Chaser and the Rising Mountain

Afterword

Hello! This is the author, Purim.

Three books is a lot of reading! Even if the books are small, the weekly release schedule makes them feel that way, doesn't it? In any case, I want to thank you all for reading this far.

This book was written in December, and marks the end of the first leg of One Who Chases. The theme of this story was "Overcoming Increasingly Tough Odds!" While under pressure, Goh goes from having all his friends at his back to lost and lonely at the bottom of the mountain. It's in these moments that we really see what kind of person he is and what he's made of. As we've explored in the previous books, he is both highly capable and highly flawed, and it is this flawed person that I want to cheer on. He isn't perfect and makes mistakes, both in his own pursuit of his dreams as well as his interactions with others, but his personal growth is one of the main things I want to emphasize in One Who Chases.

As the story continues, he will be faced with even greater challenges, both as a Pokémon Trainer and as a friend. He'll experience dizzying victories and suffer crushing defeats, but most of all, we're only getting started! One Who Chases will continue in "Chaser and the Brass Tower" in two weeks, with the first chapter debuting on 18 June, 2022. After, of course, two more weeks of side stories.I really enjoy writing these side stories since they're a moment to take a break and recharge from the more difficult parts of writing the series. I hope you enjoy reading them over the next two weeks.

Speaking of writing, this book was written in December, with me having to basically conceal most of the plot from everyone as I was writing it. I like to share my thoughts about what I'm writing as well as small snippets on social media, though I try to avoid huge spoilers, and only this past weekend I finished putting the finishing touches on Book 6 of this series! There's still quite a bit to come, and I hope you stick with me.

This story began life as a stand alone fic that featured cameos from characters like Misty and Brock as well as jumps in perspective, but that was before I had decided to focus in on Goh as the sole main character. I hope the extended focus on him has helped give the story its own character, apart from other fics that can shift who is in focus.

I ended up writing this all during December, so we're about six months since this story was finished... Time flies, doesn't it? And yet, we still have much, much further to go. December was a rough time for me, so I hope those negative thoughts didn't permeate the story too much. Now we're almost into Summer! Though, the story will be taking place in winter for the next three books... I hope that's alright.

On a final note, the next books will also feature a bit of a time-skip as far as where we are in the episodes when they take place. Up until now we've been at JN89, "The Gates of Warp!", known as "ディアルガ＆パルキア！時空大異変！！" or 'Dialga & Palkia! The Space-Time Cataclysm!!' When we rejoin Goh and the others in "Brass Tower", One Who Chases will be just before "スパイクタウンのマリィ！" or 'Mary of Spike Town!'. Sorry for those of you who primarily watch the dub; I will update this with the episode titles as soon as the dub reaches this point.

Thank you all for coming this far, and I hope I'll see you again soon!