SIDE CHAPTER — Indigo's History

Kari stared out the window quietly. Ten minutes had already passed of her just standing there. She should have been doing anything else — studying for final exams or coming up with new social media posts for the Cherrygrove Gym perhaps — but she found herself lost in thought.

Memorial Day and Indigo National Day were coming up in two weeks. She never knew how to feel around this time of year. She hardly remembered mom or dad, and grandpa…

Kari tensed up without realizing it. She breathed in and out slowly, letting her shoulders fall further with each breath she took.

She'd never really gotten a chance to know him either. He'd taken care of her and Yulian, but right up until his day of passing he'd just been… a silent shell. Someone who had provided for them but went no further. A veteran who had been scarred by war and loss and no longer wished to talk.

It had felt like she and Yulian just lived by themselves rather than it being a family of three.

She was a senior in high school now. She was going to graduate in just a few weeks, and she had a respectable job at the Cherrygrove Gym. Everything was pretty much perfect, but…

She was old enough now, and she wanted to know. She wanted to know about what had fractured her family apart until it was just her and Yulian. She'd learned about the Wars in school, but that wasn't enough for her.

With a heavy resolution in her heart, Kari padded through the halls of their little house and stopped in front of her brother's bedroom. Even from here, she could hear muttering coming from inside.

"Maybe this… no, wait, I should make the colors brighter…"

What a workaholic, Kari thought to herself with a smile, She raised a hand and rapped on the door softly with her knuckles. A very hasty come in got yelled out before Yulian went right back to his muttering.

So Kari slipped inside, carefully closing the door behind her. Just like she'd suspected, her brother was hard at work at his computer. He clicked rapidly with his mouse as he adjusted what looked like a version of the Cherrygrove Gym's new website. Kari wasn't sure how to broach the subject, so…

"Yuli?" she asked hesitantly.

Her brother actually paused in his work. Kari didn't often use his nickname. When she did, it was for something important. Yulian's expression was one of immense concern as he turned around in his swivel chair.

"What's wrong?" he immediately asked. Kari refrained from smiling. She really did have the best older brother in the world.

"Memorial Day and Indigo National Day are coming up," she began. Yulian stared at her with confusion. Kari almost thought about leaving, but she forced herself to stand there and continue. "I was wondering…"

"…Can you tell me more about what happened to mom and dad during the Rocket War? And what grandpa went through when he was younger?"

Yulian stiffened. The concern melted off his face and was instantly replaced with pain and sorrow instead. Oh Arceus, she already felt bad for asking.

She may not have remembered anything, but her brother… he'd been old enough at that time to be told the details by authorities. She was about to apologize when Yulian sighed softly. Her brother ran a hand tiredly through his hair. He suddenly looked decades older instead of a young man in his twenties.

"…I kind of expected you to ask me this sometime soon," he admitted. His eyes drifted to something on his bedroom wall. Kari followed his gaze.

It was a photo of a man and woman holding a young toddler in their arms while a boy jumped up and down next to them excitedly. A smiling elderly man had his arm around the woman's shoulder.

Their family.

She tore her gaze away from it when Yulian spoke again. "It's crazy how time flies… you're about to graduate from high school," he murmured. With another sigh, he got up from his seat and looked her in the eye.

Kari saw so much pain there that she almost shied away instinctively. "I… don't think I can bring myself to tell you what happened to mom and dad right now," Yulian said, and he took a shaky breath. "But… I can tonight. I just need some time to prepare myself first. For now…"

Yulian walked over to one of the bookshelves in his room. In one smooth motion, as if he'd long memorized the location, he gingerly plucked a book off it and presented it to her.

"Read this," her brother said quietly. "It's a history book about Indigo with some… firsthand accounts. Grandpa actually contributed to this. I only found out after he passed away and an editor contacted me. This one's an updated edition I was planning to give you after graduation."

Kari's eyes widened.

"I… Thank you, Yuli," she managed to get out with difficulty. She took the offering with trembling arms.

Why was she shaking so much?

Kari had no idea how she got back to her room. She only remembered briefly hugging her brother, and the next moment, she was sitting at her desk with the book sitting in front of her.

