A Reflection in the Past

The whistle blew throughout the open field, all of a sudden, five people jumped to a pool, and began to swim from their former side to the other. They rushed to the otherside by the means of Butterfree stroke, they were doing some swimming lessons as they usually do in this gym. At the center there was a lifeguard tower, and on the top of the tower, there was a familiar face sitting while looking at the young adults swimming back and forth.

She has an honey-orange messy hair with some of the lower strand formed spiky curls near her face, wears a blue and white one-piece swimsuit with a white turtleneck jacket, leaving her legs bare and white sandals clinging on to her feet, and she has a grey whistle strapped on to her neck, her name is Misty Williams, the water-type specialist of Cerulean City.

While observing the trainees, she heard a buzz from her radio, which was standing at the rear arms of the lifeguard tower. She immediately picked up, and asked.

"What is it?" She asked to the radio, she sent her voice and waited for a reply. Another buzz, and answered her inquiry.

"Miss Williams, it seems that someone is looking for you." The man on the other line stated, she was confused by this since she didn't receive any emails earlier, and so she decided to ask on who is the visito.

"Hmm... May I know who the person is?" She asked. Another buzz from the radio and the man replied.

"Their name seems to be 'Yoake Katsuragi'." The man stated the name of the visitor. Misty was surprised by how early the trainer is since she was expecting him to arrive later but she has no choice but to adjust.

"Okay, bring him in." Misty ordered the man on the other line. She blew the whistle to halt the trainees since this pool will be used for the later battle.

'It's been awhile since anyone fought in my gym, I hope I still have it in me.' Misty thought as she worries that since Pokemon training isn't a thing for a long time, and with the lack of training throughout the years, she might be the easy egg to be cracked compared to the gym trays ahead.

"Miss Williams, here he is." The guard called her, she looked at him and saw a boy beside him. He has messy black hair, dark-red pupils, a long black scarf, a black coat, black jeans, and shoes and a Kirlia clinging in his shoulders.

After noticing the boy, she slowly went down from the tower and walked up to them to introduce herself to the trainer, and told the guard to return to his post in the entrance.

"You must be Yoake Katsuragu, my name is Misty Williams, and you already know my occupation, so, Nice to meet you." Misty introduces herself to the trainer while giving out a handshake..

"Yup, and I'm guessing that you already know why I'm here." Yoake stated as he decided to follow her structure from her introduction. Misty giggled and continued on to their conversation.

"Yeah, so I'm a water-type specialist with a full awe on a full offensive, think you can handle that?" She asked him as she tried to say her usual lines back then.

"I'm guessing you haven't heard from Brock, we'll see." Yoake smirked as he knew how he outcompeted Brock yesterday, and possibly doing it again with Misty.

Misty noticed how the trainer was active and might be a powerful opponent, and so she decided to talk with the trainer for a while.

"You seemed to be a good opponent, so how about we have some talks before battling?" She asked him as she tries to make an excuse for them not to battle since she lost her style of battling a long time, and hoped that she might get her style once more with the talks.

"Hmm sure." He said as he accepted Misty's offering to have a chat.

"Great, follow me, then." Misty was delighted with the trainer's acceptance, the trainer followed her as she walked to a hallway finding something.

"Where is it… ahh here." She mumbled as she found a door, Yoake was relatively confused by this, and so was little Kirlia. Misty turns the knob of the door, and opens it. She reached out her hand near the light switch, and opened it. The lights of the room turned on, and so they continued on.

"Here, come in." Misty respectfully said to the trainer as she walked into the room. Despite being clueless, the two followed the specialist, and from what they saw in the room, they were speechless.

Upon entering the room, they saw portraits and pictures of different events of humans alongside their Pokemon. Some have badges, medals or even trophies beside them, it was like a heavenly vault filled with glory. Yoake was amazed by this, and Misty saw the trainer's eyes, filled with determination, striving for victory to the bitter end, idolizing the people in front of him, and improving to be the best.

"Ahhh six years ago, the height of Pokemon training. An International league that allowed young teens to explore the world alongside their Pokemon." Misty stated as she looked at the trainer, who was still speechless with the pictures.

"It was a beautiful life back then huh?" Yoake asked the specialist. She nodded as she remembered the good times she had back in the day.

"Probably, everyone was happy, and cheers were always all over the place." Misty answered the trainer's question. Then there was another question that made Yoake realize that something was wrong.

"What happened?" Yoake ushered after looking down and letting go of his look to the portraits. The mood of the room drastically changed as the once golden view of this boy had turned into a perpetual room of sadness.

"Well… it seems that Pokemon training lost the war between tradition vs the new era, kids these days rarely go outside so I guess that's the downfall." Misty sighed as she tried her best to explain the downfall of Pokemon training, instead of continuing with depressing talk, Misty gave an optimistic view.

"On the bright side, you might take the opportunity to go up in the ranks, what do you say?" Misty asked the trainer as she was finally getting confident enough to actually battle the trainer.

"Let's do it."

To be continued in, The Waterous Offensive