Kanto. Fuchsia City. 1978.

Mare Seiichi has spent his life getting military traditions brutally driven into him by Fuchsia City's Gym Leader.

Aka, his mother.

Now that he's fifteen, he gets his long-awaited chance to leave the clan compound on a relaxing pokemon journey of self-discovery! Finally, out of the shadow of a family that knows no failure. Or so he thinks.

Unfortunately for him, civil unrest has a bit of a habit of causing…complications. It's been two decades since Kanto and Johto officially established the Indigo League, but rising tensions between the two powers threaten the fragile alliance. As a result, Mare is abruptly thrown into a haphazard plot to quench the embers of war before they violently erupt, spilling their deadly payload across the region. This is a story about a boy doing everything he can to stay afloat in a world that has been anything but kind. Will he break? Or will he fight until nothing can control him ever again.

Warning: This story earns its Grimdark tag. There are plenty of fun and happy moments, and even a solid helping of romance, but it covers some of the darker aspects of human nature and will be at times quite upsetting. For full transparency's sake, it contains graphic violence, including the deaths of both humans and pokemon at times.

You have been warned. (But I hope you read anyway)

Crossposted on AO3/SH/FFN