Yuuto Ishida

Yuuto was born in Goldenrod city, and even from then, his life was off to a rough start. While his family was admittedly well-off, they seemed to not want Yuuto around. Try as he might, nothing he would do could garner his parent’s attention or affection. He tried his best to excel in school, hoping that would elicit a reaction, but it didn’t. And when he got nothing, he fell into a state of apathy – his grades began to slip, and he started taking the bare minimum care of himself.

While his parents reacted negatively to this, they only did so after receiving a call from a teacher concerned about Yuuto’s grades and physical state. Even when he was falling faster than he could process, Yuuto still couldn’t get the parental attention he so desperately craved. He started becoming irritable, and one night, it all became too much.

Tension had gathered for the past 17 years, and finally, it exploded. It was a bordering on a screaming match, and Yuuto was losing. Apparently his parents had pent up feelings over his failures as well, and it was only a matter of time before it all spilled out. It was here Yuuto learned once and for all that he had never been truly wanted by his parents, and that they were tired of dealing with him. And since he was on the cusp of turning 18, his parents had a clear decision: it was time for him to leave the house, whether he wanted to or not. He was given about 10 minutes to pack his bags, before he was thrown out of the apartment he had spent his life in up until that point. With the air crisp and on the brink of rain, Yuuto found himself completely and utterly lost.

Thankfully, since it was close by, Yuuto made it to the tunnel before the rain started. Once there, he began to wander. It was relatively crowded, as the multiple stalls were packed with attendees of the city’s nightlife. It was a bit tough weaving through the crowds with his suitcase in tow, so he stopped at a stall with a seat open. Once he sat down, Yuuto practically collapsed, hiding his face in his arms. He wasn’t crying, but felt like he was about to. He sat there in silence for a good moment, before a voice spoke out to him.

“Oi, you okay man?”

Yuuto turned his head to face the voice, seeing it was a man with red hair wrapped with a bandana. Bluntly, Yuuto replied with ‘no‘. The man offered to at least buy Yuuto a drink or food from the stall, which he accepted. Through some moments of awkward silence, the two slowly started conversation. Yuuto learned the man was named Kenjiro, and was apparently a regular around the area. Yuuto let it spill that he had just gotten kicked out, to which Kenjiro responded quite empathetically. The conversation evolved into that of their backgrounds – Kenjiro revealing that he too had left home aimlessly at Yuuto’s age.

The two talked until the late hours of the night, until the owner of the stall they were sitting at told them they were closing for the night. Solemnly, Yuuto accepted that he was to go off on his own again, but Kenjiro stopped him. He said he knew a place where Yuuto could stay for the night, a place for people who were ostracized and rejected. While Yuuto was rather suspicious and wanted to hold off of trusting someone he just met, he ended up feeling as though he didn’t have much of a choice – he didn’t have anywhere else to go, after all. 

Yuuto followed Kenjiro through the backstreets of Goldenrod, eventually making their way to the city’s marina. There, Kenjiro slipped inside an old, seemingly abandoned warehouse, and Yuuto hesitantly followed. Once inside, Yuuto could see an obscured light on the upper level of the warehouse, and Kenjiro motioned for him to follow him up there. He knocked a pattern into a metal door, before opening it. 

Kenjiro was greeted by many voices, and as Yuuto’s eyes adjusted to the light level, he could see about 5 other young men in the room, among various pokemon. Kenjiro introduced Yuuto, as well as his general background, and to his surprise, he was met with a warm welcome. As he walked into the room and sat down on the floor, he was bombarded with questions by the others, until one of them, a man with a ninetales sleeping behind him, told them to shut up. The man introduced himself as Raiden, the leader of the small gang, and inquired for more info himself on who Yuuto was. But after a while, he could tell Yuuto was nervous, so he backed off.
Yuuto was conflicted, everything was happening so fast. But he was just glad he had a place to stay for the night, and was glad to hear that he was accepted here.

Quickly afterwards, Yuuto was able to find out the details of the gang – it was an anti-Rocket street gang. Essentially, it was just a band of misfits dedicated to routing Team Rocket out of Goldenrod, built on mutual comradery. Yuuto admittedly didn’t know much about Rocket, other than the fact that he’d see many violent crimes attributed to them on the news, but he decided he’d join in on the cause.
Over time, Yuuto meshed into the gang quite well, becoming incredibly close to all the members to the point where they felt like family to him, though he was closest to Raiden and Kenjiro. He’d often go out of missions to destroy Rocket’s supply caches or get into scuffles with Rocket grunts, and while he didn’t have a pokemon to assist him, he did become quite fond of using a metal bat. The missions were exhilarating, and Yuuto felt like he was making a change for once.  