It suddenly looked so ominous. She forced herself to place a hand on the cover.

Kari took a deep breath, opened the book, and began to read.

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MEMORIES OF INDIGO BY KUWARU HIRATSUKA

[PREFACE]

Indigo did not always exist.

There used to only be Kanto and Johto. Two regions which had been at each other's throats for as long as they had existed. Traces of conflict go as far back as the age of warring states. Kanto ultimately lost, became a vassal state to Johto, and suffered under their tyranny for generations.

Highly disadvantageous trades, policies, the refusal to share technology, education, or help in times of need and more… Kanto paid high tributes and received nothing but pain from Johto in return. They suffered from the effects of oppression in many different ways. Eventually, Kanto grew tired and broke free, claiming independence.

The two regions became equals, but peace only lasted for so long.

Kanto and Johto began to encroach on each other's territories. They cried for peace but spilt blood to prove their strength. Neither region was willing to give in to the other. Kanto wanted revenge for its past years of suffering, and Johto wanted to expand its power and territory.

So how did Indigo come to be? How did two regions with such a relationship stained by blood and oppression come to unite as one country?

We will begin with the conflict that precipitated the formation of Indigo.

[PART I: THE WAR OF ASHES]

The War of Ashes.

There is no one in Kanto-Johto who does not know this conflict. It is the deadliest in Indigo's history with an estimated three million deaths. I say 'estimated' because technology was too poor back then to keep more accurate records. The sheer destruction of the war also contributed to the lack of numerical data we have on it today.

How can you count deaths when no traces are even left behind? When entire people and settlements disappear as if they never existed at all?

We will get to that, but first, we must start from the beginning.

Fifty-four years ago on January 26th. That was the day the world changed as we knew it.

Just one month prior to that date, Kanto and Johto had engaged in and completed a small conflict near the borders that resulted in over five thousand deaths on both sides. On January 26th, the Elite Fours and Champions of both regional Leagues met at a summit near the base of Mt. Silver.

We do not know who started the fight, and we never will. What was supposed to be a meeting to sign a temporary ceasefire agreement turned into a bloodbath as leaders from both sides turned on each other with their Pokemon.

Both went back to their respective regions and declared war…

A war that would not end for another four grueling years.

The fighting was mostly concentrated on the border between Kanto and Johto along the Mt. Silver Range; however, there were times when it went as far north as Mahogany Town in Johto or Pewter and Cerulean City in Kanto. Several named battles came out of the War of Ashes for their particular brutality. The Battle of Mt. Silver, the Mt. Moon Ambush, Operation Tohjo… and the list goes on. Each of these battles resulted in inexplicably high casualties.

Many notable individuals rose to fame during this time. Samuel Oak, who served as a commander and later became the Hero of the War. Agatha Kikuko, who was one of Oak's most trusted aides and decimated battalions with her Ghosts. Pryce Yanagi, who froze over entire battlefields with his Ice types. Orsino Sakaki, who swallowed soldiers whole with his Ground types. Yamada Ichijou, who dominated the skies with his Dragons. Each offered fighting prowess just below that of their respective region's Champion and Elite Four.

Despair. Hatred. Revenge. Death. So much of it accumulated over the course of four years. Endless battles were waged and fought in the name of glory. The war was ugly and cruel, and it seemed like it would stretch on forever. Both sides gave and took, and then took some more.

But all things must come to an inevitable end.

April 21st.

Kantonian and Johtonian forces were locked in a battle along Route 27's coastline. They fought hard to break the stalemate and push through to each other's regions. Champions and Elite Fours led the charge of their respective armies.

None of them — not the soldiers, the Elites, or the citizens waiting back home — truly realized the consequences of the long war they had started.

We are humans, and we share the world with Pokemon.

And in this world we call home, there are always forces greater than we can imagine and could never hope to surpass. Beings we have worshiped and feared since time immemorial.

Legends. Deities.

They are the Servants of Arceus and Rulers of Concepts. Rarely ever seen, yet always spoken of. They dwell and slumber in unseen places, content to let the world run by itself and to stay out of worldly affairs.

