(1) V1 - Chapter I

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Black, gently waved hair frames an unnaturally beautiful face, soft yet sharp in all the right places leaving only the image of perfection set in the minds of any onlooker. The underneath of that onyx hair being coloured a deep cherry red, blended in and entwined deliciously well. Is it natural? Many would think not but, if you ask her, she'd say that her hair has always been like this since birth and entirely natural. 

Glistening, almost inexpressive, honey-amber eyes, perfectly positioned within their sockets, watch affectionately over the small town they've come to like over the time they've spent there despite not interacting much with the locals. The young woman's smooth and fair skin gorgeously compliments her facial features, unblemished and not hinting at the many battles she's been in over the years. 

This young woman of 18 years is Kasumi, someone thought to be much of a mystery to the people of Kozan. She tends to be someone people look up to, and not just because she stands at 5 foot 10 inches. It's the air about her; regal yet delicate, authoritative yet not controlling, sweet yet not overbearing. She seems to know when to help and how, not just with everyday tasks but specialised things too, even with local Pokémon. 

There's something extraordinary about her, perhaps it's her goodwill, perhaps it's the fact not much is known about her, or maybe it's how inexpressive she is to most things.

Nonetheless, people tend to gather around her and welcome her with open arms and cheery attitudes while hoping, in secret of course, that their children will be influenced by someone like her. Though, maybe it's not so secret as there is a small page on the PokéWeb about her that most of the town knows of. Besides Kasumi herself, that is. 

Now, Kozan is a town situated to the east of the Grass-Type gym, surrounded by forests, small lakes, streams and ponds. If one travelled further east, the terrain would become increasingly rocky and the temperatures, too, would gradually increase as they near the Fire-Type gym. 

Kozan's forests are rather important as, inside said forests, grow medicinal plants unique to the area. The town itself is rather ordinary, nothing spectacular like the main cities where the gyms reside. Homes are built with ceramic tile rooftops and stone veneer walls, sometimes framed by cypress wood depending on the homeowner's preferences.

The main attraction of Kozan, however, is the academy for aspiring Pokémon trainers. Anyone wishing to become a trainer must be, at minimum, aged 18 as, in the past, there were many accidents, injuries and fatal wounds inflicted by Pokémon. Anyone under 18 is considered too young to go on their journey as a Pokémon trainer, and, after this rule was implemented, rates of accidents, injuries and the likes were significantly decreased. 

Kasumi is finally old enough to begin her journey as a Pokémon trainer. She's wanted to see what it's like to live as a human and, due to her abilities, bloodline, heritage, genetics and similar components, she's able to experience it. One of her parents is a Ditto, the main reason she can pursue her ambitions. As many know, Ditto can take the form of other Pokémon, but what many don't know is that they can take the form of anything, not just Pokémon. The only beings that do know this fact are Dittos' themselves, and Kasumi is no exception due to it being in her blood. That's why she can transform into a human at will and keep that form for as long as she wishes to. 

In addition to this, Pokémon don't exclusively breed with their own, a Smeargle might instead mate with an Arbok or maybe an Oddish instead of another Smeargle. If this does happen, the offspring takes traits from both parents but it can be very limited and, normally, the offspring will look like one parent, have a similar weakness, similar strengths, similar movesets, etc etc. However, this limitation is almost entirely ignored when a Pokémon breeds with a Ditto. It's unknown why but it's suspected to be because Ditto can transform into multiple Pokémon, inheriting their moveset, weaknesses, strengths and such. 

When a Pokémon breeds with a Ditto, the offspring gets all traits from both parents. And, as a bonus, the Ditto's transform move evolves in a way. Transform is limited to Pokémon/things that the Ditto can see or Pokémon/things that are around it, however, in its evolved form, transform now has 'presets'. These presets are essentially a memorisation and compartmentalised form of a Pokémon or thing and everything about it; presets can also be, for example, a regular bird, maybe a rock, or even a human. Each time the owner of the evolved version of Transform transforms, that form is saved in its latest state and made as a preset for the owner to revert to at any time, even without a Pokémon like that in the area. It's an incredible move but insanely difficult to get. 

