Choice

Pokemon is copyright Nintendo, GAME FREAK and 4Kids Entertainment. If you think I have any rights to any of this, you are very, very wrong.

Lying here in our tent, I look at his face. Peaceful in sleep, you would never think that such a young face could have the history it does. All that he has achieved and all that he's going to achieve lies graven on his soul, but his face is still a child's, unmarked and unlined. As his heart will ever be.

Water's Daughter lies beyond him, her face gentler in repose. Togepi lies in her arms, trilling in dreams. Beyond them, the Painter of Souls sleeps, Merryl snuggled close to his side.

I wonder if any of the other Pokemon recognise them for what they are. I wonder if they, too, have the stories that tell of What Will Be. It is not, after all, something one asks. I know the Humans do; but the Humans have lost the knowledge of what is truth and what is dream in their Tales of Forever.

I have to acknowlege the truth, and face what I never wanted to admit to myself.

I never wanted to be the Chosen One!

It's always been whispered among us. Our mothers would croon it to their infants and our juveniles would play at being the Chosen One.

But not I. Even as an infant, I saw the price, rather than the glory.

"There will be born a Chosen One," my mother whispered to me. "The Chosen One will venture far, beyond all that any pikachu has done before, for the One will accompany the World's Child. The Child will be a Human, and he will achieve greatness in the eyes of Humans and Pokemon alike. Through pain and trial shall the World's Child come. In place of hatred he shall sow love; in place of ignorance he shall sow understanding; in place of fear he shall sow friendship. Darkness shall follow him, but by example he shall teach them to love the light. With his compassion he shall inspire us to tears. With his courage, he will tame the Legends. And every step of the way we will be with him, for the Chosen One will be his faithful and beloved ally who will never desert him."

"Never?" I asked.

"Never," my mother replied firmly, "for the Chosen One is a pikachu, and once a pikachu makes up their mind, they never go back on their decision. We are Wood, the Tree that reaches to the Heavens to the Earth, rooted and immovable; we are the Lightning that races from the Sky to the Ground, that chooses its own targets. We decide for ourselves, and where we decide we are faithful unto eternity. We are pikachu!"

The other juveniles told me more: that the Chosen One would not be chosen willingly. The World's Child would take the Chosen One against both their wills, that it was only in order to prevent the alternative.

"Who would want to be chosen unwilling?" I asked. "Better to be unaccompanied than to be unwanted. In fact, who would want to be chosen at all?" And I would go back to my own games.

For to be chosen means that one must fight - and, though I will fight when there is need, I do not like fighting. And if one fights, one will evolve - and I like being a pikachu. I have no desire to be a raichu.

"The Chosen One will achieve the Fourth Evolution," my peers whispered. "The first to go beyond a raichu! Imagine the power! Imagine the skill!"

"Imagine the pain," I retorted, returning to my chores.

I can't help but imagine the pain. It hurts when I get hit by Bulbasaur's Razor Leaf or the Vine Whip. Squirtle's Water Blast can carry my own Thunder Shock, and so I know it's a truly 'shocking' experience.

And this is only combat, and only combat at my current level. If I evolve to the legendary Fourth Level - what will I endure to get there?

I don't like these sort of questions. They make me restless in the night and render sleep impossible.

When I was first captured I was enraged. I didn't want to be chosen! And I made very sure my captor knew it. There are reasons why there are very few unwilling Pokemon! So he gave me over to Professor Oak.

I didn't want to be there, either. And so he gave me on - to a new trainer who arrived late and chose me only because I was the only Pokemon left to choose.

Unwillingly, he chose me; unwillingly, I chose to go with him; but if he did not choose me, he would not be able to start his journey, and if I did not choose him, I would never have any chance of seeing my home again. And so we chose each other against our wills, rather than the alternative.

His compassion, mentioned often in the Tales of What Will Be, proved stronger than my rage; I found him worthy of respect. He had to choose, between his safety and mine, and he did the one thing I never expected any Human to; he chose me. And I could do no less than to choose him in return.

It is frightening to acknowledge that even my distrust is noted in the Tales of What Will Be.

We have been through much together, he and I. We have chosen each other so many times.  We have fought for each other, and he has died for me...

Even that is in the Tales. He has died for Pokemon, and so the Pokemon have wept for him.  It is all in the tales, of the World's Child and Water's Daughter. And the Chosen One, who will ever stand beside them.

I never wanted to be the Chosen One. And I don't want what is to come. I do not want to achieve the Fourth Evolution. I do not want to face pain and hurt and trials.

But the choice is to stay and face it all, or to leave him, and I have made up my mind. I am the Tree that is fixed and will never move from its chosen spot. I am the Lightning from Heaven that strikes of its own choosing. And I chose long ago, when a Human chose me.

I am Pikachu.