Disclaimer: SnowLucario does not own Pokemon.

It's my two-year anniversary of being on ! To celebrate, I bring to you my most ambitious project yet: Captain's Daughter!

The title for this story comes from the name of an old method of corporal punishment that was used for disobedient sailors. "Captain's daughter" is a euphemism for something far worse.

Chapter 1

"Attention, all passengers. Train 25B to Pastoria City will be departing in five minutes. Get to the platform immediately, or you will miss it".

That was the last thing Ash Ketchum wanted to hear. He'd been looking forward to this trip for so long that he found himself running frantically towards the platform, lugging a suitcase and carrying a backpack at the same time. This wouldn't be an easy task under even the best of circumstances, which these were not.

He'd arrived at the station with ten minutes to spare, but had eaten up four of those precious minutes just trying to find his way around. The Jubilife City central station, from which he would be departing, was extremely crowded on this in-demand morning, with throngs of people all about.

Ash found himself running at an extremely fast speed, to the point that he crashed into some lady who was carrying a series of suitcases on a dolly, upsetting it and causing all of the suitcases to crash to the ground.

He didn't stop to say sorry, though, and, really, he wasn't sorry. In his opinion, the ends justified the means; judging by the direction in which the woman had been heading, it was unlikely that she had a train to catch, whereas Ash did, and he was running late.

"Attention, all passengers. Train 25B to Pastoria City will be departing in two minutes. Get to the platform immediately, or you will miss it".

That put another spring in Ash's step. Knowing that he was in dire straits now in terms of time, he began flat-out sprinting.

Finally, he found the train with 25B plastered across in large orange characters. It was extremely hard to miss, and that was a good thing, because he very well could have missed it at the speed he was running.

Ash hefted his suitcase upwards and stepped onto the train. It was just in the nick of time, too, because, seconds after he made his way up the stairs, the doors closed, and the train began moving.

The young man (age 19) grabbed onto the nearby pole in order to steady himself as the train began travelling out of the station. He legitimately hadn't thought he would make it onto this train, and yet he had...so that was one thing he had going for him.

Now, to find my seat…

Looking at his ticket, Ash saw that he was supposed to sit in compartment 4F. Walking into the first car with compartments, he saw that they were labelled 1A, 1B, 1C, and so on.

That must mean that compartment 4F is the sixth one in the fourth car. Yes, that makes sense.

He breathed a sigh of relief. His legs were trembling from the amount of running he had just done, and he didn't particularly want to stand for the whole ride, while still holding his luggage.

When Ash reached the end of the car, he stepped on the switch that opened the door. He was probably attracting a lot of attention from the other passengers, most of whom had already gotten settled in their compartments, but he didn't care. He was only focused on himself.

"Let's find this thing" he said out loud. He didn't think anyone had heard him, though, which was a good thing. It would have been a bit embarrassing to have been overheard talking to himself.

He clutched his Pokeball, which contained his Pokemon partner, tightly in his hand. From the day he had met Coyopa the Pikachu, at the tender age of ten, he'd known that he could count on the little yellow guy. He was very adorable, but he was also extremely loyal to his master, and he never forgot that Ash was in charge.

4C...4D...4E...yes, there it is. 4F.

Ash opened the sliding door and entered his compartment. Nobody else was there; there was only a rack for luggage and six seats, three on each side.

Once he had sat down, he looked outside the window. The train had just left the heart of downtown Jubilife City, which was the largest city in Sinnoh. The trip to Pastoria City would take roughly seven hours, so it would give him plenty of time to think.

Ash clutched the Pokeball in his hand so hard that the latter turned white. He considered letting Coyopa out, but he then decided against it, reason being that Pokemon had to stay in their Pokeballs for the duration of the ride.

Unfortunately, that would mean that Ash was alone. Five minutes after he had boarded the train, nobody else had entered his compartment, so he took that as a definite sign that he was correct on that count.

As Ash looked outside at the grasslands surrounding Jubilife City, he also thought of something else. More specifically, the reason he was on this train to begin with.

Ash was moving eastward in order to attend Greater Pastoria University. As a result, he'd had to find a place to live. The only problem was that the boy had had no desire to live in a dormitory.

And so a solution had to be found. Luckily for Ash, his father knew a wealthy businessman from the area, Dominick Courtland, who ran a line of cruise ships and lived in a mansion near Pastoria City.

He'd also been told that the "captain", as Mr. Courtland was called, had five children, and his oldest daughter was a girl named Serena. Serena was his age, and also enrolling at GPU that year.

