N and N

The cramped, rough, harshly dim room.

Gray-white blocks of stone had been piled together to form this tiny "cage."

A beam of soft white light shone through the palm-sized barred window and into the room.

Toys scattered messily across the floor—things that could barely be called toys.

The green-haired boy sat on the floor, using the moon's hazy glow to stack those differently shaped building blocks into the form of a Pokémon.

It was a Lillipup!

But this Lillipup was missing one ear, and it only had one eye left.

And it was right in front of the green-haired boy.

Lillipup's injuries all bore obvious signs of human abuse.

It was not just this Lillipup. Beside him were a Purrloin with a severed tail and a Pidove with broken wings.

These Pokémon.

They were all his friends.

The boy patiently listened as they recounted, again and again, their grievances against their former owners and the misery they had endured.

Tear tracks covered the boy's face, but he stubbornly refused to make a sound.

He merely used his gentle embrace and soft voice to comfort the three Pokémon.

These Pokémon whom he regarded as friends and companions.

Yet it was precisely because of such experiences that a seed of hatred was planted in his young heart.

Hatred toward humans, toward Trainers, toward those who forced Pokémon to train while disregarding their wishes.

Creak—

The old wooden door slowly opened.

Soft orange light spilled in through the doorway.

Then.

A middle-aged man entered, wearing a black cloak, a peculiar pale-red lens over his right eye, and a gentle smile.

The blue-green cane in his hand, marked with a special emblem, tapped against the rough floor with crisp sounds. At the noise, the three Pokémon hurried behind the boy, staring at him in