"What would you do if you were born into a monumental legacy that was constantly building itself up, piling up more and more extraordinary achievements and grandeur tales that could be forever immortalized in legends? You'd probably be proud and maybe a bit overwhelmed... hell, maybe you'd be excited to leave your own mark and leave an impression worthy of your family name."

"... but what if you couldn't even do that? What if you didn't even think yourself worthy of even being a footnote because all your life you've been nothing but a huge screw up, failing to do even the most basic of things and even hurting someone dear to you? Do you feel like you'd be worthy of any of it?"

Yuu would rather speak little of his past, though he can't exactly change who he is by blood. He was conceived and born in Sinnoh to quite some exceptional folk; they were nothing to special, with his father being a member of the Elite Four who crushed anyone who faced him in battle and a beautiful pink-haired mother who was a world-famous Pokémon coordinator who turned heads in the limelight as much as she did judge them when not on the stage. He was the second child when it came to the two and he had an older sister who seemed to dote on him as much as tease him, yet the two did get along quite well.

Regardless, the two children were no strangers to the spotlight when it shone on their family, whether it came through interviews with his father and they were featured on it or when they were brought to watch their mother dazzle the audience, they ended up being fussed over one way or another, being adorable children that might grow up to be like their parents when they were older. His older sister always seemed to enjoy basking in the limelight and ate it all up, but Yuu was much a shyer child and always tried to avoid having the attention on him.

Of course due to being a kid and being surrounded by all these bigger people it was always difficult to avoid being thrust into the public eye, even more so when he was put into the same private school as his older sister. It was a little nerve wracking being peppered with all of these questions from all these children, but over time he eventually got used to it all and even began to make a couple of friends... or so he thought. Still to Yuu they liked being around him and he liked hanging around them in turn.

However his own infamy was about to extend when it came to school where he seemed to excel in almost anything. Whether it was his precise knowledge of Pokémon that came as a result of his love for studying and learning more about them to his sharp and adaptable mind when it came to starting Pokémon battles as it was to quickly ending them. He ended up lauded with small amounts of praise and in truth he found a new way to interact with other people, often talking vastly about his own skills, what he did in each battle, how cool it was when it came to these things, and so on.

While charming in its own right, it eventually came grating to his friends and the other students in his class who became annoyed at this posturing. In truth, Yuu was a bit of an unintentional braggart and didn't realize this, nor did he realize that this was slowly pushing away his friends, eventually resulting in there being none. This realization finally hit him when in the midst of a battle with another trainer, the other kids began to cheer against him and even booed the young Yuu when he won. Of course that ended up being rectified by the teacher fairly quickly, but this sudden whiplash in attitude made Yuu realize that he was all alone.

Yuu did have some friends, but the best of them were of the fair-weather variety and would sooner diss him to save their own skin over sticking up for him. Sure, sometimes he'd be bullied, but it didn't sting as much as the lack of true companionship amongst his peers, something he craved above anything else. Slowly he'd become less and less better at things he normally would excel at. A question he could answer with no issue would 'confuse' him and he became less and less exceptional at battles, sometimes going as far as to just throw some matches completely.

Yet nothing would change, aside from the words used to tease and put him down as he would continue to steadily tank his performance in school, further and further, in some vain attempt to regain the friends he had before. At the end of the year this had some of his counselors concerned and talked to him about it, spelling out how he was a bright child and all sorts of blandishments he could care less about. His parents, while figuring out what was going on, did their best to console Yuu and attempt to steer him off this destructive path, but it would be to no avail.

In spite of this, one person would be able to break through this behavior, this box he consigned himself to when the family traveled to Kalos. It was something the entire side of his mother's family did every year where they would meet up at the family estate and have this grand gala and interact with one another to see how everyone was doing. Yuu despising it was an understatement and dreaded going to it, more so this following year due to his failure of a school life.

