Sapphire Storms Chapter One He watched her as she twirled the two katana swords in her hands, performing a complicated martial arts carta with her weapons. The girl was Asian, and she was beautiful. He doubted if he had ever seen anyone like her. She looked magnificent, as she practiced on the rock at the cliff's edge. The swords performed different strikes in time with her kicks and body movements. The blades caught the light from the sun, blinding him momentarily, but he didn't look away, the light made her more wondrous, shining against her soft black hair, which fluttered gently behind her in the breeze. Her deep black almond eyes were concentrated, but that was the only emotion that one could detect. Her face was serene, as she looked at some place far off into the distance, at something in the crashing waves of the ocean. She wore a navy blue 'gee' a special martial arts training uniform, it was long sleeved, the cuffs were a bright patterned gold, and delicately stitched into the back of the gee top, was a roaring gyrados. The pants were long and reached down to her ankles, the left leg was decorated by a bright golden fire which seemed to burn up her leg, but stopped just above her knee. She was bare foot, and painted blue toe nails reflected the light. Originally, Adam had intended on challenging her to a pokemon match after spying her five pokeballs lying on the ground underneath the rock, but he stopped to watched her, mesmerized. Katiral concentrated hard, she could hear the blades whistle through the air as she flicked her wrists. She had to concentrate, or she'd end up cutting herself. Whoosh, Whoosh. She stared at a distant speck on the ocean's horizon. Sultan, her beloved gyrados. She concentrated on him. Whoosh. A lot had happened over the years, ever since she had received her majikarp at the age of seven, she had wanted to be a pokemon Trainer, a Master even. So, with all the innocent love that only a child could give, she had looked after it exactly as she had promised her mother she would. With Taja, her guiding friend and pokemon. Whoosh. She had loved and evolved Majikarp into a strong, fully grown Gyrados in only a few short years, and it had become exactly what her mother had originally said it was. Whoosh. Strong, fast, loyal, and extremely smart. With Taja as her mentor, and armed with Gyrados, Katiral had captured a Shaman, the snow bird, a cyndaquil, and an artico, the ice horse, the male version of ponyta, whose blue flames froze rather than burned. Whoosh. With these five pokemon, she had then gone on to win the Junior regional championships, to test her skill. With the trophy sitting on her desk, she knew, now, more than ever, that she was ready to compete in the Johto League. To beat the best. Become the best. A pokemon master. Whoosh. But her life had not always been a happy story. Two years ago her father had been found dead, tangled in a clump of seaweed on the beach, apparently he had drowned. No one knew how and no one knew where. Officer Jenny, had informed the stricken family that no evidence had been found of murder, and it was most likely that he had fallen from a boat or something, and had drowned. Whoosh. Grudgingly over the years, Katiral had come to accept his death as an accident. But, she knew, deep down, that something was wrong, and she was quite sure Taja believed so too, whom had known Shao since he was a boy. Both felt that what Officer Jenny had said was very incorrect. Her father was not the person to go jumping off boats and drowning, he was an excellent swimmer, born and bred on the Orange Islands. Whoosh. After his death, LoaLou Dojo had been closed down, nobody had wanted to listen to a fourteen year old girl, even though she had been practicing Kung Fu for most of her life, and was the only legacy left behind by their mentor, Shao. Since the Dojo had been the main source of their income, Katiral and her mother had been slowly getting poorer and poorer, and the smoking and alcohol Ceres had been taking in an effort to still her pain, had added to their money problems. Whoosh. A year later they had been forced to move out of their Chinese Mansion, selling the Dojo, and move into a small shack not far from where she was training at the moment on her rock. Her mother had become more distant as the years had progressed. She worked now as a bag lady in the Violet City markets. Sometimes, Katiral had found herself wondering if her mother would ever love her again. The two of them were living poorly now, Ceres in fits of drunken rage had threatened to sell all of Katiral's Pokemon for booze. Whoosh. On those nights, the young girl usually gathered her stuff and left, sleeping the night in an overhang of rock down on the beach- "I Challenge you to a match!" Whoosh, slice. "Aah CRAP!" The black eyed girl looked down at the sliced skin in her thigh, a consequence of losing concentration. The cut trickled blood, but she ignored it. Whirling around to face the inconvenient challenger she leveled a sword edge at his face, the other, she held in a defensive position. Her eyes blazed cold fire. Adam raised his hands in defense, he had been caught by surprise by her sudden aggressiveness, looking down at her wound he guessed why. "He-e-y! Like, don't go pointing that thing at me! Someone could get, like, hurt!" "Yeah, you," The girl growled. "Look! Sorry, Okay? I just like, wanted a match!" He threw his hands up in indignation, "I'm sorry I like, even bothered!" He turned to walk away, but found himself staring into the eyes of large persian, who hissed and eyed him suspiciously. With a sudden cry, he jumped back in surprise, his back finding the edge of the katana, causing him to freeze. Katiral couldn't help but smile at this comical scene. Straight away she had known he was an obnoxious city kid, by his clothes and appearance. He wore black sun glasses and a lime button up shirt, which was much too big for him and a pair of baggy white cargoes which slid halfway down his ass revealing blue and green patchwork boxers, and worn loosely around his waist, doing absolutely no good whatsoever to hold up his pants, was his pokebelt, attached to them, she could see, six minimized pokeballs. Then the way he had spoken had completely given it away. Mimicking his speech, Katiral said, "I, Like, except your challenge," Turning he scratched his brown hair, confused, "Jeese, like, make up your mind! One minute you're going to kill me, the next you wanna like, battle?" He shook his head in amazement, "Weirdo," "Hey, watch what you say, I've still got my swords," "Oh, uh...yeah," Katiral pointed down at the beach, "We'll battle there, all right with you?" He shrugged, "Yeah sure," She stepped down from her rock, and sheathed her swords into her black belt. Picking up her five pokeballs she walked down the dirt path which led to the golden shore, her persian, beside her. Shrugging again, Adam followed her, he noticed that she was a small, several centimeters smaller than he, but slender person, more of a dancer than a fighter, but by the way she held those two katana's, he knew she was dangerous, yet he couldn't help admire the way her hips swayed as she walked. "Hey, like, maybe you should get that cut checked out or something," She tossed her head, sending her long black hair over her shoulder, "Like, whatever."