Arc One: Start of a New Journey

Part One: Moving Day

People always say that moving is a part of life - something that everyone experiences. For me, though, it's more than just a regular event or an everyday occurrence that happens somewhere in the world. It's moving away from the one place I have lived in for my whole life and basically starting a completely new one in a foreign place with unknown secrets. Though maybe that's what Mom and I need most, to get away and to move on in life. It's hard to live in a place with so many memories of Dad.

It all started four months ago with him and a persistent cough that just wouldn't go away. Diagnosis after diagnosis followed. Bronchitis, allergies, congestive heart failure, you name it. It slowly got worse. He was always short of breath, and even simple tasks such as walking up a flight of stairs left him winded. One and a half months ago, they at last had figured it out, but the diagnosis this time, while finally accurate, was none any sane person would want to receive. Blood clots and modules in the lungs with fluid surrounding them, a mass in the liver, and, the last but worst of them all, stage four pancreatic cancer, a "bad luck cancer that only happens to good people". Most with pancreatic cancer in itself don't survive the first year. At least, that's what Mom told me.

Despite this, we tried to go on with our normal lives, and at first we were at least a bit successful. That is, until a little over two weeks ago when everything spiraled out of control. Dad was taken into intensive care at the Mauville City hospital after his lung collapsed during a quick procedure. I went to see him the next day, and that's when the death sentence was sprung on us. They only expected him to live for a few days, if that. It didn't really sink in for me. Before this cancer had taken hold, Dad had been a relatively healthy guy.

At the beginning of the day, he had been awake and responsive, and we held each other's hand most of the time. But by the end of the night, I was the only one of the two of us actually holding on to the other. The whole family was there, surprisingly. We had relatives everywhere, some of whom I hadn't seen for a while despite them living within a half hour of us.

Sad how it takes someone being at death's door to bring the whole family together.

It was really late at night when my uncle from Fallarbor Town took me home. We were almost there when my Holo Caster started ringing. Realizing it was from Mom, I quickly answered. Deep down, I already knew what she was going to say, but it certainly didn't make hearing the words any easier. The worst had happened.

He was gone. Had passed away.

We went back to the hospital to bring Mom back home. I managed not to cry until I went into the bathroom at the hospital. I had barely got the door shut before the tears burst through. I no longer cared if anyone heard my strangled cries. It all happened too way fast for me to bear, from the initial diagnosis to now, the last event I could possibly take. I had expected to come back to the hospital tomorrow and see him again. Now I'd never see him waiting for Mom to return home after a long day of her running races. No longer would I hear his voice or his dry sense of humor that I loved so much.

Never again.

They say time is supposed to heal you, but it certainly hasn't felt that way for these past weeks after his death. It's almost impossible to simply move on in life when every day you're reminded of all the memories and the grief of losing a dad, or a husband in Mom's case. At last, Mom decided we needed to move away from this place. We had been talking about moving for a while, but never expected it to be so soon. She had found a house in a small place called Vaniville Town in the Kalos region. It really was a beautiful looking home, with an actual yard that has this huge tree that looks just perfect for climbing, and-

"Nuraya! Come help me with these last boxes!" The sudden voice jolted me out of my thoughts. Personally, I was glad for the distraction, however small it may be. I made my way through a couple emptied rooms before finding my mom outside with several boxes still sitting on the ground.

"Where do you want these?" I asked. Mom turned to face me, the small horn marking her as a Rhyhorn sticking out of her gray-brown hair. She gestured to the car she had rented for today with a pale hand. I grunted as I lifted up a particularly heavy box. "What's in this thing, Iron Balls?"

"Just my racing stuff!" Mom called out, picking up the box beside me. A small smile tugged at her face. She was the world-famous "Grace the Rhyhorn Racer", and she participated in loads of races, most of which she won. Her "racing stuff" was all her trophies and plaques. No wonder it weighed so damn much.

After the last box was shoved into the trunk, I looked back at the place I had called home for all my life. I suddenly felt an old childish urge to run inside, dirt and all, and make a mess of everything. I chuckled before getting into the front seat and settling in. It was going to be a long trip. I pulled out a random magazine from my bag and opened it up. On the page I flipped to was an article about the league challenge, specifically the one in the Kalos region. Well, might as well, I thought before I started to read.

From what I got from the article, you had to be at least ten to take it and thirteen to do so alone. The goal was to collect all eight gym badges scattered across the region before challenging the elite four and the champion. Getting the gym badges wasn't a cakewalk though. Most had a couple fighters who fought alongside them against prospective challengers. But it made sense when I realized that groups of people would take on the challenge together, though you couldn't have a team larger than six people. According to this, no one had even challenged the elite four for several years. And it might be a while until someone can, as it mentioned that the Lumiose gym was currently closed due to a power outage affecting part of the city.