Like always he kept away from most people and kept quiet for most of the time he had there. Of course by chance he managed to spot someone in a similar vein to him: far away from most of the other relatives and nose deep within a book. Curious, the young boy ended up walking towards her, being sure to dodge any sort of social interaction he could before saddling himself right next to her and began reading alongside her.

On the plus side she didn't seem to mind his presence which was good!... at least until he started chattering about different facts and listing off extra bits of information that weren't shown in the book. Of course successfully reading a book was one thing, but reading the room was not exactly his forte and ended up irritating the girl who ended up making a snide comment about how his friends must think he's fun at school.

The remark went way over his head as he responded in great detail about how he did have friends but how they would usually abandon him when things got rough with bullying, as well as what he did to try and regain those lost friendships. In truth he couldn't tell this was making her more and more irate, but not for the reasons one would expect from a young kid bothering someone who wanted to be left alone.

Instead she stopped reading, much to his chagrin, and and straight up yelled at him over his lack of spine. This caught Yuu off-guard as she began to list off how terrible those people were, as well as how she'd introduce those people to her fist and how Yuu should probably do so as well. The nervous and demure look he gave her told her all she needed to know and in a spur of the moment she decided that she'd teach him how to stand up for himself and not let anyone push him around.

That was an interesting month for certain as Yuu would meet up with the girl, who he now learned was his older cousin by about three years, who began straightening out Yuu's rather meek demeanor by not only telling him how to act, but also leading by example at times. Also helped she was basically getting into scuffles and wrestling the young boy whenever they were out of sight of their more prestige lineage to show him how to physically stick up for himself if his bullies decided to get a little more physical with him. Of course this was also intertwined with large amounts of reading and studying, which Yuu gleefully joined her in on.

To Yuu, she basically made this whole meet up with the entire family tree go from absolutely dreadful to something manageable so long as he was hanging out with her. Of course on one of the days when they were reading something together, a question came to mind: why did she try so hard? Yuu always noticed she was giving more than 100% whenever they were together and was merely curious about why his older cousin did what she did.

Her answer? To be recognized, acknowledged and be liked by others and even be friends with her. There was a somber silence during that all in which neither of them seemed to read that book, just sitting there, together until Yuu broke the silence with six simple words:

"Then... may we please.... be friends?"

This left his cousin silent before she asked why? Why? Because to him she was quite amazing already and found her to be a nice and caring person despite the harsh interaction with him during helping him out, mentioning a few things he liked about her such as how strong willed she is and admitted that he wished he could be like her. He admitted that he enjoyed studying with her, that she was really the only person that managed to make these yearly meet ups with their entire family bearable, and that he liked her for her, as well as stating that he was never really good with people either.

This was probably one of the happiest memories he could be left with at that age and before each family would go their separate ways, she left some parting words to him: that she wanted to hear that Yuu decked those jerks in the schnozz when they next saw each other. Sure, his cousin got a bit of an earful for that, but so did Yuu when he reciprocated her encouragement with a thumbs up and shouted back that he would. He could remember the smile on her face, as well as feeling his own as they both left the estate and returned back to their daily lives.

A year later when the next family gathering came around, she'd get to hear all about it, about how difficult it was for him to adapt to her lessons at first before his first triumph, even if it was small. About how Yuu was getting comfortable with himself again and slowly began to not care about what those bullies had to say. They were dumb jerks obviously and wish they could be as good as him as he began to rise to the top of his class once again. Some of them got infuriated and tried to escalate the bullying to cut him down, and even began getting physical with Yuu.

He snuck a picture with him to show off to his cousin with a huge smile on his face, showing off the black eye he got before telling her that those other bullies got it worse thanks to the moves she taught him... both parties also might of gotten suspended for a week as well, but for the most part the bullying stopped when he returned, assuming the position of a top ranked student and trainer of his class. That was a fun family meet up that year, especially whenever they started sneaking away to either explore, study more, or even do a bit of wrestling.

