Chapter Text
The door to 1 Vaniville Road opened with nervous anticipation, following an 8-year-old brown skinned and wavy haired little girl. Diya’s hand shook a little as she hauled her new wooden wagon through the threshold of the door; a little clanging noise jostling along with her. Exiting the house (and leaving the door agape anyway - she didn’t want to be locked outside and her parents said she wasn’t allowed her own keys yet, “you’re too young, Diya” . With her wagon came her entire fishtank and her trusty friend’s home, a baby magikarp. It’s not like it was doing much, it wasn’t even swimming. The glimmer of salmon lay on the sandy substrate...kind of hopelessly. Its eyes darted around occasionally, but even the plant life seemed to be doing more than the magikarp at this rate.
This didn’t bother Diya that much. She enjoyed watching her fish do ultimately nothing, and her best friend Noelle always said it made her feel more productive. However, with great - and newfound/unexpected nonchalance - Diya made the decision to walk her Magikarp. Y’know, take a good look around the town and feel the full force of autumn together! This was partially fuelled by the name of her magikarp, Dog. In her opinion, it was a wonderful name for such a fish, of which she could now walk around the town.
With a final pull, the wooden wagon followed her along the cobbled pathway. The breeze was friendly and warmish, but no one was outside apart from the friendly elderly couple who took their herdiers on a walk. In haste, she mentally deliberated with conveying a polite smile and wave, a whole verbal greeting or ignore them completely. Her distress was evident, apparently, and the Suri’s greeted Diya for her.
“Good morning, Diya!” Mrs and Mrs Suri greeted.
Their herdiers pattered towards Diya at the mention of her name, wagging politely and asking for a head scratch or two. She smiled, kind of, and waved back at her neighbours before bending down to pet the doggies. They smelt like spices and felt like sunshine and she was euphoric, glowing with their cute smiley faces. It wasn’t long until her dog-petting session was interrupted, much to her internal dismay.
A bush rustled loudly, followed by stentorian yelling.
“AAAAAARGH!” Screamed the bush, startling the herdiers who ran to their trainers, AND the local fletchling and starly, flocking out of the trees to the rooftops wearily. Diya and her magikarp, Dog, followed the yelling, where a tiny Korean girl fell out of the bush, landing on the grass with a plod. A very angry zigzagoon was attached to her head, trying to gnaw and tangle her hair further. It made futile attempts at trying to drag her back into the bush, but it’s tiny mouth and even tinier paws rendered useless at the human girl. Diya tried not to stare, but she’d never seen this girl before. Maybe she was on vacation? But Vaniville town doesn’t have any vacation spots-
“WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!” The angry child was louder than most pokemon she’s met before, Diya observed. She opened her mouth to reply, maybe something fun and cool like “Hi :)Are you okay?” but closed it again, and decided with an “Um,” pause, “Zigzagoon . In Your hair. “ dear arceus that was horrible
“I FEAR. NO POKEMON!” She screamed, hoisting herself up suddenly to wrestle the tiny racoon pokemon out of her hair with the greatest ferocity Diya’s ever seen from any 5 year old in the world. She knew for sure that mr. mime of a trainer Ash Ketchum (he was on TV all the dang time) would definitely fear her. Zigzagoon was hauled into the push and Diya offered her hand to the mystery girl impulsively, inspired by her courage, “I’m Diya.”
Much to her surprise, she accepted Diya’s hand and smiled! Mystery girl smiled! Dirt was smeared across her face in her grin, “I’m Min! I’m, we’re, new here!” She gestured behind her to the moving van that was entering through the gates of Vaniville Town. Surely enough, a family followed through behind the bigger van, accompanied with an angry mother and father and a very tired little boy. Diya’s curiosity sparked, watching Min with great interest. “I’m here to become the best pokemon trainer the world has ever seen!” She grinned brightly, bouncing at the sight of Dog. “I can’t believe you already have a pokemon! It’s going to become really great one day,” She declared with great triamphance. Diya looked taken aback by this statement, casting her eyes back on the hopeless fish.
“????? it’s just a magikarp,” She protested. Dog gave a little blubby reply, an air bubble floating to the surface of the fish tank.
Min shook her head in such fervour that leaves fell from her hair. “No way! Magikarps evolve into WATER DRAGONS. That’s badass.”
Taking mental note of this, Diya nodded. She didn’t exactly know if Min was telling the truth at all - her parents would never let her have a dragon type pokemon after all, and if Dog ever evolved she assumed it would just be a bigger fish… Internally, she hoped it would turn into some kind of water puppy. Her internal logic was that if she named her pokemon after the dog species, it would simply manifest into a real life dog.
In the distance called MIn’s name, from an angry male voice, “Min-Seo! Min-Seo, come here right now.” Diya watched as Min’s brows furrowed and her eyes crinkled in distaste.
“I guess I’ll see you around, Diya.” She said, before finally yelling back Korean words Diya didn’t understand and bolting towards the unpacking family.
This was already an incredibly overwhelming start of day, but Diya wasn’t complaining. Maybe it would cause a domino effect of even more good days with cool starts, or something along those lines. Not that it mattered that much. With a strong heave, Diya grabbed the handle of her wagon and power-walked to her friend Noelle’s house. Coincidentally, she was next-door to the new girl, so Diya got to cast an extra glance to her side, before knocking on the door for their “study date”. (Noelle wasn’t allowed to have people over to play with, so she improvises and calls them study dates to allow Diya in the house.) She knocked politely and waited for Noelle to answer the door. With swift efficiency, Noelle answered it before her parents could, taking her friend by the hand to her bedroom across the hall. It was time for the 9am study.