This world is inhabited by creatures that we call pokemon. People and pokemon live together by supporting each other, but now the scourge threatens the safety of the entire region. Kohaku has become a dangerous place, where children stay at home and only brave souls go adventuring.
Welcome to KOHAKU. Come for the nightmares. Stay for the tea and crumpets.
The season is SUMMER. It is easy for survivors to forage for food from the land, as there are entire abandoned farms ready for harvest. On the downside, you can smell the corpses.
swarms
GRAND OPENING !
Welcome to KOHAKU REGION's grand opening! If you're interested in joining, come check out our grand opening giveaway!
cura was a quaint little village; it was so prim, so proper, so clean that the woman felt distinctly out of place -- at least, until she came across the gym.
delilah automatically curled her fist, rolling her shoulders as if preparing for a fight. "excuse me," she called, garnering a few glances from those who were training and sparring. "where can i find zhan?"
A young student who could not have been more than fifteen years of age was the one who answered Delilah. He tugged a bit on the sleeves of his Gi, standing straighter as if to make himself taller. "Master Zhan is busy," he responded. "Come back later! Master Zhan doesn't really have -- "
"Oh? Young Fon, Zhan always has time!"
The voice was ancient, though the body that it belonged to appeared to be even older. Yet, Zhan moved with a smooth grace, nearly gliding, floating, all the way across the polished wooden floor of the Cura Village dojo. His short and stout appearance was rather deceptive to the way that he moved with ease. "Yes, Zhan will challenge you," the elderly man said with a chuckle. "I can smell a fighting spirit on you!"
He gestured for Delilah to follow him further into the dojo, between pairs of sliding rice paper walls.
delilah stared at the boy in front of her, her eyes narrowing. she opened her mouth to demand when 'master zhan' would be free, but promptly snapped it closed at the sight of the man -- if that was even the right term. he looked so old, not even mentioning the blindfold around his eyes, and delilah averted her gaze. (was it rude to stare at him?)
the trainer blinked. (he could ... smell her?) she shifted slightly, rather self-conscious; the woman kept clean, of course, but did she really smell that bad? delilah silently followed the man through the dojo, glancing around every now and then at the disciples (or whatever they were).
when they stopped, she asked, "are you blind?"
admittedly not the most polite thing she could have said, but no one had ever given her points for tact.
The man did not carry a guiding stick, nor did he have a student guide him to the arena. Instead, the student followed behind the fighting-type master. "Young Fon," the dojo master said, to which the student bowed at his back.
"Master Zhan?" the boy asked.
"You shall watch this fight and learn, no matter who the victorious may be."
"Yes sir!"
Zhan turned in the direction of the woman's voice as they stopped at the edge of the arena. Its floor had also been polished, and there were also flimsy little rice paper doors upon its entire perimeter. Plain and simple, perhaps, was the way that the elderly man preferred to keep it. Less obstructions for him to trip over, anyways.
"I have not seen the light of day for many years now," the old man stated, as if this fact were nothing to him. "But in the darkness, I have trained. The shadows are not so bad. I see with my hands, my ears, my feet, ah yes, even my nose." At this, Zhan wrinkled his nose. He reached for the inside of his gi, tossing a Pokéball into the air. "Shang, we fight!" the man called, and caught the Pokéball flawlessly after the Pokémon inside had been released.
The Throh was revealed in a flash of red light, and the Pokémon stomped on the ground with its first move.
he was impressive, to say the least. a dojo master-slash-gym leader-slash-blind guy wasn't the type of person most people met on a constant basis. she smoothed down the front of her shirt (again with the creepy smelling thing!)
then he released a throh in a blinding (ha. ha.) flash of light, and delilah grinned. yes, this was what she came for. "let's go, valefor."
delilah released vespiquen (for the sake of levels i'm going to guess that his pkmn match hers?) vespiquen used tailwind vespiquen used air slash
Zhan's entire stance seemed to become taller as Delilah released her Vespiquen. He recognized the sound of the humming wings. A bug-type, perhaps? It sounded rather large. "Ah, a Vespiquen!" he exclaimed. "Good, good. There is more to you than meets the eye! Or, your eyes, haha!"
The Throh braced itself as the Vespiquen struck at him with piercing winds. This was nothing that the Pokémon hadn't encountered during his strict training regimen though. So the fighting-type Pokémon braved the gales, and once they'd blown over, he lunged with a fiery fist, aiming straight for the Vespiquen's thorax. His free hand was curled into a fist as he prepared to smack the queen bee Pokémon with a rocky punch.
throh hit by air slash throh used fire punch throh used stone edge
"thanks, i guess." delilah wasn't sure what to make of this gym leader -- all of them were so ... strange. (she supposed he was friendly enough?) "why did you want to be a gym leader, anyway?"
vespiquen dodged stone edge vespiquen was hit by fire punch vespiquen used sweet scent vespiquen used air slash vespiquen used attack order
"Gym leader does not choose the gym, young grasshopper," Elder Zhan rasped again. "Gym chooses its gym leader!" He had heard the voices of the heart of the dojo, and not even Zhan was sure whether it had actually been his psychic and medium intuition that had beckoned him to the dojo or if he actually, truly, felt in his heart that Cura gym was his place to be.
Something inside him told the man that it was the latter.
The Throh was smacked in the face by blades of air and mini bees, but he was not to be phased. All of Zhan's Pokémon were unusually resilient anyways. He got right back on his feet and smacked the Vespiquen with a second fist that felt like sharpened shards of rock. Still, Zhan knew his Pokémon's limits. The Throh wasn't going to hold on for much longer.
well, for one, she wasn't a grasshopper. (did he really think she was a -- nah. maybe it was an old man thing.) delilah's eyebrows drew together at his strange comments, but she decided it was in her best interest to just let him be.
senile as he was, he was certainly a good fighter.
vespiquen fainted delilah recalled vespiquen
delilah released gallade gallade used psycho cut gallade used ice punch gallade used leaf blade gallade used safeguard
Very few people truly understood that Zhan was sharper than a tack. For one, he knew the exact physical limits of each of his Pokémon, and he knew that Shang was close to keeling over. The Pokémon and the fighting-type master still had one trick up both their sleeves though. "Shang, show them a little of your high-middle-low blocks, yes!"
The Throh bellowed loudly and with a flurry of arms, deflected every single one of the Gallade's attacks before punching him in the face with a fiery fist. When all was said and done, the Pokémon squeezed his eyes shut for an impending blow.
throh dodged attacks with hp boost throh used fire punch throh used endure
(clearly animal crossing new leaf was the worst decision in my life. and you thought melchior was bad)
"Impressive blocks do not come easily for Shang," the man rasped. It was true. The Throh had to train rigorously in order to master blocks. Throwing heavy slugs and kicking Pokémon in the shins came as second nature to fighting Pokémon (then again, such was second nature to generally all fighting-type Pokémon, and the Throh was no exception). Fortunately, the Pokémon was left hanging onto the last bit of his energy and health.
"I am not so old that I cannot appreciate medicine and technology," Zhan chuckled, spraying the Throh with a full restore.
throh endured the hits zhan used full restore on throh (sorry)
The corners of Zhan's mouth twitched up. "Ah! Very good, very good!" the elderly man called. Unfortunately for Shang, he wasn't going to be able to take the hits if he wasn't able to retaliate. But nothing was wrong with being a one-trick pony, was there? He could at least wreak as much damage as possible on this Gallade that he could.