closed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around her. We were never a very huggy family, but this was just one of those moments. After a few seconds we pulled away and I picked up my bag and flung it over my shoulder.

"Bye Mum," I let out a small laugh. "I'll call you as much as you want me to, so don't worry. It'll be like I'm still here."

"I hope not. This is your time, Kris, to try things out on your own, learn to be independent in ways you may not expect. But of course, I'll be here, and you can call if you need anything. Though I don't know much about Pokemon, so with those kinds of problems you should just call Professor Elm. But emotional support? I'm here if you need it. Bye, Kristal. Good luck out there battling gym leaders." I nodded, and with that, walked out of the house. And that was it. Just like that, I'd left.

Strangely enough, I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be. I thought about this as I walked through Route 29. A small bird Pokemon, like the one I'd battled before, flew over to attack. I ducked out of the way and pulled out my Pokedex to finally find out what it was. 'Pidgey', the 'tiny bird Pokemon', was what I read on the screen. I grabbed Chikorita's Pokeball, more excited to battle wild Pokemon than I was before. I'm going to need all the practice I can get if I'm going to be challenging gym leaders.

"Go, Chikorita!"

"Chiko!"

"Razor leaf!" She shot leaves at the Pidgey, but this one was smart. It flapped its wings to create a gust of wind that blew the leaves away before flying forward for a tackle. I watched as it got closer to Chikorita, about to hit her… "Jump!" I called out. She quickly jumped up and landed on the Pidgey's back. Being a small bird, it began to struggle to stay in the air, being weighed down by Chikorita. As it drifted towards the ground, Chikorita jumped down and then tried another razor leaf, this time a direct hit. "Nice one, Chikorita. Okay, now tackle it." The Pidgey attempted to get back in the air again, but before it could get too far off the ground, Chikorita jumped up and tackled it, and it fell to the ground again, this time staying down. "Yes! Nice job Chikorita!" I returned her to her Pokeball and kept walking.

I once again noticed the building that leads to Route 46 and thought maybe I should look and see what it looks like that way, even if I'm not going that way. I went into the building and out through the door on the other side. I looked around but couldn't see that much as there was a cliff not too far in front of me. Realising this was basically a dead end, I went back into the building.

"Lost?" Asked the man at the counter in the building.

"Um…" I wasn't really sure how to respond. I wasn't quite lost, I knew that was Route 46. I guess I was just looking around. "Not exactly. Just exploring a bit. Not sure where to go next. I want to try challenging the gyms. Not sure where to go first. Is there any particular order people challenge them in?"

"Not really, people just go for whichever is closest and get to them all by travelling all over the region." He told me. "I'd recommend Falkner's gym in Violet City to start off with, I'd say it's the closest, unless you wanted to climb that cliff to get to Blackthorn City. Besides, I hear Clair's dragon Pokemon are pretty tough, especially for a first-time gym challenger."

"So, it seems Violet City's the way to go. Is it far past Route 30? I've only been as far as Mr. Pokemon's house." It then occurred to me that I did have a map on my Pokegear. I opened up the map feature and looked for Violet City. "Oh, it doesn't look too far."

"Exactly. Route 31's quite a short one. You shouldn't have too much trouble getting to Violet City."

"Thank you, bye." I never understood why some people didn't like asking for directions. It's kind of fun, provided that the person you ask is pleasant of course, in which case you feel less like a helpless wreck who doesn't know where to go and more like you're having a nice conversation with a friendly stranger who is helping you out. I walked off and out of the building, looking at my Pokegear and reading its description of Violet City. Its slogan is, 'The City of nostalgic scents.'

As I walked along through the grass, I nearly tripped on something and looked away from my Pokegear to see that it was another one of that brown furry Pokemon from the first time I ever battled a wild Pokemon. I checked the Pokedex to see that it was called Sentret, the scout Pokemon. I once again grabbed Chikorita's Pokeball.

"Go Chikorita! Razor Leaf!"

"Chiko!" The Sentret tried to attack first, lunging forward for a tackle or a similar physical attack, but was hit with leaves that Chikorita shot.

"Sentret!" It shouted.

"Now tackle it!" Hearing my command as a warning, the Sentret curls itself into a ball in order to be less hurt by Chikorita's attack. It then uncurled itself and scratched Chikorita. "Vine whip, and then razor leaf!" Chikorita used her vines to knock the Sentret back away before shooting it with a barrage of leaves. It fell to the grass, defeated. "Nice job Chikorita. Return."

I returned her to her Pokeball and kept walking. I noticed the berry tree I had taken an Oran Berry from yesterday had regrown its berries, and so I went over to it and picked another. I guess it's true that these trees regrow their berries every day. After taking the Oran Berry and putting it into my bag, I walked the rest of the short distance into Cherrygrove City without any wild Pokemon hassle. Even though I didn't think Chikorita had taken that much damage in the battles we'd had so far today, just to be on the safe side I stopped off at the Pokemon Centre.

Wait… what is that lady at the counter going to think? I wondered, as I walked toward the Pokemon Centre. Hang on, maybe she'll happen to not be working today. But I was proven wrong when I walked in and recognised the same woman at the counter. Okay, okay, so maybe this won't be so bad. Maybe this is one of those few times when joking around might be a good idea. Like how people say if you fall over in public you should just laugh it off so it's not so embarrassing. Yeah, that's what I'll do, just joke around. What's the worst that could happen?

"So, what happened to not being a trainer?" She asked, taking the Pokeball from my hand without me even having to ask her to heal Chikorita.

"Eh, I got bored of that." I shrugged. "Thought it was time for a change, try something new." Wait no, now she's gonna think I just randomly decided to try being a trainer on a whim. I'm gonna seem like some rookie who doesn't know what they're doing. Well, to be fair, I am technically a rookie, having just started, but I don't want her to look down on me as if I don't know what I'm doing, I am still a trainer. Ugh, why do I think so much about what other people think of me?

"Mm hm," she just says, walking away with the Pokeball. I go and sit down and wait the few minutes it takes until she calls out, "Chikorita's trainer," There was no pause in her sentence like the first time I came here. No more uncertainty now, because now I really was Chikorita's trainer. I happily went to the counter to get the ball back from her and left the Pokemon Centre.

I was excited. So excited to explore the rest of Route 30 that I didn't see yesterday and then see Route 31. It seemed like such a small thing, seeing routes 30 and 31, but to me, it sounded so exciting! And I was so excited to get to Violet City and see a place I'd never been. That's where all of this excitement came from. I was so excited to see new places, to travel, to explore, and to really be on an adventure.


A/N: When I was a little kid playing Crystal for the first time, the entrance to Route 46 confused me when I first saw it, since it seemed to be a dead end and there wasn't really anything of interest there (except the grass where Chuggaaconroy found his Phanpy right after he cut the recording). So, that's why I had Kris look around there.

I know, not much happened in this chapter. Originally this was going to be part of the next chapter, but then I realised the chapter would be really long, so I had to find a good place to split them into two. Next time, we will finally see some more trainer battles, her only trainer battle so far was against Silver and that didn't go so well, but we'll see how this goes. And finally, we'll make it to Violet City! See you then!