However on one of those years Yuu and his family would miss the Kalos Family Get Together as a result of not only the Sinnoh Championships having a much higher turnout of trainers than usual, but the large influx of coordinators undertaking different types of contests at the Super Contest Hall, as well as having their mother participate in the biggest contest event of that year. So instead their dad suggested to send them over to Unova to stay with his younger brother and his family for the summer instead.

Specifically Castelia City. The towering architecture wowed the young Yuu as it was like nothing he had seen before. Sure there were plenty of huge buildings in Kalos and Sinnoh, but not on a scale as grand as this one with each Skyscraper overlooking the city streets and something new to be discovered around every corner. It was honestly a blast exploring this place with his sister, but nothing could compare to Relic Castle.

Yuu read about the mythos surrounding it and was more the ecstatic to head there and delve into the ruins to see what the place look like, take in the grand and ancient architecture that one of the twin heroes created. While both him and his sister were told not to wander too far away from them, one of the siblings only adhered to this warning. The first time Yuu did this he looked for an opening between a bunch of people nearby and snuck away from his aunt and older sister while they weren't watching. Thankfully nothing bad happen despite how dumb this would be and he made it out into Route 4 with nothing but an xtranceiver he and his sister received from their uncle and aunt to stay in contact, as well as a bottle of water.

He might of had to turn the former off for a bit due to the ludicrous amount of calls he received from his sister, but regardless he managed to make his way to the desert resort and, thanks to the abundance of research he did, was able to navigate his way to Relic Castle with little to no issue. Of course when he was inside he was dazzled by the place, instantly poring over any sort of design and markings he found, as well as any sorts of small relics or trinkets he managed to find.

After some time, he eventually turned a corner and saw her: a pale girl with brown hair who looked to be a year younger than him looking up at a mural in the ruins with the same amount of interest he had, possibly more. Out of curiosity he went up to the young girl and instead of striking up a conversation with her stared up and studied the mural. He didn't know how long they stood together in that vast ruin without breaking the silence, but it must of been hours before she ended up moving on, with him following after her like a lost Rockruff.

Yuu ended up learning plenty of things about the ruins during this time and made a mental note to bring a notebook as he ended up inadvertently walking back to the city with the young girl. Of course upon arrival he was scooped up into his aunts arms and was getting a concerned look from his uncle and younger sister. However while that was going on, Yuu was looking around the city streets to see where that other girl went. He couldn't find her.

Yuu expected that to be the last time he would ever see her since he figured she wouldn't pop up at Relic Castle again. Yes, despite the scolding he got after that and the worried warnings he received Yuu proceeded to go off back towards the Desert Resort and Relic Castle. While it was plenty more difficult this time, he managed to find a way to sneak off and managed to make his way to the ruins once more, this time with more preparation.

He did the usual, making sure to navigate the ruins and start from where he last left off while drawing a map and making notes about the place, jotting down any bit of information he could glean from the crumbling castle. Strangely enough he ended up encountering the girl again, but this time she was examining the layout of a room, or more specifically the worn out furnishings, if it could even be called that at this point, in there. Like last time, Yuu would end up joining her in observing the place, taking note of what this room could of been used for before moving on to study more of the ruins. The same freak out that happened when they both finished exploring ensued.

At this point he began making more frequent trips to Relic Castle after managing to get his aunt and uncle to relent and travel there so long as he stopped turning off his xtranceiver whenever he went out there. Whenever he was there, Yuu would always manage to find that same girl overlooking and appraising something different in those ruins. And in turn he would always join her. Eventually he worked up the courage to say something to her and she in turn told him to get lost, but this didn't dissuade Yuu, nor did she ever really try to ditch him either.

The summer flew by as he spent a majority of his time exploring Relic Castle and spending time with that mystery girl, looking through each nook in cranny and learning more and more about the place, what its people were like, and so on. On the final day when he was heading back with her he finally broached another question: what was her name. She remained quiet for a few minutes as they walked, keeping Yuu unsure if she ignored his question or was contemplative of it. Just before they entered Castelia City she would tell him.