Either way, Pokémon can learn many moves, and there's no limit to how many moves they can learn and utilise. They can even make their own moves but that's limited to their intelligence so Pokémon such as Magikarp have a problem in that regard. 

Kasumi walks down the hill she's atop of and makes her way to the academy, she's already been signed up and accepted there. All she needs to do now is show up and get her starter Pokémon. She's lucky and has been selected as the first trainer to pick their starter Pokémon from the 13 that the academy has. She has a choice between Vulpix, a fire type, Staryu, a water type, Eevee, a normal type, Chikorita, a grass type, Sentret, a normal type, Aipom, a normal type,  Zigzagoon, a normal type, Turtwig, a grass type, Starly, a normal and flying type, Buizel, a water type, Tepig, a fire type, Minccino, a normal type, and Bunnelby, another normal type.

She continues thinking about her options as she gracefully makes her way through town, eventually arriving at the front gates of the academy and pushing them open. The metal groans slightly at the exertion and Kasumi steps past them, striding to the front door and entering the building. The academy resembles a regular Kozan citizen's home but on a much, much grander scale, elongated a bit and made for educational purposes rather than for inhabitation and living space. Either way, Kasumi likes it. 

"Hey!" A gruff voice calls out from down the corridor. Kasumi turns her head, hair swishing behind her, following her head movements, and looks at the owner of said voice. It's a man of average appearance, with brown hair scruffy atop his head, a beard about two inches thick and hooded hazel eyes. He looks to be about 30 or so, but Kasumi can't be certain. 

"Who are you?" He asks, jogging up to her and stopping just a foot away. Kasumi steps back slightly, he's too close for her liking. 

Tilting her head down slightly to look the man in the eyes as she's a few inches taller, Kasumi answers, "My name is Kasumi, I'm here to pick a starter Pokémon." She states, her tone neutral and polite. 

"Ah, Kasumi. I remember now, well, follow me then. Oh, and my name is Mark." He says briskly, making his way back down the corridor he came from and motioning for Kasumi to follow. "The starter Pokémon are kept in room 1H, you'll be left in the room alone with them so you can get a feel for them and become acquainted before picking. You'll have about 5 minutes alone before the people standing outside the doors come in which is when you'll have to make your decision. Any questions?" 

Kasumi nods her head as he explains the process. "None." She replies. After hearing what's going to happen she has a few questions but she can answer those herself, she's not incompetent, after all. Her first question was, wouldn't someone be able to steal them? But, after thinking it over for a few seconds, she's come to the conclusion that it's unlikely. The people coming here have no Pokémon, which is why they're getting a starter, so they have no experience in battle. That means, if they were to steal the Pokémon, then the people outside the room would swiftly stop them either with or without their own Pokémon. The people outside of the room would 1. Have experience, 2. Be acquainted with their Pokémon and already have a bond, 3. Know their moveset, temperament, etc, 4. Have a higher level, and so on and so forth. The likelihood of someone stealing the starter Pokémon to begin with is low and the likelihood of them actually succeeding is even lower. 

Her second question would be, surely being alone with 13 Pokémon would result in someone getting harmed rather easily, so why let them? That question was discarded as soon as it crossed her mind. The starters are regulated to make sure they're all friendly around new people and their level is too low to cause any fatal wounds anyway. Also, if they were provoked on the off chance and did, in fact, attack, then the people standing outside would notice and sort it out. 

Either way, Kasumi wasn't about to steal any Pokémon and she wasn't nervous about getting harmed by them either. She, too, is a Pokémon, a stronger one than the starters in room 1H at that. 

"We're here. Please, enter. I'll be waiting outside. The second you step in, your 5 minutes will start. Good luck." Mark says, opening the door and allowing Kasumi entrance. 

The second she steps through the threshold of the room, a cacophony of noise hits her sensitive ears. "Please, calm down." She says softly and the Pokémon obey, the noise settling down. 

A light pressure is felt on her shin so she looks down, noticing the Vulpix's paw on her. "Pix?" 

"Hello." Kasumi says softly, crouching down, "I'm Kasumi." She takes a seat on the floor, leaning her back against the wall. The Vulpix takes that as a sign to sit on her, so it does. 

