This chapter may seem a bit messy to fans. It'll blur the line between games, manga, and the nonexistent socially acceptable timeline of the series. There's sort of an inbetween year I could probably put the story in, but I'm not interested in doing the research so unfortunately the only half-baked stupid excuse for this potential mishmash is, "It's my fanfiction and this is what I'm doing." But I think it turns out kind of fun this way. Still, it might not hurt to take notes to keep track of what's going on. Just as a heads up.

Fuji's house seemed just like any of the other houses in Lavender, but unlike the others there were no homeless people to be seen on the streets around it. Kurishimi and Chad couldn't see any physical differences between it and the other houses beyond the fact it was sturdy enough to support a second floor until they came inside and found it to be well furnished and decorated. Fuji gave them a couple seconds to look around before taking them upstairs and showing them to separate rooms. Kurishimi noticed heavy equipment and large computers in some rooms, but wasn't allowed sufficient pause to get a good look inside. After she was taken to her room she started looking at the pictures decorating the walls and found separate pictures of both Surge and Akuma, with two of those pictures being of Akuma.

Surge was standing in front of his gym next to a Raichu and Magneton with one arm raised in motion towards the gym. Kurishimi assumed it was a picture of when Surge became the gym leader of Vermillion.

Akuma's first picture was from back when he was a young boy. He was wearing an open mouthed smile while hugging a Charmander beside an older male in his late teens while Gastly floated over the boy's shoulder. The other person was looking down at Akuma with a soft smile with one hand patting his head, but his eyes were blank and soulless as if the smile was being faked. Kurishimi didn't recognize the boy or feel anything familiar from him, but he did bear a slight resemblance to the Akuma of today. It was most likely the dead uncaring expression he wore though.

The second picture of Akuma was from when he was in his early teen years. He stood beside a posing Charmeleon and Gastly, and at his feet was a purple blob of a Pokémon. Kurishimi checked her pokédex to find it was a Pokémon named Ditto whose only skill was to transform into other Pokémon and fight with the transformed Pokémon's abilities. Kurishimi didn't need the pokédex to tell her it was difficult to raise one of those Pokémon. Akuma himself wasn't quite as enthusiastic in this picture. He was still smiling, but it was a peaceful, content, and confident smile. It looked so natural that Kurishimi wondered why Akuma didn't smile regularly anymore.

But it was late enough already and she didn't want to be up at night in a strange town. Kurishimi was tired anyway so she changed her clothes and went to bed.

In the morning after Kurishimi came out of her room there was someone waiting for her outside the door. He took her to a dining room where Chad and one other person were already seated. They were informed they would be served breakfast shortly. After Mr. Fuji and three others joined them breakfast was served. As they ate, Mr. Fuji asked Kurishimi and Chad to recount their recent experiences with Akuma to him. Once again at the mention of Akuma's name the other people in the room became frightened and amazed just as the last two people had been. Mr. Fuji ignored their reactions so Kurishimi and Chad decided to do the same. Kurishimi relayed her story from the battle before she and Akuma entered Mt. Moon to the time when they entered Saffron City. From there Chad took the opportunity to introduce himself, then told about his first meeting and the two of them went back and forth until after the battle at night with Team Rocket. Mr. Fuji listened intently, as did the other people at the table, occasionally asking small questions when the story tellers missed a detail. After the description of the nightly battle Fuji was satisfied and rose from the table. All the people left the room through various doors except for one who appeared to remain in order to stay with the older man. Fuji requested that the younger trainers accompany him for a tour throughout the facility when Kurishimi finally spoke up.

"Mr. Fuji, we appreciate your hospitality greatly, but we're very confused about this entire situation. We only recently found out that Akuma came from Lavender Town but besides that we've been completely in the dark about everything related to him. After all this time we don't know who Akuma really is or what he does. Until he mentioned you we never thought he had any friends or acquaintances other than Surge or maybe Bill. You mentioned Akuma was a 'hunter' last night and whenever we mention his name around here we see strange looks between other people or shocked and frightened faces as best we can interpret. Even though Akuma suggested we come to you specifically we have no clue about who you are either. We've been trying to figure out what this whole thing means and what your relationships are, but we haven't come up with anything pleasant. While I would personally enjoy a tour of your operation or business or whatever it is you do here I would prefer to know just who and what you are before we do anything else."

Mr. Fuji tapped a finger on his cane as Kurishimi pleaded her case. "So Akuma has told you nothing about us, correct?"

"That's right. Whenever I ask him he says it isn't our business or when he's in a good mood he says that if he does tell us anything it won't make a difference in our training. I do know that he used to be a trainer like we are and that he collected two badges once upon a time as well as the fact that he has a personal vendetta against Team Rocket for reasons he didn't want to mention. He could be nobody, a hero, a master, or a criminal for all we know. Mr. Fuji, please can you give us some answers?"

Mr. Fuji sat back down in his chair and thought quietly to himself while Kurishimi and Chad waited politely. Finally he said, "Very well, but it's a long story. If you have little patience I suggest you change your mind now."