Yuu would never forget it nor would he forget her, and gave her his name before promising her that he'd come back next summer and requested if she could meet him at the gates to Route 4 when he arrived. Those days would be forever etched into his memories because of his first, true friend. And of course Yuu would make due on his promise. Sure, it took a lot of pleading and begging to go to Unova again, even going the extra mile in school, as well as excelling in any sort of extracurricular activities he could participate in. Eventually they relented after seeing how motivated Yuu was, much more than usual and let him go.

Of course the following day after he stepped off and got settled down with his aunt and uncle, as well as spending some family time together with them and their new baby he was off to Route 4. As soon as Yuu arrived, he saw a familiar girl standing by the entrance and broke out in a dash towards her waving to her and jubilantly yelling out her name with the biggest smile on his face. Once he joined up with her, the duo went off to Relic Castle once again. That silence between the two would speak louder than words.

The next summer Yuu wasn't able to head out to Unova, but forewarned his friend in advance about this, explaining to her about the whole Family Meet Up in Kalos and how they decided to have it this summer. Thankfully she was a bit understanding though Yuu thought she looked a bit sad about that all; at the very least he did promise to try and come back next summer if he could.

And, of course, he was able to head out to Unova for the third time once again, finding his best friend in the ruins before she began meeting up with him at the gate to Route 4. However, tragedy was about to strike on one of the few days when the duo were traversing through Relic Castle. To Yuu it was all a blur, between the haggard breathing, the yelling through his xtranceiver, the burning of his lungs, and the scene of his best friend and abject horror on her face as she was sucked into some quicksand burned into his skull.

Some of the authorities and Pokémon Rangers were quick to arrive to investigate the reports of this missing girl, with his uncle coming to get the young Yuu to try and comfort him. However that comfort mattered little to him with her on his mind: was she still alive, how was she doing, please survive. There were more intrusive thoughts going through his head each passing day. He hated every second of it and would even make attempts to go out to Relic Castle to try and find her. Yuu wanted to save his best friend. Even if he was stopped by his relatives or escorted back by the rangers, he never stopped. Because she meant the world to him.

Eventually a week passed and they found the girl and quickly extracted her from the ruins and took her to the hospital to do any sort of check-ups. Yuu ended up learning about this and ended up visiting her as one of her friends to see how she was doing. She seemed... different than the last time they met; she was way more talkative than before, always speaking in a peculiar matter, and was strangely accompanied by a Yamask. Of course the two would talk for a bit, but he always couldn't get that Pokémon, that single Yamask, out of his mind.

During this time Yuu recalled something he learned during school about ghost type Pokémon, specifically Yamask. Yuu began to investigate this whole situation further, sifting through what he learned in school, as well as reading up on Pokémon at one of the city's libraries. And then it hit him and he was awash with terror and worry. His mind was a muddled mess and that self-same intellect that allowed him to discover the supposed change in his best friends behavior would ultimately be his downfall.

A few days after she was released from the hospital Yuu would end up meeting his friend and confronting her about the incident that had transpired, prodding and interrogating her about what happened. Of course she led with cryptic messages and was generally acting a lot more childish. It didn't help that she was accompanied by the Yamask as well, especially when he saw that the mask it was carrying looked eerily similar to he own face. At that point his own heart sunk, his questions more emotionally charged and closer to pleading, her answers more playful, enigmatic, and unhelpful. Yuu was scared and frightened at this new girl, scared of the change, scared that there was some unknown soul inhabiting her body while she was stuck as a Yamask.

Yuu messed up and ended up fracturing that friendship he had cultivated with her over these past years. The rest of that summer was miserable and nothing seemed to be able to shake Yuu out of his funk, his depressed state. And before he knew it summer vacation was over as Yuu flied back to Sinnoh. Once again he was truly friendless, bitter, alone, empty. Yuu never got the chance to reconcile with her.

Yuu struggled to find the same motivation, the same joy he did when learning about Pokémon or winning in battles, drifting listlessly as the world continued to move on without him, whether it was his sister and cousin starting their own journey in their respective regions or the new discoveries being made. He knew he couldn't stay stagnant forever and thus took to Abigail's advice once again to make his heart nothing but steel.

