Work Text:
There is a boy who emerges from sleepy old Violet City and makes something out of himself. There is little to be found in Violet City other than a trembling tower filled with Bellsprout, a Pokémon School that teaches more children from surrounding towns than the city itself, and a Pokémon Gym led by an aging Leader. It adds a boy with long eyelashes to its list of treasures, and they whisper Itoshi with pride as all of Johto watches him and his Pokémon compete in the final round of the Silver Conference.
This boy is not Rin; it’s Itoshi Sae.
Rin is sitting in the stands watching the Silver Conference with his parents. The three of them had faith in Sae’s ability to demonstrate his strength against the best Trainers from Johto. Sae had surpassed their parents’ expectations when he left the final rounds of the competition with a bulky golden trophy in his arms; Rin expected nothing less from the very start because he’s always believed in his brother.
They have dreams of becoming the best Trainers in the entire world, and surely the Silver Conference is only the first stepping stone. Rin hasn’t seen his brother since he set off on his journey, and in that time Sae has turned a year older, gathered a team of six Pokémon, collected eight badges, and become much, much stronger than when he left home. He waves wildly at Sae from his seat, a figure lost among the crowd but a figure that Sae at least knows.
The invitation to travel to Indigo Plateau as a challenger of the Elite Four is a greater gift than the Silver Conference trophy though. Rumor has it that one of the Elite Four members is hoping to step down soon, and in addition to the Gym Leaders, the recent Indigo Plateau Conference and Silver Conference victors will all have their names added to the shortlist of potential successors. The Indigo League Champion himself stands by Sae’s side right now, and for a second as he flaps his arms, Rin dreams of carrying himself with the same strength and confidence.
Sae finally glances over at them. There is no smile on his face despite his oversized trophy and the cheers echoing through the stadium. Rin makes eye contact with his brother and continues waving, because he’s so proud of his brother and so very eager to set off on his own journey next year.
But Sae only turns away to shake the hand of the Champion one last time before leaving the field.
“He must be tired,” his father says kindly. Rin wasn’t the only one who went ignored; Sae hadn’t waved back to any of them.
Rin lowers his hands and thinks of all the reasons why his brother didn’t notice them. The crowd is huge, and even if they’re sitting in the first row, there are so many faces that it must be overwhelming to pinpoint three of them. Perhaps he’s imagining their split second of eye contact and Sae really is exhausted after a week of battles and wants to maximize his rest time before he goes to the Indigo Plateau. Maybe he was told to go backstage as soon as possible to discuss his plans to challenge the Elite Four.
At any rate, Rin returns to sleepy old Violet City. It’ll be alright. He’ll see Sae soon, and when his brother is back, Rin will be able to congratulate him on his progress to their dream of becoming the very best. When his brother is back, surely Rin will be able to see him smile again.
.
There is still no smile on Sae’s face when he returns to Violet City three weeks later, no smile when he sees Rin. There is only a broken dream that can never be pieced together again and the sharp loss of someone who was once important to him.
“Do you hate your brother?” someone asks him a year later, the words echoing through the elevator of a radio tower experiencing a revolution.
Rin wants to say yes. He wishes he could say yes. There is a Noctowl resting in a Pokéball clipped to his belt, a partner that has been by his side ever since Sae woke him up in the dead of night only one day before he would set off on his journey because he wanted to catch Rin his first Pokémon before he left. There is a room in his house he tiptoes past, a picture frame with fractured glass, an explanation that will never be good enough for him.
Years later, Rin runs into Isagi again on Mount Silver. He thinks of growing older and growing apart, the close brushes he ran into during his travels, and how hard he worked to make his life his own. He finally tells Isagi no.
.
Rin finishes his first League challenge at sixteen.
He obtains his Pokémon Trainer license on his sixteenth birthday and promptly sets out from sleepy Violet City on a journey across Johto. Hoothoot claims Rin’s shoulder as its perch and together they expand Rin’s team until he has a proper team of six. His Gym Badge case slowly fills with eight shiny pins, his backpack grows heavy as he tests the limits of its limitless storage by cramming in a bike, and the soles of his Running Shoes are covered with a layer of dust even when he tries to scrub them clean.
A poaching scheme in Azalea Town’s Slowpoke Well ends with Aryu and Tokimitsu traveling with him for the rest of his trip. The two of them have been sent by Hoenn’s Pokémon Professor to study Pokémon Eggs in Johto, and in between listening to Tokimitsu’s lectures on battle theory and Aryu yanking them to Johto’s historical sights, Rin watches with bated breath as the jade green shell splinters apart to reveal a Larvitar.