"I asked for an explanation, I'll be fine with waiting," Kurishimi confirmed.

"I'm pretty curious about him too. I can wait through a long story," Chad said.

Mr. Fuji smiled at their responses and wasted no time in beginning his story.

"First I will give you some background leading up to the events of today. Some eighty years ago my daughter, Amber, was killed in a terrible accident. I was heartbroken and refused to accept her death. I contacted the research facility on Cinnabar Island that had just succeeded in resurrecting the first Pokémon fossil. I asked them if they could resurrect a person in the same way by using fresh DNA samples. I was a fool for trying to do so, but I was so stricken with grief that I simply didn't care anymore. Unfortunately the procedure would cost far more money than I could afford so I contacted the only man I knew who could help me. That man was named Giovanni, the former head of Team Rocket in those days. He agreed to provide funding in return for my asking the research team to create a special clone of his choosing. Without thinking about the consequences I agreed. A few months later the facility was demolished by a massive explosion of unknown origins. I later found out he had commissioned a clone of the Pokémon Mew, but it had been genetically altered to become the most powerful Pokémon in the world and had destroyed the laboratory in its escape. I assume Giovanni attempted numerous times to get it back and failed because he soon contacted me with a new proposition. Because the cloning facility had been destroyed there was no way for me to resurrect my daughter. I had since resigned to let her spirit rest, but Giovanni could rebuild the facility in exchange for my help. Once again I was blinded and agreed to assist him.

"My job was to find and capture this Pokémon and bring it to Giovanni. He would then begin work on bringing Amber back to life. I assembled the strongest trainers and Pokémon I could find and set out to capture this Pokémon. After a long time we found it and tried to capture it, but my team was destroyed almost instantly. The Pokémon was much too powerful for us to handle. The best of the best didn't even get an opportunity to begin trying. Those that managed to survive came back to me to give their report. Finally I gave up on the chance to get my daughter back and never tried again. I told Giovanni that I had to withdraw from our agreement. Since neither of us had gained or lost any more than the other he agreed to terminate our partnership. However I realized from this whole ordeal that even the best of trainers have their limits. To help those who wanted to surpass their potential I founded this organization under a different name than it currently has. I began to train anyone with high skills who felt like they and their Pokémon weren't battling at their full potential. Because we were all limited in our Pokémon knowledge we helped each other grow and learn as we went along. In time many people dropped out after the training sessions we had devised became too difficult for their Pokémon to safely handle. Only a small handful remained in the end, but they all learned from each other and in time they became the strongest trainers I knew, even more powerful than those I had originally sent to recapture the clone.

"Soon others began to hear of my men due to rumors among what remained of the town's population at the time. Some believed we were raising an army while others thought we were planning a revolution of sorts. The Elite Four and Pokémon champion from the Kanto Pokémon League eventually got wind of these rumors and came by to investigate as well. We were open and honest with them of course since we had nothing to hide. Three of them were even interested in staying to train as well! While they initially didn't approve of some of our methods they came to understand our dedication in due time. We also learned that we needed to adjust our training for those who were not used to the way we worked however strong or weak they may be. Unfortunately we became bored with our abilities and began to grow stale. There was no point in staying strong after reaching the final goal we had set for ourselves.

"About that time we were known among every city from here to the Hoenn region. There were also a great deal of troubles in the world at that time and we wanted to help where we were able. Those who were able to would hire us for various jobs and we accepted. During some emergency situations we assisted in the arrest of various small criminal groups as well. We even managed to arrest Giovanni's successor after his retirement. Of course we were not the police, but we did work with them. There were soon many who knew of us to the point where we couldn't keep up with the requests we received. It was what we refer to as our golden years. But as you can tell, we aren't very well known anymore among the common folk. We were only human of course, and so we were easily susceptible to corruption.

"Some of our members soon began to disappear both on the job and off. We heard no trace of them and nobody could find them until about three years after the first disappearance happened. The third strongest member in our group named Nascour was found to have taken position as second in command in an evil hearted group of trainers known as Cipher in the Orre region. We found out about this occurrence after he and his group were arrested. We then began to send out some of our more trusted members as spies and found that most others had also become criminals as well. We had to cancel many of our contracts so those of us who remained could find these renegade members. Many were caught, but there are still a handful of members who are unaccounted for today. To this day I still worry about where young Wes might have gone….

"When people discovered what had happened we were ordered to disband. We agreed to do so since most of the problems we were contracted for had been solved anyway and our people caused more trouble than we could handle. However there were still others who appreciated us and wanted to make use of our services. They set up a hideout for us to continue our operations in secret, but we were too stretched and worn down to continue our work and mistrust among our members remained high. To the donors I said I declined their offer and would shut down our group for good, but I quietly requested that the new facility be built anyway. I took aside the three most trusted members of the team and told them we would continue our work in secret; separated from the outside world. From then on we were rarely called on to settle disputes and no one was the wiser. After keeping our eye on previous members we did call back one other person to join us that we knew we could trust, but the rest never found out. When we found someone powerful and of good character we considered bringing that person into our group as well, though situations were very rare that this would happen: twice a year at most, though usually no new members were added for years.

