The Unyielding Façade

Part 1 - Beginning of a New Adventure

"You are Valentina Rojo. You are the hero of this world and you will rewrite lots of fates intertwined with yours. However, you will thread upon a treacherous path until the hero has been ended."

The voice rang out in the dark empty space. A red-haired girl turned to the voice. Her round red eyes searched for the source of the voice to no avail.

This feels like a deja vu, the girl thought.

"Voice?" she called out.

However, before she knew it, the girl with dark red hair found herself walking into a Pokémon Centre clutching her coat tight. She turned around but could only find the dusty grey road outside, powdered with a thin layer of snow.

A few girls can be seen walking towards the Pokémon Centre. The three were talking to each other as they walked in. Something big seemed to have happened.

"Have you heard of that case? The kidnapped girls at the abandoned supermarket?"

"Someone's kidnapped? Wait, where?!"

"You seriously didn't know? Ten people - kidnapped and taken hostage for a year in an abandoned building in the eastern island!"

"What?!"

"And the worst thing is the police didn't do anything to rescue them and left them to a couple of Pokémon trainers,"

"I heard the memory of any bystanders were erased, and that's why they had difficulties solving the case,"

"That's terrible!"

"I heard it was a girl who defeated the kidnapper, but the perpetrator got away,"

"So he's on the loose?! Where was he last sighted?"

"No one knows... the police are still looking for him but there haven't been any signs in the past two weeks..."

"It's crazy that you didn't know about a case this big, girl,"

"Ohh... now I'm scared... what to do..."

The three kept walking to the deeper part of Pokémon Centre. The girl with the red coat cast them a glance, her lips sealed tight as she watched the three girls chatting away.

Welp, actually Matias didn't get away. I just forgot about him in the chaos and ran away, she thought, and he probably wouldn't kidnap some random girls like you, just the ones he was told to.

~~~

I was slouching on a couch by the window with my gaze on the road. White, glistening snow started piling up in parts of the road - which didn't seem to satisfy the skies as they kept raining even more snowflakes upon the earth. Fortunately, the heater inside the Pokémon Centre was turned on - which is probably why there were so many people that day.

I had just arrived in Sunnyshore City after signing myself up for the next Pokémon League. The league, located just a few miles of the city, was fortunately one of the places I could navigate my way to without getting lost since I went there plenty times with grandpa. However, there weren't a lot of things to look at there and not much has changed since the last time we went there. So, I decided to go back to Sunnyshore. But since Victory Road was quite a harsh road, my first stop would have to be the Pokémon Centre. And there I was, turning in my party to the nurse for healing.

In any case, I finished all paperwork business I had with the league registration, I thought and stretched, one thing out of the way... and now I can just... relax.

Or not. I started to get bored waiting inside the centre just watching people talking about the most random stuffs and joking around. There was even less stuffs to look at in the Pokémon Centre. So I got up from the couch and walked out of the centre. Might as well take a look around the city while I had the chance!