The other Pokémon around the room all gather over around her, all of them being vocal. Kasumi could understand each and every one of them due to her being a Pokémon too. A small smile graces her features as she addresses them all separately. 

"Vul~Pix?" 

"Yes, it's okay to sit on me. You don't need to ask me, it's alright." Kasumi answers, threading her fingers through the Vulpix's soft fur. "My, aren't you soft?" 

"Pix! Pix!" 

She nods, "I agree, that is something you should be rather proud of." 

"Zig!" The Zigzagoon states, running in a circle around the Aipom. "Zigzag?" 

"Yes, I'm watching." She answers. It's clear that the Zigzagoon is rather energetic, running around the room and trying to show off. It's rather cute, all of these Pokémon are rather cute. She's realised that she must have a softer side when she's around other Pokémon. She doesn't act like this around humans, that's for certain. 

"Eevee!" The Eevee jumps onto Kasumi's lap, landing next to the Vulpix who swats them with its tail, knocking the Eevee off of Kasumi. She quickly catches the Eevee with one hand while the other is occupied by scratching the Vulpix's ears. 

"No play fighting, I don't want any of you getting hurt." She states, helping the Eevee stand upright. 

The Sentret nods in agreement, "Sentret!" 

Kasumi takes a moment to think. She needs a fighter, someone motivated to fight with her and fight for her in gyms as she cannot reveal herself as a Pokémon. She has motivation, a lot of it, so she'll need someone with that same burning passion as she does. So, the easiest way to find it out is by asking. 

She taps her finger on the Vulpix's head gently and it looks up at her questioningly, "Vul?" 

"Are you interested in fighting? Or is it something that's on the back burner? Would you rather settle down somewhere with your trainer and live a relaxed life or throw yourself into battles, plan your victories and live in the moment?" Kasumi asks, seemingly having garnered all the Pokémon's attention. Multiple of them turn back to what they were doing, not interested which already knocks them off her list as potential starters. 

"Vulpix! Pix! Vul Vul!" It answers, displaying why exactly it's a fire type, burning with passion and motivation, much like Kasumi's own. She smiles. 

"Perfect." 

The only Pokémon that seemed to show any passion for fighting were the Vulpix, the Buizel and the Bunnelby. Vulpix definitely shows the most determination out of the bunch and is already warmed up to Kasumi. It's also a fire type, having a type advantage over most of the Pokémon in the area and a type advantage over the Grass-Type gym. Even then, Kasumi needs to take into account evolutions. 

Vulpix evolves when exposed to a Fire Stone at any level into a Ninetails, while Buizel evolves at level 26 into a Floatzel, and Bunnelby evolves at level 20 into a Diggersby. Who would be better? 

Well, right now, Kasumi can't take their stats into account as she hasn't scanned them with her PokéPhone but, generalised base stat-wise from what she knows, Buizel has the highest health, attack, special attack, and speed while Vulpix has the highest defence, and special defence. Bunnelby's stats are the lowest in every regard. In their evolved forms, it's relatively similar. Vulpix seems more of an all-rounder with slightly higher speed and special defence than its other stats, Buizel is more of a quick and heavy hitter but has low defence and Bunnelby seems more attuned to defend and dodge when possible. 

Now to take into account their Types. Vulpix and Ninetails are Fire-Types, Buizel and Floatzel are Water-Types, Bunnelby is a Normal-Type, and Diggersby is a Normal and Ground-Type. Vulpix and Ninetails take double damage from Ground, Rock and Water-Types while taking half-damage from Bug, Steel, Fire, Grass, Ice and Fairy-Types. Bunnelby takes double damage from Fighting-Types while taking no damage from Ghost-Types. Diggersby takes double damage from Fighting, Water, Grass and Ice-Types while taking half-damage from Poison and Rock-Types, taking no damage from Electric and Ghost-Types. Buizel and Floatzel take double damage from Grass and Electric-Types while taking half damage from Steel, Fire, Water, and Ice-Types. 

Right now, Vulpix is the best pick and Kasumi has grown rather fond of this Vulpix, too. It's settled, her first Pokémon is a Vulpix.