I had never really cared much for knowing about it before. It just hadn't interested me when I was younger. But now, I found myself hooked to the idea itself. I wasn't interested though in the idea of the money or fame surrounding it, or even just for the pure reason of doing it because I could. No, I wanted a reason to explore the world. What better way to start than to take on this challenge? "Hey, Mom?" I asked tentatively.

"Yes, dear?" she replied without turning around, which I was grateful of.

"I was just reading this article, and-"

"No, you cannot have a Switch. You already have a Wii U."

"Mom, that was not what I was going to say!" I shook my head even though I knew she couldn't see it.

"Oh. Alright, what is it?"

"As I was going to ask, can I take on the league challenge?"

At first, Mom didn't answer. I stared at the back of her head, desperately hoping she would allow me. Finally, she replied, "Let me read the article when we get on the plane, and then I'll decide."

"Alright." Well, it was better than a no.

It was nighttime by the time we arrived in Vaniville Town. Mom had read the article but had yet to say either yes or no. Though at the moment I was too tired to really care. It had been a long flight from Mauville to Lumiose City, the closest airport to Vaniville, and then a long drive from there to our new home. We managed to drag in all the boxes, though they remained closed for when we'd unpack them tomorrow. I was about to head upstairs to the room I had claimed as mine when I heard Mom call my name. Stopping partway up, I called down, "What is it?"

I saw Mom's head poke around the wall, her red eyes shining with an excitement I hadn't seen since she won her latest race three months ago. "I did some searching around about this League Challenge, and I decided you should go."

"But, Mom, I-wait, what?" I stuttered, my brain taking a bit to process what she had just said due to my sleep-deprived state. "You mean-"

"I want you to go. I think it would be a lot of fun."

"You really think so?"

"Of course! When I was your age, your uncle and I were always going from one city to another. You should go on an adventure of your own."

I mused over her words for a little, and then realized that if I left, she'd be alone. "But what abou-?"

"Don't worry about me, sweetie. I'll be fine."

I finally let out the squeal I was holding inside me and plowed into her in a hug. "Thank you!" I held on to her for several seconds. She didn't mind the crushing hug, as, due to her athletic build and her being a rock type, she was much more sturdier than most others. I finally let go and bounded up the stairs. I could feel the limitless energy that came from being me building up inside. Instead of going to sleep like I had originally planned, I started unpacking and putting away my stuff right then and there. I had put away most of my stuff before my exhaustion finally caught up to me. I decided to leave the final box until tomorrow and crawled into the bed I had recently made.

Tomorrow is going to be so amazing, I thought as I felt myself drifting off. That much I can tell.

Edit: I am really sorry that I didn't include that everyone's a gijinka in this story! I know that came as a shock to plenty of people, possibly more than I know. The summary was really last minute and I should have taken everyone else into account when writing it. Again, I apologize. The summary has been fixed accordingly. Thanks to everyone who made me aware of this

Yet another story to add to my list.

Hello, everyone! Ylva here, and welcome to my newest story, A World of Miracles.This story will be very loosely based on the story of the Pokémon X and Y games. The idea and rules of the league challenge was created by Clarified Conundrum for one of their stories. Shameless advertising aside, I'd really appreciate if you went and read their stories, and if you like it to favorite and follow as well. They really are an amazing writer.

As it says in the summary, I am accepting OCs for this story. The form for this as well as other details are located on my profile. I will only be accepting OCs through PM on a first-come basis.

So, how about a bit of trivia? I'll admit I'm taking the idea of this in particular from S00ty's story, Climatic Galactic, which I also recommend you read too. I don't know if anyone other than me likes or liked that trivia, but I for one certainly did. So here we are, some trivia before I go!

-I was originally planning on writing a story through the view of my OC from Clarified Conundrum's story Changing Tides, Nyx Starvos, but I felt I needed to do this story more, reason of sorts being the next point.

-Nuraya's experiences surrounding her father are very much my own, even down to the timing. The only difference is that my family isn't moving. At least not anytime soon. Kind of the reason why I slightly disappeared for a while.

-There's a reason why I didn't describe what Nuraya looks like or even what kind of gijinka she is. Basically it's that I'm not sure about a certain plot point dealing with Mega Evolution as of right now. I have two Pokémon I have in mind depending on how that plot point decides to go, which should be determined next chapter.

-I think the most trouble I had was just deciding on a name for the protagonist (and a name for the story, but it wasn't quite as hard). There was just so many I liked that I wasn't sure which I wanted. All of them though had a common theme: they all dealt with fire. Nuraya is a Turkish name meaning fire. Some particular favorites of mine I was planning before going with Nuraya were Rekka (Japanese, meaning fire), Blasa (German, meaning firebrand), and Serafina (Hebrew, meaning burning fire, burning one, or serpent), the last one being the other I debated the most. Nina was also one I wanted to do but remembered I was going to use it in another story.