Wow, I hope she's hot, the boy thought to himself.

Ash's stomach started turning at the thought. The way his father had described Serena, it sure sounded as though he had been trying to persuade Ash that she was attractive. And the thought made the young man rather nervous. He had never been in a romantic relationship before.

Little did he know, that was about to change.

The scenery outside the window changed. Soon, it was not grasslands, but forests, that the train was passing. Large pine trees dotted the area, and, what was more, there were the clearest streams Ash had ever seen.

I bet those in the Coronet Range are even clearer, Ash thought to himself. Don't get too far ahead of yourself.

As the train moved further and further east, Ash grew increasingly hungry. He hadn't brought any food in his backpack, nor any money to buy it in the dining car. There just hadn't been any room. He had eaten breakfast, but it had been pretty small, and, besides, that had been hours ago now.

Dominick Courtland probably has a ton of chefs to prepare the most extravagant meals...oh, boy, I can't wait to get there.

An hour passed, and then two, and then three, and the scenery kept changing. One moment, it was a deciduous forest, with Deerling playing near the tracks. The next, they were on a bridge several hundred feet over a raging river. And a moment later still, they were next to the ocean.

Man, I'm glad to live in Sinnoh, Ash thought. There are so many beautiful places here...if only I wasn't so hungry.

After what felt like hours (because it was hours), the conductor made an announcement over the loudspeaker.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we will be arriving in Pastoria City in fifteen minutes' time. I repeat, fifteen minutes until we arrive in Pastoria City".

Suddenly, Ash grew excited. He was being borne towards his dream, of studying in Pastoria City. And he couldn't wait to meet the captain's daughter. It sounded as though she was pretty nice, at least from what his father had told him.

It wasn't long until the conductor made another announcement.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we will be arriving in Pastoria City in five minutes' time. I repeat, five minutes until we arrive in Pastoria City".

Ash instinctively grabbed his luggage; he couldn't help himself. He wanted to be ready to spring into action and get off of the train once they arrived at the station.

Looking outside his window, Ash saw it. Pastoria City.

It was a large city, although not as large as Jubilife City was. Draped against pine forests and snow-capped mountains in the background, it was set on a patch of low-lying ground that appeared like it could sink at any moment, due to being only three feet above sea level.

Not only that, but the harbor was beautiful as well. Ash could see that there were a great many boats docked there, many of them luxury yachts. I suppose this must be where the rich and famous live, he thought.

Ash could hardly wait. Soon, he'd be at the mansion, and be able to eat something again. His stomach was starting to hurt now from hunger.

You'll eat soon, Ash, the young man told himself. So please stop grumbling, stupid stomach.

Eventually, the train ground to a halt, and Ash, using his suitcase to steady himself, got to his feet. He was feeling quite lethargic as a result of seven hours of mostly just sitting down, as well as not having had lunch.

"We have arrived in Pastoria City. Doors are now open".

Ash made his way to the nearest exit and got off the train.

The Pastoria station wasn't quite as crowded as the one in Jubilife City. That said, however, there was a large number of people there, and Ash frequently found himself jostling others in his haste to find the person who would take him to the mansion.

His father had told him that Serena Courtland would meet him at the station, but he didn't have any idea what she looked like; Mr. Ketchum hadn't given his son any physical description.

But then, Ash remembered something else.

His father had told him that she'd be holding a sign with his name on it. All the boy had to look for were the places where people were holding signs, like they did at airports for people coming home from military service.

Eventually, he found it. A sign saying, ASH KETCHUM, in large blue block letters. And, holding it, there was a girl.

She was tall and blonde, with gray eyes. Ash could only assume that this was Serena.

"Are you Serena?" he asked her, just to confirm.

She nodded. "And you are Ash Ketchum? My father said he looked a lot like you do".

The boy nodded. "Yes, I am Ash Ketchum".

Ash's stomach suddenly gave a loud rumble.

"You must be hungry. Didn't you eat lunch on the train?"

The young man shook his head. "I didn't have any lunch on the train" he said.

"You must be very hungry. In any case, I'll drive you there, unless you have your license?"

"Nope. Just my permit" Ash replied.

"All right, then. Come with me".

Yes, this is a short chapter. The chapter lengths will fluctuate with whatever the plot demands. And this is going to be a long one, so buckle your seatbelts. I found a plot for this story I was happy with, and I'm going to stick with it.

In the next chapter, I'm going to respond to all of your reviews, so make sure you leave one.

Sincerely, SnowLucario