"We currently have a total member count of thirty, though this number is stretched across every region. Including those in this building we have ten people here in Kanto with no more than three people in other regions. We currently specialize in hunting important criminals and troublesome Pokémon that are causing problems and breaking the harmony within regions. Criminals are dropped off outside police stations and no one sees anything while Pokémon are captured to be trained and raised by worthy trainers. This is why our members are referred to as hunters and our organization is named The Pokémon Hunters.

"Now I can answer your questions about Akuma. When he was still very young he was orphaned like many other kids in Lavender whose parents usually die or abandon them. I still don't know what happened to his parents unfortunately. However I make it a point to provide as best I can for the children of this town and Akuma was no exception. We aren't a greedy people here. We've been putting as much as we can into the restoration of this town with just enough left to support our work. I looked out for Akuma as did the rest of our members as he grew up. Even though Akuma lived in a horrible town such as this he was always a positive and energetic boy. He made the other children happy all the time too. One day a Pokémon trainer passed through here and Akuma was fascinated by her and the Pokémon she carried. Even though she wasn't staying long he persuaded her to stay in town and teach him what it meant to be a trainer. She stayed for three days and taught him all she could as well as answering all of Akuma's endless questions. Both of them were sad when she had to leave, but Akuma was almost pushing her out of the city when she left. He wanted her to have as much fun as he wanted to someday and he made a promise to himself that he would become a trainer as soon as he could. Even though it would cause him a great deal of sadness, Akuma still wanted everyone else to enjoy life to the fullest. He's done more than his share of self-sacrifice over his life.

"Anyway, on his tenth birthday Akuma went into the Pokémon tower and captured his Gastly. He knew that after passing the acceptance test in Saffron he would receive the standard starter Pokémon, but he was also aware that in between the two cities there were some territorial Pokémon that could attack him and naturally he wanted defense for himself. I've yet to see a bigger smile on his face than that day. He came back after passing his test to say goodbye to everyone and set off for what we expected was the last time, but someone of his personality and character wasn't prepared for what the outside world really was.

"One day Akuma returned home very sad. He had been convinced that he had no talent and was going to quit being a trainer. He had returned to every place he had captured his Pokémon and released them all except for his Charmander and Gastly. After he had returned to his old self I took him to my house and offered to train him to become a better trainer. He was reluctant at first, but I knew he needed a confidence boost so I did my best to persuade him until he gave in. We had to relearn how be gentle with new trainers, but we adapted quickly enough. When he became twelve years old we had turned Akuma into a competent trainer and requested that he set off on another journey across Kanto with his Pokémon, but this time he would not collect badges. He would learn from his Pokémon just as they learned from him as there were lessons he could only learn on his own. Akuma agreed, and I lent him my Ditto to assist him where it could.

"Our training with Akuma seemed to work. At some point he snuck off to the Sinnoh region to learn more without our knowing, then came back to see us before he left for the Hoenn region. During his visit we found Akuma had become very strong on his own and his Pokémon were even stronger and healthier than some of ours were. At this time we began to consider recruiting him just based on his level of growth, but decided he was still too young. While Akuma traveled in Hoenn our operatives kept an eye on him from time to time and reported back to us. What we learned was very surprising. It seemed that when Akuma gave some of us a duel during his brief stay here he had been holding back. When he fought others in Hoenn he could make a clean sweep of their team while rarely using more than one of his own Pokémon. Strangely he never battled the gym leaders in any region despite how much he was excelling in ability and confidence.

"I forgot to mention also that when Akuma became a trainer he requested that I take care of the Pokémon he caught so he knew they would be safe. While he traveled throughout Hoenn he captured a large number of Pokémon and we received every one. We also watched them grow stronger when he asked us to send him some on occasion no matter how long they stayed with him. During his Sinnoh trip, Akuma caught a Beldum which he kept with him almost all the time. It soon became a recognized member of his team as even we in Kanto heard some rumors about a strong mysterious trainer in Hoenn who used a Beldum in every battle he fought. After it evolved the rumors changed to that of a trainer with a Metang. Needless to say we began to have second thoughts about excluding Akuma from our group simply because of his age.

"Without his knowing we began to put Akuma through some tests. We would tell him that we wanted a specific Pokémon for study purposes and asked if he could get one for us. He didn't ask us questions at the time since he was still happy and naïve at the time; not as cynical and untrusting as he currently is. There were other such small tasks we gave him and he accomplished them all in a timely fashion. Eventually we decided that it would be best to have him on our team as soon as he returned and we began preparations to do so. Unfortunately a crisis soon happened in Hoenn and we were once again contacted for our unique and exclusive services."

Yes, we have one more chapter of background exposition. I'll try to get it up as soon as possible. Look on the bright side though! At least it isn't as trippy and confusing as the Kid Icarus: Upring plot! :D