Prologue

  They stood at the edge of the Cerulean Cape, the sun setting behind them, painting the sea with golden light.

  Doni Seres held a Poké Ball tightly in his hand. Not because it contained a Pokémon but because it held a promise.

  “I’ll become the Champion,” he said, his voice calm but certain.

  “And I’ll be right there, one of your Elite Four!” Terry Jims grinned, tall and clumsy, his blond hair blowing in the breeze. His father was a Pokémon Breeder, and Terry had grown up surrounded by eggs, young Pokémon, and stories of trainers who never gave up.

  “Me too,” Aqua Madora added softly. She stood close to them, short and quiet, but with eyes full of fire when it came to her friends. As the daughter of a Pokémon researcher, she saw the world in data and discoveries but her heart was always with the people beside her.

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  The three of them touched their Poké Balls together. It was childish. It was silly. But it was sacred.

  “One of us will become Champion,” Doni said, “and the others will stand beside them.”

  Doni wasn’t just the son of Misty Seres, the Gym Leader of Cerulean City and a trainer so powerful she once defeated two of the Elite Four. He was more than her legacy—he was her successor in spirit, if not yet in title. He loved Water-types like she did, saw beauty and strength where others saw weakness. But Doni wasn’t here to repeat his mother’s story. He was here to write his own.

  The wind carried their laughter across the cape.

  None of them knew what was waiting beyond the horizon. But that day, under the fading sun, they swore to each other that no matter what happened, they’d rise together.