A Champion in Disguise [PKMN Wattys 2015 2nd Place Miscellaneous Category]

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

"Check mate," I stated, having won yet another game of chess on the soft sands of nikabi beach in almia.

Barlow, the leader of the ranger base of Vientown and also my friend, raged and gave it up, "Aw come on, I wanted you to finally finish the story! How come you always beat me so fast at this anyways? Why are you so good at chess

"I've had lots of practice, besides, your moves are rather predictable," I explained calmly, packing up the board and pieces.

He pouted,"You've been telling me this story over 30 days of chess games now, c'mon don't you think you can finish it?"

"We had a deal, besides, I don't really want to talk about it," I explained.

He grumbled, "We had a deal that you would tell me why in the world you came here with a false identification and in exchange I wouldn't say a word about you working for this ranger base. You were the one who told me that you would tell me over chess."

I sighed, "Alright, let me finish then."

"Aw yeah! Do I get to ask questions afterwards?" He smiled.

"Of course," I said, preparing to start again, "the best way to explain it is that when I left the indigo plateau..."

~~~~~

The best way to explain it is that when I left the indigo plateau my life had ended and I was to refresh it. After all, I had just lost the thing that was ideal to me, so where did I go? Home of course. It was the one and only place. You can say that it took me about an hour or two of baking to come up with a solution.

I decided to do the same thing Harama Hoorson did, and left Kanto. What a funny coincidence, me looking up to him, but in a way I guess you could we were alike, having similar ideas. I took my file, so they could never trace me, family pictures in case the house burned down, as much money as I needed and I headed on my way here. Trust me, it was not easy, but I did it over a week and eventually ended up here. When here I got a hotel in Puel Town where I fashioned myself false IDs, cut my hair, and then attempted to finish and get into ranger school as quickly as possible. Which it literally took me two weeks to get in and out. Turns out I'm pretty good at the entire doppelgänger thing.

Which brings me here, to your deal and how I've been in this town for a solid month, telling you my story of how I was a champion.

~~~~~

Barlow was astounded, "And that's it? Wow, didn't you ask Michael Blue anything?"

"No," I respond, "I made my choice, I left Kanto and now I don't want to look back."

"So then you haven't seen the news?" He inquired.

"Like I said," I sighed, "I made my choice on how I wanted to move on, it was just something that I had to do."

He looked at me, "But...why?"

"Red was champion once too, he moved on, and became an elite four member, where he really belongs," I explained, "time goes on and so do people, I get that the job was something that I loved but I found something else I could be passionate about."

"I meant the people though, how did you leave the people?" He asked.

I looked as the sand kicked it around, "That was the most difficult part, but hurting them further was never an option. Besides, part of coming here was being brave about it."

"How would you have hurt them further?" He asked.

I shook my head at the thoughts, "It would have hurt me so much to have been around them that I would have had to have left eventually. They keep their positions in the government while I try to move on."