Kai's Pre-Series History
Kai is the middle child out of three, born in the bustling city of Terrera in Ransei. He loved going for walks with his family along the river and often got lost in thought watching the mountains in the distance, especially in the winter. He was a quiet and polite child, but he didn’t do too well in school as he was easily distracted. This caused tension between Kai and his father, who often lamented that Kai wasn’t more like his older brother Shoji: he was bright, athletic, hard-working, and capable, and Shoji’s accomplishments brought pride to the family.
Kai’s interests were always more artistic, and in this way he bonded with his younger sister Yuki, who was a musical prodigy. Kai would often write silly short stories for Yuki, with many of them featuring her as the protagonist undergoing various adventures like exploring a satellite in space with a pair of robots, or trying to stop the villainous machinations of the Underground King.
When he was thirteen, Kai won a city-wide essay contest with the prompt “Who do you meet at the top of Mount Hoji?” Kai wrote about meeting the spirits of his ancestors. Each ancestor told him to gaze in a different cardinal direction (north, east, etc) and explained what lay there. No fields of wheat, but strength through adversity! Not volcanic canyons, but the fiery spirit that burns in the hearts of all children of Ransei! Not a city of glass and steel, but ingenuity and the promise of a better tomorrow. The essay was so well-received that there was some question as to whether actually wrote it! His prize was meeting the Four Heavenly Kings of Ransei (the nation’s Elite Four) and a day at Ransei Disneyland.
Unlike many of his classmates, Kai did not leave school to begin a Pokemon journey. In fact, he never even applied for a trainer’s license. It wasn’t as if Kai didn’t like Pokemon but he simply knew what his own limitations were. But more than that, he wasn’t passionate about training or collecting badges. Despite his father’s protests, Kai remained in school where he planned to pursue a career in writing.
Kai graduated and was accepted into the Hojo University, where he studied writed with a minor in Linguistics. These pursuits led him to study many other related subjects, such as history and mythology. He developed an intense curiosity about the cultures behind the stories, traditions, and languages he read about.
As a side project in university, Kai began a food blog. He would go around Hojo at night, trying ramen from different late-night restaurants. He’d even critque fast food, sushi carts, and really anything he could find. It was fun writing about the locations, the owner, the people, the smells and atmosphere unique to the place. A review about a Carmontean Barbeque place went viral, and this led to Kai being contacted by a city newspaper.
Kai wrote food articles for the paper while he was in school, between his classes and his part-time job at a grocery store. After the first year, he was contacted by a magazine and while that job wouldn’t pan out, it led to Kai writing for a much more prestigious national paper. Unlike his previous experiences, where Kai would essentially choose a restaurant at random himself, the paper assigned what restaurants they wanted him to review—as well as pay for travel expenses and the meals in question. This job paid a lot better than his other ones, and he quit his grocery store job to focus on writing.
Gaining Esteem
In 2018, Kai was paid to visit a number of foreign restaurants including places in South Carmonte, Almia, and Sinnoh. These articles did so well that Kai was offered to go on a “food tour” of Johto the next year. Kai had developed a love of travel during the previous period; he quickly became enamored with the cities he visited. Kai accepted the job with eagerness and joy.
During his travels through Johto, Kai found that going from city to city to sample their restaurants to show him a side of the country that was hard to see otherwise. Food revealed a lot about a culture, their values, and their heritage. He became really fascinated with this aspect of the job and began to review other, smaller places on his own dime and publish them on his blog. He earned a lot of respect from the foodie world from his “Johto Journey”.
Around New Years in 2019, Kai returned home to Ransei, but he couldn’t get the experiences overseas out of his head. He started itching to do it all again. In late February he pitched a new Food Tour set in Kalos. The country was one of the culinary capitals of the world, after all!
While it took some negotiating, Kai’s proposals eventually won over his editor, who went to bat for Kai with the publisher. The proposal was approved and work began on researching Kalos, its traditions, history, and culinary impact. Kai was heavily involved in the research phase and selecting where to go and what to eat.
What he didn’t tell his editor or the publisher was that he had another reason for wanting to go to Kalos. He had become filled with a wanderlust and desired to share that experience and those feelings with readers. He would make a travel guide for Ransei tourists, which not only discuss food but geography, language, culture, the people, and everything in between. It was a surprisingly ambitious project for the normally timid writer but he was filled a burning passion about it.
In the middle of May, the project was officially approved. Kai would leave for Kalos in two weeks to begin his next food tour. Kai left Ransei with a full bag, a light heart, and a skip in his step.
After arriving in Kalos, Kai spent a week or two trying some of the places around Lumiose City in between just wandering the streets, people watching, and just getting a feel for the energy of the city and its people. He loved how one could feel the history in the streets beneath them. He loved the fashion. He loved the coffee. He loved how the city lit up at night, especially Lumiose Tower.
Eventually, Kai decided that he needed to head south to Santalune City to visit a restaurant on his list. The early summer was the best time to go, apparently, and he didn’t want to miss it. However, he didn’t want to take the train or a bus like he had in Johto. He wanted to experience Kalos and see its true face: he would walk to Santalune City. The official National Trainer Routes would likely be the most direct way to get to there, so that’s what he planned to do. However, he knew that doing so would be dangerous given the wild Pokemon.
To deal with this, Kai contacted a local Pokemon shelter to ask if they had any Pokemon up for adoption. He was told that they had a very friendly Meowth who was looking for a home and Kai expressed his interest. When he got there, though, he was crestfallen to discover that the Meowth had already been adopted! So had the Blitzle…and the Skiddo…and the Marill. All they had left was an unruly bug Pokemon called Volbeat, who had likely been abandoned by its trainer. Kai introduced himself. Volbeat was surly and punched him in the head.
But something about it tugged at Kai’s heartstrings. He asked how long the shelter had been caring for Volbeat, and it had apparently been here for almost a year. Nobody wanted them. Kai told them that he was interested in adopting Volbeat. Despite the shelter’s caution, Kai adopted Volbeat and the next day left for Santalune CIty.
Unfortunately, whenever Kai let Volbeat out of his Poke Ball, it would either fly off or punch him in the head again. He became a little discouraged and his feelings were honestly kind of hurt by it? But he supposed there was nothing to be done. Volbeat must think he was too weak and pathetic to be its trainer. Kai agreed that was probably true, but he hoped that maybe Volbeat might one day accept him as its friend.
Or at least, maybe they’d reach a point where Volbeat wouldn’t attack him every time he let him out.