But all was not meant to last.
After about a year, word started circulating in the underground that Team Rocket was retaliating brutally against anti-Rocket street gangs. Suspicions were only confirmed when a sister gang to the boys was wiped out overnight. Tensions were high, but Raiden felt convinced he could take anything Rocket would give them.

It was late at night when a ruckus started outside the warehouse. Hesitantly, one of the members went to check it out, and the sound of a gunshot quickly followed. In an instant, everyone was primed and ready to go, and while terrified, Yuuto ran outside with the rest of his gang. But before Raiden could call out for his ninetales to use its first attack, shots and chaos rung out.
It was a bloodbath.
It wasn’t just any Rocket operatives that were there, it was Giovanni himself, his powerful horned ground-type pokemon, and a few armed Rocket elites. Yuuto watched as Giovanni commanded his pokemon to impale his comrades, and it wasn’t long before…
It felt surreal at first, and it happened all too quickly. Giovanni’s nidoking had rammed itself into Yuuto, tearing into him. He was flung like a ragdoll onto the pavement, and his vision started to blur.

Is this the end?

The rain started out small, though Kenjiro commented on how it seemed so sudden on a clear night. But then is escalated, and along with it came aggressive winds. The rain was now pounding on the small house, and the wind seemed to have an otherworldly howl to it. Kenjiro’s pokemon partner became fearful, strangely out of character for her.
Then, as suddenly as it came, the rain and wind stopped.

Yuuto and Kenjiro were confused, as it seemed a hurricane had just swept in for a matter of minutes. But they just shrugged it off, as everything seemed to be alright now. But then, someone knocked on Kenjiro’s door. He answered, and it appeared to be a panicked local. They told him to run outside and take a look at the horizon – so he did, and Yuuto followed. To their horror, the horizon outside was littered with emergency flares and dim lights from ships. It seemed the sudden storm had wreaked havoc off the coast, and it was suspected many ships were going to make their way to Cianwood for emergency docking.

Kenjiro told Yuuto to stay put and called his partner pokemon out, and headed towards his own boat. He said he was going to sail out and check if anyone needed help, and while Yuuto was concerned for his friend, he agreed to stay where he was.
The rest of the night was chaotic.

Some 20 minutes or so after the storm, lifeboats started arriving on the shores of Cianwood. Yuuto, among the others of the crowd of concerned bystanders, rushed in to help, and were able to learn a cruise liner had gotten trapped in the heart of the storm and partially capsized. Everyone on the lifeboats seemed reasonably shaken, and the beach was filled with commotion as people tried to find their relatives and friends.

By morning, the usually sleepy town of Cianwood was bustling with the likes of reporters, search and rescue workers, and confused, scared tourists. Yuuto was of particular interest by those organizing the relief efforts, due to his profession and availability. In total, 14 people had died in the storm. 8 from the cruise liner alone, with the rest being independent sailors. An additional 3 were missing, and while 2 were found stranded on one of the Whirl Islands, one was never found. Yuuto was tasked primarily with autopsying found bodies and assisting with identification – and due to how busy everything was, he was also thrown into the role of informing relatives.

As much as he tried to distance himself from it, the act of informing families themselves took its toll on Yuuto. It reminded him of his own despair at learning of his previous found family’s deaths. But particularly, an interaction with one man was heart-wrenching – he had lost both his wife and child. He didn’t want Yuuto to say anything, and just broke down sobbing, as he knew exactly what Yuuto was going to say. Yuuto was about to leave the encounter wishing there was something, anything that he could do. Quietly, he grabbed a pen and paper from his overcoat and slipped the man the numbers for some crisis lines, as well as Yuuto’s own number if he needed any further assistance.

Arriving at the hotel, Yuuto was quick to identify the man in the lobby. He looked absolutely awful – it was evident to Yuuto as a health professional that the man hadn’t showered or eaten in days. His voice sounded weak, and as he was about to suggest returning to his hotel room, Yuuto stepped in. He suggested they visit a karaoke place that was within walking distance, since it offered privacy and doubled as a restaurant. Hesitantly, the man agreed. As they left the hotel together, the man formally introduced himself as Diego.