Only if they are not angered and provoked.

[ACCOUNT I: JOUJI CHESTER, WAR VETERAN FROM JOHTO]

My battalion had been called up to assist in the battle along Route 27's coastline. We had extra supplies loaded on our backs and fresh Pokemon and weapons to fight with. We hurried as fast as we could, but I can only be grateful today that we did not hurry enough.

We had not yet made it to the battle's outskirts when we saw the world light up in the distance.

The skies turned bright red. The air warped from heat so intense that we could feel it from miles away. The seas boiled and lurched. And fire, there was so much fire—

A storm of flames engulfed our sights, so blinding that we had to look away lest we permanently lose our vision. My first thought was that the Kantonian forces had come up with some sort of new and terrible explosive.

But when my comrades and I finally felt it safe to open our eyes, I realized it was something much worse.

I've heard some young people of today claim in passing that they want to meet a Legend… to lay eyes on a being that no one else has ever seen before. They think only of the glory meeting one would bring and the majesty such a Legend must behold.

They don't know what they're talking about.

When I saw the Incarnation of Wrath flying through the skies, I felt nothing but sheer terror.

A deity. That's what it was. Something that could kill my entire battalion where we stood with just a single soft breath. We were so far away from it, but we fell to our knees from the pressure it radiated. Some people even had trouble breathing and began choking.

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I couldn't see the Legendary Moltres properly. Its massive form constantly shifted with brilliant, moving flames so bright it physically hurt to look at it for more than a second at a time. I only allowed myself a few snatched glimpses before averting my gaze entirely.

I felt like if I looked any longer, then Moltres would sense my presence and kill me. We stayed there long after the Legendary Bird flew away. Only when we deemed it safe did we finally get up and run towards our destination.

Nothing.

There was absolutely nothing left. No trees, no grass, no armies.

Our Champion was dead. Our Elite Four members were dead. Those from Kanto were dead as well.

I saw only scorched earth, and I felt terror. Not even traces of bodies had been left behind. They'd burned until there was nothing left. We looked towards the beach, and the sea itself was still on fire.

We went back to report to our superiors, but we were already falling apart.

It did not end with Moltres. Articuno and Zapdos, too, eventually appeared in the skies above Kanto and Johto. Together, the three Legendary Birds began to punish us humans for our folly.

We never should have started that war or prolonged it as long as we did. It only served to anger beings who slumbered across the land we lived in. They taught us our rightful place in the world.

Do you know why they call it the War of Ashes?

It's because the sight of entire villages and towns razed by the Birds was so terrible. There were no bodies to even mourn. Elemental forces wreaked havoc and instantly annihilated whoever and whatever they touched. The air across Kanto and Johto became nauseating, thick with the smell of death as ashes constantly rained down from the skies without end.

So, so many ashes…

[AUTHOR'S WORDS]

It is a mystery how the Legendary Birds were able to endure four years of constant fighting. Perhaps it was one last act of mercy from them to see if we would ever end the conflict on our own, but that was all they gave.

One awoke before the others and with more fury than its equals. Long ago, it had gifted the people of Kanto and Johto its Flames. The Legendary Moltres was displeased by the fighting and rose up into the skies above, raining fire upon the earth and the sea.

Its Flames destroyed everything. The Champions and Elite Fours of both regions, their armies, their surroundings—

Everyone and everything in the vicinity died.

Articuno and Zapdos awoke next and joined their equal, and they flew out to make their anger known.

Fire, ice, and lightning. Together, these three Titans and Rulers of Seasons single handedly accounted for over eighty percent of the war's total deaths by themselves. They brought devastation wherever they went across Kanto and Johto.

Entire towns, cities, and villages were wiped out with mere flaps of wings. The earth was ravaged and torn apart from lightning, forests were burned into nothing but scorched earth, and everything froze into ice and shattered.

If not for Samuel Oak, the three Legendary Birds would have gone on to destroy all of Kanto and Johto until there was nothing left. The act of Moltres killing the Champions and Elite Fours of Kanto and Johto had created a power vacuum in both countries. They had lost their leaders, and their armies had fallen into disarray.