The sudden appearance of a snappy Totodile on Route 34 sends Rin careening off his bike, and by the time he’s done butting heads with Shidou over his unruly demon of a Pokémon, Shidou has declared them rivals. Every time Rin’s Pokégear starts ringing in the middle of the night because Shidou wants to learn about Sae’s favorite food or color or brand of hair gel, Rin wishes he could track down Celebi and go back to a time before Shidou got his hands on Rin's Pokégear number.
A Gyarados rampages in the Lake of Rage, and his Lapras struggles to stay afloat the choppy waves as it aims Ice Beam after Ice Beam at the red Gyarados. Noctowl swoops through the stormy winds with its own attacks. There’s a Trainer from Kanto battling the Gyarados with his Blastoise too, and once they defeat it, they tread across the calm waters for a dangerous raid in Mahogany Town.
The peace is broken only days later by a radio broadcast that sends chills down his spine. Rin forces his way into the Goldenrod Radio Tower to find Shidou snarling about a father who never knows when to stop and Isagi with his merry band of followers as they aim to take down the organization that wrecked their own region only three years ago.
An organized crime ring falls at the hands of eight young Trainers. It leaves all of them older than they were before.
When Rin enters the Silver Conference, he makes it all the way to the final round before narrowly losing to the same Trainer he fought back-to-back with at the Lake of Rage.
It’s not a bad finish by other people’s standards. It’s just that Rin spent years comparing himself to Sae, and being the runner up when his brother descended from his glass spectator box to compliment only Isagi is embarrassing. Rin nearly snaps the runner up medal in half when he returns home that night.
Violet City is as sleepy as it ever was. There is nothing here but a room of trophies that do not belong to him and the beating pain against his ribs that constantly reminds him of his failures. Their aging Gym Leader is retiring, and while the second Itoshi son is not as successful as the first, his runner up title means something to everyone except himself.
One of the Gym Leader’s assistants delivers a letter asking Rin to meet the Gym Leader when he has time. Rin thinks of obeying the orders of an Elite Four that has his brother named to its roster and his humiliating defeat in the finals of the Silver Conference where luck ended up deciding the victor. The world is far, far bigger than stagnant little Violent City, and the thought of spending the rest of his life here as he is right now is suffocating.
Rin wants far more than what Johto can offer him. He has tasted the thrill of adventure, of friendships built alongside campfires and tents, of rivalries forged over battles against each other and next to each other, of partnerships so strong that Rin cannot imagine any other ending than the one he’s written with his team of six Pokémon.
The next morning, he meets Aryu and Tokimitsu at Olivine City.
Aryu and Tokimitsu had trapped him into traveling with them throughout his Johto journey. When Rin asks if he can join them as they head to Sinnoh, he has to hold his Pokégear at arm’s length because Aryu’s screams are loud. Aryu has Pokémon Contests to win and Tokimitsu has another League Challenge to participate in; they both have another friend they want to travel with again, as prickly as he may be.
Years ago, there had been a video game he loved playing. He remembers flipping open his console with Sae at his side, the two of them promising to become the strongest Trainers in the world as the screen told Rin his very own Pokémon legend was about to unfold.
“A world of dreams and adventures with Pokémon awaits!” the character had proclaimed.
Rin finishes his first League Challenge at sixteen. He starts his second League Challenge at this age too, and as he stares at the incoming silhouette of Sinnoh’s Sunyshore City, he wonders what world of dreams and adventures with Pokémon is waiting for him here.
.
Violet City is filled with life. There is a swaying tower rich with history and teachings on how to coexist through cooperation. The Pokémon School has grown after the addition of a teacher well versed in battle theory and in getting even the grumpiest of students to listen. A feisty Trainer leads the Pokémon Gym, and though his Skarmory is his signature Pokémon against Trainers earning their first badge, the city is familiar with an even feistier Feraligatr. An Elite Four member lives in the city when there are no League challengers, and he takes advantage of sleepy mornings for morning yoga and meditation.
It adds Itoshi Rin to its list of treasures, a Trainer who has proven his strength time and time again. The golden Lily of the Valley Conference trophy sits next to a Silver Conference medal, a shattered picture frame, and an old gaming console. A series of silver Battle Arcade commemorative prints hang on the living room wall after their parents demanded Sae and Shidou to go get family photographs with Rin, and the Arcade Star himself smiles smugly whenever he notes the lack of any gold prints displayed.
Violet City was the start of his Pokémon adventure. It’s not the end, because Rin doesn’t think there will ever be an end. Noctowl can fly him across Johto, and the Battle Frontier is right next to Olivine City for whenever the itch to travel strikes again. Rin has experienced just how vast the world is, and the soothing familiarity of Violet City greets him whenever he returns for a moment of peace.
As he scales Sprout Tower, listens in on Tokimitsu’s lessons, challenges Shidou for yet another Zephyr Badge, and makes salted kombucha with Sae, Rin finds that he does not mind having his journey intersect with this city again and again.