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Interlude: The Journal of Akira Fuji

Excerpt: July 5, 1972

Far from the coast of Hoenn is a hidden island, 40 miles long and 6 miles wide. It is a desolate, unforgiving rainforest, a dead zone cradled by ginormous Blue Holes. It also happens to have extraordinarily unique geology in that the island's soil rests upon high levels of energy stones. The forests are re-moistened by morning dew every day. The island is now designated as 'Faraway Island' - a fitting name for a place that has taken twelve days to find.

It has been a week since we began spending our days traversing the cursed forests, looking for any signs of life. I constantly find myself swearing at the vile sun torturing me on a daily basis, blistering my arms and face. Our supplies are beginning to run low as we scourge through the forest. Despite its lush facade, the marshy forest is a dangerous place - we have already lost two scientists to poisonous fruit, and another to the many bogs that litter the ground.

I do not know how long it is until we face starvation, but Miyamoto appears to be confident in out search for Codename: Progenitor, as it is her second time coursing the island. The thought of returning to Kanto is all the enticement I need to find Mew…

XxXxX

Excerpt: July 10, 1972

I struggle to even write these words. As a scientist, I never truly believed in our quest to find an ancient mythical pokémon - it is hard to come across any concrete evidence of their very existence, but now I am sure of the seeming truth of the enduring live of mythological creatures.

It was four hours ago when we discovered an ancient royal temple situated close to the island's mountains. The walls of this incredible temple are made of enormous columns of rock, each weighing between 10 to 20 tons. Within the subterranean chambers is a prayer room, with murals of the mythical Mew and 16 male mummies - remnants of an ancient civilization that perhaps inhabited the island and worshipped Mew. My excitement has reached new levels after extensive X-rays and other tests reveal the presence of a fossil that might belong to Mew!

Giovanni has ordered us to conclude the expedition and excavate this fossil to return to the laboratory for further analysis, but I still have many unanswered questions.

What was this mysterious civilisation? What caused them to worship Mew? What does the existence of mythological beings mean for us?

The existence of Mew can only mean the existence of other mythical pokémon. Proving this would be bold and controversial in the scientific community - but with Mew's genetic data, we could come to understand the origin of pokémon altogether, and understand how pokémon typing works, how they evolve, why they evolve: few answers among so many. It would mark a colossal step in the history of pokémon science.

For now, I must busy myself with the excavation. After all, I am beginning to sorely miss Kanto's bearable weathers…

XxXxX

Excerpt: February 6, 1973

Test #132 shows no different results. While genetically engineering the genetic material we procured proves to be possible, it does not give the desired results. We had expected it to be difficult; the DNA extracted is not wholly intact and is quite the hindrance to our project, but Mew's genetic is far more complex than anything I have ever seen. So far, the test subjects revert back to the same genetic abomination - we have decided to name them as Ditto. Giovanni appears to be impressed by our failure and has dedicated a new team of scientists to study the nature and physiology of the Ditto.

Giovanni proves to be troubling. He and I clash often on the direction this project is heading. It is a doomed encounter - Silph funds the entirety of the mansion, but his emphasis on producing faster and better results rather than the artificial completion of the genetic material worries me.

I am beginning to suspect that he has ulterior motives and envisions a picture that is vastly different from the one he has shown me…

XxXxX

Excerpt: July 10, 1973

My entries will slowly grow to become far and few, as we have hit an important milestone - Test #150 is a success! This proves that the formula we designed worked. It possessed the higher intelligence that we hoped for. However, the only drawbacks were that the subject deteriorated rapidly in a matter of hours outside of its test tank. It also showed high signs of aggressions and resilience to commands.

Giovanni however, is not happy despite our major success, and I can understand why. Our work in the Pokémon Mansion is under watchful eyes that belong to government authorities and league officials. However, Samuel's influence has helped ease the tension on our backs, but this proves that Giovanni's goal is something far sinister than what he promised me.

For now, we have named the subject Mewtwo. Further tweaks to the finished genetic material are required. We also need to curb its vicious tendencies…

XxXxX

Entry: October 27, 1973

This might be my last journal entry. I have uncovered shameful truths over the past few days. I have never considered to be a courageous person, but this is the right thing to do.

I stayed back at the mansion late one night and accessed Giovanni's files without the correct authorization; I cannot figure out why I did such a thing, but the nagging thoughts that ate at the back of my mind over the past few months had become too much. I have found out that Project Deoxyri is not as it seems to be on the surface. Giovanni appears to be working alongside Team Rocket to create a clone of Mew that will turn out to be far more omnipotent than its forefather, able to leave destruction in its wake and level entire cities if it willed to do so. The only way to stop this is to destroy the mansion and delete every single file and backup on the mansion's system. The only back-up is on a hard disk currently with my daughter, Amber, who is safe at our home in Lavender.

The years have take their toll on me, and my own arrogance has clouded me from realising this sooner. What a wretched creature I have become. Once a renowned scientist, now a mere accomplice to the largest criminal syndicate in all of the To continent. I must take it upon me to destroy any shred of research that could lead to the creation of such an abomination, even if my life is the price to pay. Each word I write causes my bones to ache, while thoughts forever shackled in my mind repeat the harm I have caused.

I must stop now. Blaine is here. To my daughter: if you find this, I love you.