Samuel Oak took up the role of leadership and united both forces into a single army.

To stand up to a true Legend is impossible. A human simply cannot stand up to a deity.

So Moltres gave the army a sliver of a chance for survival. It still held some love for the people it had once gifted Flames to. The Legend bade its equals to halt in their advance, and the Bird of Noble Fire split itself in two. One was its True Self, and the other was just an Embodiment of Fire. An elemental proxy.

That single elemental proxy was what Samuel Oak and his army fought for one week. Proxy it may have been, but it was still a fragment of a Legend. Many people died in the process, yet Samuel Oak miraculously vanquished the splintered self on the seventh day.

Moved by Samuel Oak's strength, Moltres gifted him new Flames. The Legendary Birds disappeared and went back to their slumber. The Indigo Peace Treaty was signed, and Kanto and Johto formally unified as one country under the flag of Indigo. People on both sides were tired of fighting. They had also learned that to fight further would only bring about their eventual destruction from outside forces, and so they came together with the mutual goal of survival. Samuel Oak was appointed as the first Champion of Indigo.

That was how the War of Ashes concluded, and how Indigo first began. It was truly a horrific war on a scale never before seen, and one that reinforced the fact that Legends can destroy mankind if they so wish.

Survivors from that war have contributed to this book with firsthand accounts of what they experienced. You have already read one, but I have included more below.

[ACCOUNT II: CHIYO DRALL, COMBAT MEDIC FROM JOHTO]

They brought us in from another camp for backup and told us to save as many people as we could.

I had worked as a nurse my entire life and assisted with hundreds of emergency operations, but nothing prepared me for the devastation later called the Battle of Mt. Silver. It was horrifying.

The screams of pain. The cries for help. The frantic prayers to Ho-Oh for salvation.

All of it mixed together until I heard nothing but a garbled, unknown language of fear.

Bodies were hauled into our makeshift hospital in endless waves. We ran out of space not even five minutes in and had to order able soldiers to place patients outside on the cold, filthy ground instead. Many of them — Pokemon and humans alike — died before they were even looked at or received treatment. There were simply too many of them and not enough of us.

I lost track of time as I ran desperately from one side to another. It felt like for every individual I looked at and assisted, three more passed away around me. Some people died even after we gave them aid. The fighting was just too severe and the wounds too grievous. I saw arms severed by the blades of Scyther, legs burned away from the acid of Victreebel, chests split by the claws of Sandslash… It was a wonder how some of those people barely clung to life, and I did my best to save them. Blasts from the battlefield constantly rocked the earth and made it difficult to keep our balance or focus, but we could not afford to slip up.

So many lives were in our hands, and it was frightening.

At one point, someone grabbed my wrist. Not a fellow combat medic, but a patient that had just been looked at. Blood seeped through bandages wrapped around his head. One of his eyes had been taken by a Fearow, and the one that remained—

I will never forget the overwhelming emptiness in it.

No sorrow, no fear, no anger, just… emptiness.

"I'm tired," he told me.

Around us, the sounds of fighting and pained screams seemed to only grow louder. We were one year into the war at this point.

I wished everything would end.

[ACCOUNT III: ANONYMOUS, WAR VETERAN FROM KANTO]

Pewter City Corps, Fifth Division.

I was no one of importance. Not a lieutenant general or any other commander, but a simple private. I had not been drafted but instead volunteered for the army. Our mission was to defend the north. Johtonian forces had recently been pushing along the edges of the mountainous borders in a bid to invade from a different angle, but they had not managed to get through our line of defense yet.

June 2nd. My division was camped outside of Mt. Moon. Half of us patrolled Route 3 and the other half along Route 4. The stars were bright that night and shined down like beacons of hope… a stark contrast to the gloomy atmosphere among us.

It was year three of the war. Nobody had expected it to drag on for so long.

We were tired. We'd lost many good friends over the course of the war, and we missed being at home with our families. Still, we soldiered on to protect our country. I remember someone next to me saying how he was going to get married after the fighting ended. We all smiled and offered our sincere congratulations and hopes towards that future.

