Invitation

Castle Krakenberg hasn't changed much since the downfall of King Garon over three years ago. It was actually still dark upon entering the capital. However, drastic environmental changes have been shown outside the castle wall in Windmire and beyond. A rather strange, possibly unnerving thing when such change would take decades to change such harsh climate. It made it out to be a curse was placed in the kingdom and it started showing the result of it being broken. Slowly but surely the Nohrian kingdom was becoming more suitable to grow crops and the weather was seeming becoming close to that of the neighboring kingdom of Hoshido. Not only that, but after the war three years ago, the first sightings of pokemon had begun.

Many of the villages and towns throughout the kingdom were in awe of the strange creatures that have decided to migrate into the kingdom. Most didn’t mind the arrival of these creatures as they seemed to have brought more assistance in bringing Nohr back up slowly to a prosperous kingdom outside the royal capital.

It was soon enough as many pokemon migrated to the dusk kingdom, the newly crowned king had announced the setup of researchers, pokemon centers, poke marts, and most importantly, the Pokemon League that had been established by the seven regions outside of the continent that Nohr resided.

The king had come to an agreement with the people to allow the royal family to handle that of gyms and the League. Officially they announced that the retainers of the royal family would take place of the Gym Leader positions that had been scattered throughout the entire kingdom. The Nohrian family themselves had officially declared themselves as the newly established Elite Four for the kingdom after the approval given by the Pokemon League Association. All that had been left then was who would be the Champion of the Nohrian kingdom.

To say the least for the royal family, it was no guess of who would be named Nohr’s Champion.

“Xander! What are we even doing here? You know someone’s about to take on the Elite Four pretty soon, right!?” exclaimed a young blonde haired teen to a much older man clothed as a Paladin, though the crown on his head spoke of his position otherwise.

While the young teenager was whining to the man, three more figures came into the Krakenberg throne room. The first was an older woman, though a bit younger than the man, with lavender colored hair and wore dark armor that didn’t quite cover certain areas, but gave her enough breathing room to move while on her wyvern. Next to come in was a blond short haired teen that was much younger than the other two, but still quite older than the blonde girl. He had also worn dark armor that actually covered his body and was carrying a dark colored tome in his hand. The last was a rather….familiar figure. He was younger than the two older figures, but was a bit older than the blonde teen by a few years. He had messy dark hair that was down to the top of his back, darker skin, though now a bit lighter due to the Nohrian climate over the years as well as his own isolation years ago. He wore tight black clothing underneath silver armor that covered his torso, arms, and legs. He also had a navy blue cape and unlike the others, he was barefooted, his ears were more pointed from the tips and his honey colored eyes held a red tint to them.

“Why don’t you ask our Little Prince about that,” merely said the oldest prince, causing the three other figures to turn towards the black haired male as he closed the door to the throne room behind him and approached with a letter at hand.

“Ohhh! Satoshi! Is it finally the letter that we’ve been waiting for!?” the youngest shouted once more with a gleeful tone as the middle child chuckled at the girl’s antics.

“Yes, Elise. This definitely is what we’ve been waiting for.”

“Well don’t just stand there, open it up so we don’t waste anymore time,” simply said the blonde male, though hinted more of an amused tone in his voice.

“Now now, dear Leo. I’m sure our challenger can surely wait if this is important,” added in the lilac haired woman with a motherly tone.

“You say that now, Camilla, but we all know you’ve been itching for a battle since we became elites.”

“Alright, settle down you two. We must listen to what the message says,” Xander cut in as Satoshi finally opened up the parchment letter.

‘Greetings to the Nohr League,

I hope you are all doing well. Given your kingdom’s past history, I’m sure the League so far has impacted the kingdom in a positive way.

However, we all know that’s not what we’re here to talk about.

As raised into consideration by the Pokemon League Association, it has officially been approved that the World Championships that is held every ten years will be hosted in the Kingdom of Nohr as per agreement that we’ve discussed with you to approve this event.

If all goes well in this tournament, Nohr will officially break off their isolation and become free reign for all throughout the seven regions to travel to in order to take part in the Nohr League. Of course if trouble comes to arise in the tournament that at least three out of the five of you disapprove of, Nohr will be left in its isolated state for another decade in which those outside the entire continent are not allowed to enter Nohr unless approved to travel by the Nohrian Court.

As coordinated and organized by King Xander and myself, the celebratory days of the tournament will take place in Castle Krakenberg and the official tournament will begin at the newly constructed stadiums in Windmire along with the eventual Pokemon Contest and Showcase.

Upon receiving this Letter, preparations for the tournament will begin leading up to the start of registration in Windmire that shall commence within about a month in order to give time for all invitations to arrive across the seven regions. The celebration that shall include all Gym Leaders, Trial Captains, Island Kahunas, Frontier Brains, Elite Four, and Champions will be held two days before the tournament. The ceremony and exhibition match that’ll officially introduce the Nohr League will commence the day before the tournament.

I shall arrive on the day of registrations to discuss the format of the tournament with the Champion and the King.

I am pleased to witness what kind of power and show our newly established League in this kingdom has to present to everyone across the world.

See you soon,

Charles Goodshow

P.S. I’ve known eventually you would rise to the Champion position, Ash. Or in this case Satoshi as King Xander has mentioned before of it being your birth name and has officially been changed to it as such. I wish you and your siblings luck in this tournament. I’ll be sure to be rooting for you all this whole time.’