XxXxX

Excerpt: April 15, 1975

Death is the great equalizer. All our power and wants are nothing but fleeting bouts of nothingness in this indifferent universe. We obliviously journey towards the things that anchor us to the earth, easily forgetting how truly fragile and unimportant our lives are.

Amber had been taken from me, struck down in the prime of her life. There was nothing more cruel than watching your only child die before you ever could. I had watched, after days of fretting over her month-long disappearance, as she struggled through the torture she had suffered through. With a heavy heart, I could do nothing but watch as the pain dragged my daughter closer to the grave, a wretched creature more dead than alive, begging for mercy.

There are days where I find myself wanting to blow my head off, because I know, deep down, that this is all my fault. After Blaine and I burned down the mansion, I was sure to have a target on my back, but never in my worst nightmares would I have ever imagined a green light on Amber. We had moved her to Sinnoh, with pulling all the strings I could to keep her from paying for my sins; but in the end, Fate had manipulated the sequence of events that followed and stripped me of everything.

The only thing is hope for is for the release from this prison of torment I am in, but I know that I have to move on. Despite all my wrongdoings, I still have enough good to give the world…

XxXxX

Excerpt: August 6, 1990

Never had I imagined returning to this. But the rooms are whiter, the machinery is advanced, and now, everything is transparent. The test tanks are already occupied, but they subjects are nowhere close to ready. It is clear that Giovanni no doubt needed me spearheading Project Deoxyri-B since the very beginning.

Giovanni has agreed to help me with a personal project of my own in exchange for the completion of his project. Truth be told, I couldn't care less about Mewtwo, if it means bringing my only daughter back. It sounds absurd, I know - but with the improved technology, and using my archived research, I could clone Amber and let her complete the life she never got to. But despite this opportunity of mine, I feel disgusted at the thought of delivering to Team Rocket a super-pokémon on a silver platter.

Yet what choice do I have? It is either death or this; and this seems much more appealing, now that I can have Amber. Failing health has forced me to be selfish enough to want personal happiness than think about the greater good.

The only hope I have is to father a Mewtwo that is compassionate and merciful…

XxXxX

Excerpt: December 21, 1990

Mewtwo is a success. It But while I have managed to create this abomination, I have failed to curb its vicious tendencies. It's no use - I cannot control it. I fear the day it awakes and destroys everything in its path. Giovanni reassures me that he has defensive measures at the ready, but I worry that he underestimates my creation…

This chapter was a pain in the neck for me to write, primarily because I was first going to go through the interlude through Mewtwo's POV before I scrapped that after realising it was too predictable and cliché. I took a risk with this, and I hope this turns out to be refreshing and interesting! Writing as Mr Fuji was hard to write, but I tried to best to keep the timeline consistent. To clarify the continuity, Ash's journey begins in the year 1990. I had a lot of digging to do to figure that out.

Fuji's journal ends a day before Mewtwo destroys New Island, which is why there is no entry talking about those events. Just another tidbit of trivia I thought I'd throw at ya!

Review responses:

A Wordsmith: Hey man, glad to see you back! Quarantine has one bit of silver lining there lol.

You had some really solid bonding moments in this chapter, and I was glad to see Atlas as a more present part of this chapter. Having Ash lose is something you rarely see, and being so utterly outclassed it makes sense for him to leave Cinnabar to train elsewhere was great too. Now I'm curious how he'll take this, and when he'll think he's strong enough to head back. Unfortunately, I've got one major bit of concrit.

You noticed this last chapter, but it's a lot more prevalent here - Traveler is an incredible fanfiction, and it's pretty easy to see when it has been used. I can see you tried to make it your own - moving Big Riddle Inn elsewhere, having Ash lose - but it comes across as nearly a copy.

My suggestion is to revamp your future chapters away from Traveler. Most people will forgive similar situations but the easiest way to avoid that is to just avoid those same situations. Have Ash take a different path, find new parts of Kanto to explore, stuff like that - it'll make your Ash stand out instead of a Traveler-Ash with a different team. Again, most people will forgive you for this, but it's hard to stand on your own when you're caught up in Elf's shadow. Your team is unique with good personalities, and you've got a solid character in Misty to offset Ash - keep up with it! Just let them have some situations to shine on their own.

Good luck with your next chapter!

-Being seen as an imitation is definitely something I'm worried about, so it's really concerning that it's coming off as that more as of late. But the story will surely be seen as far different after Ash's return to Pallet Town - I hope it does, lol. I've got a lot on my mind for how I want Ash's journey to progress and how he himself grows far different than he does in canon. But thank you for your review, and the kind words!

frankieu: nice chapter thx for writing it
loved the fight shame ash did not win but a loss can be good for some one

-Thank you for enjoying the story - and I do believe a loss can be turned into a lesson than simply a reminder for discouragement. Being the person Ash is, he'll try his best to get over his loss and learn as much as he can from it.

Riatsu: Great story as always though i gotta ask is misty going to leave? I just asked cuz the interaction are great to much of good thing can be bad but other that good chapter and hoping another great one.

-Misty will be leaving soon (but will perhaps return)! This is Ash's journey, after all ;)

anOwlandStuff: I'm enjoying the story! Would you mind putting the list with Ash's team and their nicknames at the top of the fic so it's easier to remember who they are?

-So I've been told this a lot, and I'll surely be taking this into consideration to make it easier for you guys to keep with the flow of the story! Hope you enjoy this chapter!

As always, thank you for reading, and have a good one. Stay safe!