Then the world exploded.

I don't know how the Johntonian forces accomplished it, but they had managed to sneak past the border and caught us completely off guard. They came from all sides and trapped us: the air, the sides, and even from within Mt. Moon itself.

Boulders were thrown and bodies smashed. Slashes of wind hurtled through the darkness from the wings of Flying mounts and sliced soldiers in two. Ground types burst out of the earth and gored people where they stood.

It was a massacre.

I became one of the few survivors of the Mt. Moon Ambush. We held on long enough that when reinforcements finally came, the enemy decided not to push their luck and fled.

I was lucky, but others were not.

More friends of mine had vanished in the span of less than thirty minutes. Their spouses and children would never get to talk to them again. I looked back up at the starry sky obscured with smoke from explosions, and I could only think of two things.

How many more people would die before the war ended?

And… would anyone even win?

[AUTHOR'S WORDS]

It took many years for the newly unified Indigo to rebuild itself after the War of Ashes, and it was by no means an easy endeavor.

It was not just the physical devastation that was difficult to undo, but the emotional scars that had been wrought on Indigo's people. Many people had been lost. Friends, family, lovers… There was only a great sense of loss no matter where you looked.

And while Kanto and Johto had unified as one country, there was still lingering resentment between them. It was not just their long and tenuous history that was brought into question now, but… who to blame for the War's beginnings. For its prolonged state.

Champion Samuel Oak served as a bridge between Kanto and Johto during this time. He advocated for Kantonian rights and spent years enforcing fair policies for equal trade, education, and healthcare, policies which were long overdue. He urged the two regions to respect one another and put the past behind them.

And people listened. He was the respected Hero who had saved the country from certain doom. If he actively promoted cooperation and friendship, then the citizens would follow. Not everybody could so easily forgive and forget, but as time passed, Indigo began to heal and grow anew. They worked together to rebuild from the ashes and become better people.

Then, twenty years ago, signs of darkness fell upon the newly formed Indigo once more.

[PART II: THE ROCKET WAR]

There have been gangs and terrorist organizations across not just Indigo's history, but the rest of the world as well.

Out of all of them, Team Rocket has firmly cemented itself as the worst.

Illegal and inhumane Pokemon experimentation and trafficking. Kidnapping innocent citizens to try and create artificial Psychics or Aura users. Murdering anyone who got in their way. These are only a few of the terrible actions Team Rocket is known for. The number and sheer depth of the atrocities they committed would be enough to fill a book of its own.

They showed up out of the blue twenty years ago and slowly terrorized Indigo over the course of five years. The League tried its best to root out their bases of operation and their ringleader, but it was too difficult to find them all. The Rockets hid themselves and bided their time. A pre-emptive strike from the League was never launched.

Instead, fifteen years ago, Team Rocket struck first and declared war on Indigo, a conflict that would come to be known as the Rocket War. It only lasted one week, but it became the second deadliest conflict in our history.

Their organization's goal and overarching purpose was claimed as thus: to destroy the League and take over Indigo.

Members of Team Rocket launched offensives on major cities across Kanto and Johto such as Vermilion, Fuchsia, Blackthorn, and Olivine. While their forces within each region distracted Gym Leaders, the bulk of the fighting occurred, once again, at the borders between Kanto and Johto along the Mt. Silver Range. The head of Team Rocket, known simply as Boss, and the Champion of Indigo, Samuel Oak, led their respective armies there.

Heroes emerged during this conflict. Koga Kyou of the famed clan of ninjas rose to prominence after single handedly wiping out entire Rocket bases by himself. Matisse Surge, or Lieutenant Surge as he is more commonly known, won a naval battle against the Rockets at Vermilion. The Sacred Eight of Johto defended their respective towns and cities.

For as many heroes that emerged and lived, there were others who perished. Two include Orsino Sakaki and Yamada Ichijou. These former Gym Leaders of the Viridian and Blackthorn Gyms and veterans from the War of Ashes both died in action.

Many innocent citizens perished, too.

