Aya Ketchum's Journal

19th September, 2040

'I really don't know why I decided to write all this stuff down now.

'It has been eight years since I found out the truth, after all. I guess maybe it's because of what happened yesterday. My life will totally change from this day forth, and perhaps I just want to get everything sorted in my mind before I begin this new journey. It could also be that now I'm eighteen I'm an adult, all grown up. The little Aya Ketchum must now make way for her mature form. And what better way to help this transition than to resolve that last lose end from my old life.

'I've had this journal since the beginning of my Pokemon journey, given to me by my mother the day I left home at the age of ten. She thought it would be as essential to me as anything else I could possibly take with me. I can recite every word of hers to me that morning like it was just yesterday. It has been locked up in this brain of mind for so long, and I hope it never fades. It has given me true inspiration.

'"You will have so many adventures and go through so many emotions in the years to come that it will be hard for you to remember every single important detail," she told me, as she pulled the leather-bound book from behind her back. "That's what this is for, so that when you're older you can look back and remember these days with perfect clarity. Believe me, that's the best gift you could give to your older self. These will probably be the most vital years of your life, and they must be cherished."

'I embrace every word of that as truth. She kept one just like it through her journeys and I can remember always begging her to read it to me as a child. Even now, when I go home, I often read it for myself, or sometimes sit with her as we go through the old journal. When she reads it, I can see the feelings it raises within her plain as day. Especially when she speaks of her early feelings for my father within those yellowed pages. She blushes at the way she used to think of him, how near the beginning she tells of how much she couldn't stand him, and of how infantile he was. Every page for the first few months has the words 'my bike' adorning them at least twice, often punctuated with an exclamation mark for good measure. I always find myself laughing at that. However then, shortly after, comes the slight crush she had for him, to the full-blown feelings of love, tinted with the fear of rejection. It also describes in detail their admission to one another of their true feelings, and the wonderful first year they spent together.

'But the entries stop suddenly shortly after that point. As a little girl, she never would tell me the truth behind why she finished with her accounts, just telling me that when she became pregnant with me, she decided that it wasn't important any longer. It was the end of her travelling days and she felt that it was time to put the journal to bed. I could never have imagined then what the true reason was, of the pain she went through that prevented her ability to continue her writings.

'I guess that is perhaps yet another reason why I have chosen to mark this all down on paper now. I have achieved my dream, am at the end of my travels, and coming to the last few pages of this now well-beaten book. What would be more fitting than to complete the journal my mother gave to me than to explain the events surrounding the abrupt end of hers?

'I always thought that everything in my life was perfect. I knew that my parents were young when I was born (my father was only eighteen and my mother barely twenty), that I was not planned, but they always told me that despite all of that, they were ecstatic at the news and wanted to do everything that they could to make a good life for me. They told me of the sacrifices they had to make, of the fact that they had to give up their travelling and find an apartment they could afford. My father took on another job along with his training and my mother helped at the local Pokemon Centre, hoping that when I was a little older she could train to qualify as a Pokemon Doctor. I never even considered the possibility they could be lying to me. I trusted them with all my being.

'I was two and a half when they married, but I never truly knew the reason for the delay. I guess I always assumed that maybe they weren't ready, that they had other things to sort out before taking such a leap, or perhaps that they just couldn't afford it, but I wouldn't have thought that it could be something like...that. The earliest memory I have is of my parent's wedding, a day that is joyously held in the forefront of my memory.

'My childhood was always incredibly happy. Shortly after my parents were married, after my mum qualified as a Pokemon doctor, we moved to my dad's hometown, Pallet. We lived with my nana for a little while, until my parents could save up enough money to put a down-payment on a house. I can always remember her spoiling me when I was a child, showering me with toys or candy, just like I'm sure she always did with my dad. She has such a sweet heart despite all of the hardships she has suffered in her life. She loves kids. She told me she always dreamed of having more than one, but when my grandfather walked out on her and my father, she gave up that dream. Maybe that is one reason why she tended to indulge her family so much. I really think it almost broke her heart when we moved out, despite the fact we moved to a house barely a five-minute walk away.

'After years of both working at Professor Oak's laboratory (to help pay the mortgage and other family expenditures) and training every second he could, my dad finally achieved his life-long dream, becoming a Pokemon Master when I was six. A year later my mum gave birth to Kai, my little brother, something they had been desperately trying for for years.

'Everything seemed to be going perfectly for our family. We had a beautiful house, in a peaceful little town, and my parents had almost completed work upon their own Pokemon gym. We wanted for nothing, and I thought nothing could change that.

'But then, everything you believe in can be shattered in a matter of a day.'

Golden Smile, Silver Tears - http://pokemon.raging.otaku.com
Raging Otaku - http://www.raging.otaku.com