Once the two got a room at the karaoke place, Diego practically collapsed on the couch into a sobbing mess. He had been barely holding himself together in the hotel lobby, it seemed, and simply couldn’t any longer. Yuuto ordered some food for the both of them and sat down next to him, empathizing as best he could to Diego’s semi-incoherent rambling. The rest of the night went about the same as that, with Diego airing out everything he had kept internal for the past couple of days since the confirmation of his family’s passing. Yuuto felt like there wasn’t much he could do besides listen and encourage Diego to actually eat something once the food came. Diego eventually cried himself out and was able to take a deep breath, giving Yuuto a tired but heartfelt ‘thank you‘ for listening. Yuuto walked with Diego back to his hotel room, and upon leaving, Yuuto asked Diego to make a promise.

“Take care of yourself, alright?”

Diego looked to the side for a second before agreeing. With that, Yuuto left, though the encounter was fresh in his mind the next morning.
For the next two weeks, the two would communicate by call and text, if only to ensure that Diego had someone to talk to that held hope in him. Discussion shifted from general venting to talk of returning to work. Yuuto was certain that Diego was nowhere near ready to work, especially this early in the grieving process, but it seemed Diego’s boss wasn’t willing to accommodate. 

Upon learning Diego worked for Interpol, Yuuto did some research to find out that the Interpol office was within walking distance of his current apartment. So, Yuuto promised Diego that, with his permission, he’d be more than willing to meet up with him after work. Yuuto hoped he wasn’t coming off too strongly for someone he had essentially just met, but it seemed Diego enjoyed his company, as he agreed. The two traveled from Cianwood to Goldenrod, and over the next 8 months, their relationship grew.

Very slowly, Diego was brought out of his completely depressed state, and Yuuto was able to learn more about him than just him being a grief-stricken man. Even though his work was stressful, especially given the current case’s circumstances, he still enjoyed it and would find himself rambling on to Yuuto about various methodologies. At the end of those 8 months, Diego drunkenly confessed his feelings towards Yuuto. He didn’t quite know how to react, as he has never thought of their relationship in that way – and he admittedly felt a bit awkward, knowing their friendship was formed solely out of necessity. He took a good long while in the morning to think about it, and even though Diego profusely apologized in the morning once he was sober, Yuuto admitted he’d be willing to give it a shot.

The two continued their usual routine of hanging out after Diego’s work until Diego was officially called off work, since the case had ‘hit a cold point’, and he was being allowed to work from his home in Cianwood. Diego offered to let Yuuto move in with him, and while a bit hesitant, Yuuto agreed. The two went back to where they had met, and life was relatively normal, and Yuuto was starting to warm up to the idea of the relationship… but then the inexplicable happened.

One day, without explanation, Diego’s previously deceased child appeared perfectly alive on the kitchen floor near Jess’s urn. In an instant, Diego became a mix of panicked and flooded with emotion as he ran over and shook them awake, with Yuuto following soon after. Yuuto watched, dumbfounded, as the two had an exchange.
There’s… got to be a logical explanation for this… right…?

After letting Diego and Basil have their moment, Basil turned to Yuuto and asked who he was. Yuuto panicked, and didn’t know how to explain – so he bullshitted an excuse. He told Basil they had been in a coma for the last 9 months, and that he was the live-in doctor taking care of them. Diego looked shocked and confused, and had a conversation of facial expressions with Yuuto before he hesitantly backed up Yuuto’s lies.
Basil learned of their mother’s death, and was escorted to their room by Diego, crying.

Later, Yuuto and Diego discussed what had happened. Yuuto apologized for lying but admitted telling Basil they were in a coma was easier than telling them they had been dead for 9 months. As for the doctor part… Diego actually thanked him for it. He wasn’t sure if he could’ve explained the true nature of their relationship to Basil just then, especially with their reaction to their mother’s death. That was what got Yuuto thinking.
Do I really belong here?

That feeling only worsened when Basil did find out about the true nature of Diego and Yuuto’s relationship – and they reacted coldly in response. Yuuto began reconsidering the relationship, and wondering if he should really stay. He would get into arguments with Diego about this, one of which almost left with him leaving outright. It was a tense time for both of them, all while having to balance a child who wouldn’t even leave their room.

A turn of hope sparked one night though – when Diego received a phone call informing him to get to Goldenrod ASAP – as Giovanni’s death was confirmed. In the commotion, Yuuto decided to come with him, as it seemed Basil’s new interest in loud electronic music was keeping them occupied.
While back in Goldenrod, amongst juggling the now hectic again Giovanni case, Diego and Yuuto were able to repair their relationship through some heartfelt, long, and honest conversations.
Yuuto had kind of forgotten what love felt like, as it had been so long since he felt it, but… maybe this was love, after all.

They returned to Cianwood hand in hand, and decided to go forwards with a bright outlook to the future.