The Rockets did not care who they fought and killed. Their goal was to sow chaos and force the League's soldiers to spread out and protect everyone. In fact, they even targeted specific peoples of interest.

Champion Samuel Oak's family was among them.

While the Indigo Champion fought at the front of the war, his family was being protected at a safe house. Rockets found and murdered Samuel Oak's daughter-in-law as well as his son, Theodore Oak. Samuel Oak arrived in time to save his young grandchildren from suffering similar fates, and he went back to the war with renewed fury.

He eventually defeated the Team Rocket leader and dealt a fatal wound. The man escaped from battle, but his corpse was later found and his death confirmed. The last two days of the war were spent wiping out the remaining Team Rocket forces.

Samuel Oak stepped down as Champion following the Rocket War. He passed his position to Pryce Yanagi before retiring to Pallet Town with his remaining family.

This terrible conflict only served to deepen Indigo's unity. They had been brought together by a common enemy, and now they mourned together for mutual loss and tragedy.

We will never know the deeper reasons for why Team Rocket was formed, or what the mastermind's true motivations were. But one thing is clear: they were an evil beyond all evil, and they sacrificed the people of Indigo for their heinous goals.

As both a historian and a citizen of our country, I can only hope an organization like Team Rocket never rises again.

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Oak hated this time of year.

Memorial Day and Indigo National Day always dredged up terrible memories for him. Years had passed, but the pain never lessened. He never forgot. It was impossible not to. Especially…

His eyes squeezed painfully shut.

Charizard burned the Rockets alive, and Dragonite tore them apart with his claws. Alakazam Teleported into the house before he did and removed the last few perpetrators.

With trembling hands, he flung the door open and looked inside.

Blood, so much blood.

It was everywhere. On the walls, the ceilings, every surface of the furniture—

And in the back, there was what was left of his son and daughter-in-law. Alakazam had already located his grandchildren and pointed silently to a closet in the corner. Soft crying came from it.

He felt like his world was crashing down around him—

Oak slowly opened his eyes. Heavy, laborious breaths dragged themselves from his throat as he stared with sorrowful eyes at a photo on his desk. His son and daughter-in-law stared back up at him, both of them holding Blue and Daisy in their arms.

He'd thought the War of Ashes would be the last tragic event Kanto and Johto had to experience during his lifetime, but he'd been wrong. They'd only had peace for so long before it shattered, and the second time, Oak had lost more than dear friends and comrades.

He'd lost parts of himself.

What good was a Champion that could not even protect his family? Oak had been too heartbroken to carry on after that and left once he made sure the League would be fine without him. He'd dedicated enough years of his life to the country that he felt it was fine to finally live for himself and his family. He didn't have to fight to contribute to Indigo's prosperity, so he turned to a more peaceful path instead: research. Expanding the knowledge people had about Pokemon, guiding aspiring trainers onto the right and correct path… All of it was fulfilling.

He only wished these years of peace hadn't been achieved at the cost of so many sacrifices.

He still remembered the look on the Team Rocket leader's face, the cold smile even as Oak screamed and cursed at him for what his organization had done. They'd fractured his family and thousands of others across Kanto-Johto in their widespread violence.

For a true and better future. We don't need Indigo.

That was the last thing the man told him before disappearing.

To this day, Oak still had no idea what sort of Tauros shit the man had been spewing. Killing people and dragging the country through a war was supposed to bring about a 'true and better future?' A unified country — Indigo — was not needed? What kind of lunacy was that?

He didn't know what the man truly meant, and he could have cared less. No matter what their motivations were, they were a terrorist organization plain and simple. Team Rocket was gone. They'd thoroughly destroyed every last one of them. But…

If, Moltres forbid… those sightings from a year ago had some substance…

Almost all of his beloved Pokemon had retired from battling or died already. He himself had grown old. He was in no shape to go gallivanting off into the thick of war. His time as a hero was over, and it would be up to the current League and its pillars to protect the nation.

Oak prayed such a time would never come. The younger generation did not know the true horrors of war.

It brought nothing but devastation and tragedy.