He shouldn't let this affect him, whatever she said didn't matter at all, he was fine without her. Yuu didn't care, or at least that's what he would tell himself. Yuu didn't care, he would say as he went back to Unova for the fourth time. Yuu didn't care, he would say as he found himself ambling towards Relic Castle. Yuu didn't care, he would say as he listlessly wandered through the ruins, searching for and failing to find her again.

Yuu could tell himself all he wanted that he didn't care, but the reality was that he obviously did, even going so far as to blame himself for how he lashed out on that fateful day. The reality was that he couldn't steel and harden his heart no matter how hard he tried. And it hurt.

Time would continue to unremorsefully forge ahead just as he would continuously try to do so as well. It would eventually all came to a head at the next Kalos Family Gathering where Yuu, for the most part was left alone to stew and brood; he couldn't even indulge in his cousin's antics alongside her since she wasn't even there to begin with this year... which made this gathering more unbearable than normal. It didn't help that he began hearing things about everyone, what each and every person there had accomplished.

What did he even manage to accomplish? Sure, he graduated at the top of his class, but that didn't really mean much to him. After all his dad was still an extremely tough member of the Sinnoh Elite Four and his mom was still a judge and coordinator of huge renown. His sister and cousin had also managed to accomplish much over these past few years, with his sister establishing her own fashion brand in Kalos and his cousin being a runner-up in the Indigo League, basically becoming the second strongest trainer in those regions.

What did he have to show for all this? The only things that came to mind was alienating himself from most of the people at his school and ruining his friendship with someone he cherished. To him, he deserved five stars for being a Grade-A fuck up. He couldn't take it, this agonizing reminder of his substandard "accomplishments." Yuu wanted out, to be as far away from everyone and everything he once knew.

That fervent wish of his would be granted the following year when his mother returned after she had finished guest staring as a judge and coordinator in a far off region known as Eidda. She had brought home numerous souvenirs as well as a few pamphlets about the region. Most of it was advertisements, but one particular one managed to catch his eye. An advertisement about how a Pokémon Professor named Camphor was looking to hire trainers to help her with her research.

Yuu did further research, discovering that she was specifically investigating the flood of nonindigenous Pokémon that began occupying the region. There was a spark in his eye as he began scrambling to sign up. This job was perfect for him! The Eidda region was much farther away from most other regions he frequented and was the perfect place to just leave everything behind. Sure he'd help out, but for the most part Yuu just wanted to get away from everything, and leave it all behind.

Once he submitted the application, he figured it would take some time before he was either accepted or rejected by the professor and was about to begin prepping to head out to Eidda... well, before he received an e-mail less than five minutes later that he was hired for the job, along with the details of when he needed to arrive there, what to expect, etc. Yuu... did not expect them to get back to him that fast, but he wasn't one to complain.

After all, he now had an out.

Species: Riolu
Type: Fighting
Gender: Male
Level: 5
Moves: Quick Attack, Endure, Feint, Metal Claw, Bullet Punch
Ability: Inner Focus. Jojo's pure drive prevents him from flinching, as well as stops him from being Intimidated by other Pokémon. This will not prevent flinching when using Focus Punch.
Held Item: N/A

Personality | Jolly:
In spite of this Riolu's happy-go-lucky nature, he can be quite an independent pokemon, happily poking his nose where it doesn't belong and generally being an optimistic nuisance. He generally likes to interact with any sort of pokemon, regardless of their size and disposition, whether its a large Nidoking with a big dopey heart, or a mischievous Natu that likes to prank and mess around with other pokemon and people. In general, he just seems to enjoy life to the fullest and seems to approach every new day with a jolly, little smile. In hindsight, it is a bit ironic that a pokemon like him was saddled with a melancholic trainer, yet the duo seem to enjoy each others company in spite of it.

Quirks/Talents/Aspirations/Other:
- TBA