The siblings had been quiet upon taking in the words in the letter. Of course though, the silence would eventually be broken by the youngest.

“Xander, how much did you tell Goodshow about Satoshi and the kingdom?” Elise asked more with a tone of curiosity than annoyance over the subject.

“I haven’t spoken much in detail to him. The League scarcely knows of any details of the war that happened three years ago and it shall be kept that way. All they are aware of is Nohr’s history of its climate and the malevolent rule the kingdom had been under prior to the war. As for Little Prince’s past identity reveal, everyone is to have a form of visual identification in the League’s system, and Goodshow almost immediately recognized our Champion’s appearance. However, it does not mean all will recognize him or his old identity as easily. It’s obvious that much of his appearance has changed since he first arrived in Nohr.”

The other three siblings look to the dark haired Champion, unsure of his reaction to all of this.

Ash, or in this case now Satoshi, look towards them curiously before shrugging with a smile.

“It’s quite alright. I trust Goodshow well enough about this, especially now that my name’s officially been changed to my birth name. Either way, the only people who know of my previous identity is Goodshow himself and Prof. Kukui and the Island Kahunas in the Alola region when I took Leo and Camilla there to explore outside of the continent.”

“I suppose you’re right. We don’t really have anything to be worried about right now. The stadium is about three quarters done with construction so there’s no rush right now for anything I suppose,” added in Leo.

Before anyone could say anything more, a loud knock was heard from the entrance of the throne room before opening, revealing a icy blue eyed woman with pink hair up in a ponytail wearing the Nohrian equivalent of a maid’s dress.

“Uhm, sorry to bother everyone, but u-uh...Elise?” stuttered the maid.

It took a moment for the royal siblings to process what the maid was trying to imply until the youngest finally yelled out.

“Oh no! We almost forgot about our challenger waiting on us! Ahhh!” The princess quickly made her way out of the room after a quick ‘Thank you, Felicia!’ as she made way towards the entrance of Castle Krakenberg.

The other siblings could only laugh at the youngest’s antics as they slowly followed out of the throne room as well.

“30,000 gold says our challenger will have to face me after Elise,” challenged Leo as he was the first to exit.

“Double of that says our sweet girl will defeat our opponent with three pokemon still on standby,” Camilla added in her part of the bet as she and Felicia exited the room.

Meanwhile Xander and Satoshi curiously looked on as the two siblings made their usual bets of the arrival of their new challenger.

“Those two need to stop betting over these matches,” mumbled the darked haired prince.

“Worry not over them, Little Prince. At least in a way it helps them bond and understand each other. For now we must begin with our organizing of this tournament.”

“Does that involve our pokemon?”

The blond man chuckled at the younger male’s question.

“I believe it does. I’m sure yours and mine have been needing some fresh air in Windmire for being so long here in Krakenberg mostly training this whole time.”

“Though...you’re quite nervous about this tournament aren't you, Satoshi?” the blond questioned as he took notice how quiet the other has been as of late.

“I fear what memories will surface when people outside the kingdom start gathering. I still don’t recall any memories past the death of King Sumeragi. Very few faces from the past and a few memories resurfaced but are still blurred ever since I was called by my dead name when Goodshow figured it out. However, that doesn't mean I should fear what I have to face, especially when the whereabouts of "Ash" will finally be revealed here. I just wonder how this in turn will affect me and the clash between old and new memories.”

“A very sound explanation indeed,” answered Xander, “As you recalled, you were brought to Nohr with quite an amount of pokemon with you. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if you spent your childhood somewhere in the regions before you came.”

The dark haired male nodded, “I wouldn’t be surprised at this point myself. For now, we can think about it later when we complete the preparations.”

--

Over the course of the next month, invitations were scattered throughout the seven regions of the World Tournament’s location ala Nohr’s design and format of the letter. Many who received the letter were quite confused and in awe of an entire Kingdom being the location of the tournament as well the rise of the Pokemon League there as well. They were quite curious as to what this kingdom was like as there was scarcely any information over the kingdom and the continent it resided in.

One group in particular looked on curiously as they finished reading their invitation.

“Judging by the format of this letter, Nohr doesn’t exactly seem like quite a friendly kingdom,” commented a blond male with blue eyes behind round glasses wearing a blue and yellow jumpsuit that was tied around his waist revealing a while long sleeved underneath.

“Information about it out in the regions is practically nonexistent. The only thing known is that they’ve been in near isolation for several decades until the League there was set up two years ago,” added another, this time a younger male with lengthy lavender hair in a small ponytail and dark violet eyes wearing a violet and dark red schemed jacket and pants.

“Do you...think he’ll attend the tournament?” questioned a young long haired blonde teen with a chocolate colored dress that reached to her knees with a white bow on the side of her waist, black tights and pink and white boots.

“We can’t be too sure, Bonnie. It’s been eleven years, but it’s our last hope of ever finding him,” answered a light green haired man who wore a more formal casual outfit compared to the others.

“I’m sure he’ll be there. We can’t lose hope anymore. I’m sure….I’m sure Ash will be there,” said a honey haired girl with blue eyes wearing casual light pink sundress with tan leggings and brown boots.

One thing’s for certain, they can only hope for one thing.

They hope to finally reunite with their long lost friend, Ash Ketchum, who went missing eleven years ago.