ANZU . the poisonous ninja master ( WIP )

[A N Z U *]

- - - - - - a n z u !

( note: for your convenience, i've outlined important details in #705898 so you don't have to read the entire thing to get an idea of the character; i tend to ramble at times. )

everyone knows her title, few call her by her real name. to those who challenge her gym, she is the poisonous ninja master like her father before her; those who threaten the peace of the region whisper amongst their colleagues to be wary of the daughter of koga. very few even know her real name, much less speak the word anzu. her accomplices, the girls of her gym, call her master; to the people of fuchsia, she is simply their gym leader. few townsfolk know her personally; she is far too elusive for them to so much as catch a glimpse of her more than once in a blue moon. of course, there always those who claim they have, but more often than not, it's simply another of her accomplices off on some inconsequential errand. nothing more.

anzu, or whatever she is called by those who know her, is eighteen years old and celebrates her birthday on may twenty-ninth. not that she's too happy about birthdays in general; every year she grows older is less time to accomplish all the things she needs to in life. granted, she is still relatively young, but anzu does not appear to take this into account. she simply sees age as an obstacle, and is none too happy to be affected by it. in other words, never wish anzu a happy birthday lest you wish to face her temper.

but despite the fact that anzu does not seem to be fond of the concept of age, she takes offense at being called young. since training under her father from a very tender age, she has believed her whole life that it is not age, but experience, that determines one's status. therefore, she does not take kindly to being referred to as 'young', regardless of the fact that she is quite young for a gym leader. though, as much as she hates being stereotyped, anzu does see it as somewhat of an advantage; she is able to disguise her true talent beneath the stereotypical opinions people make about her age in relation to her position.

FUCHSIA CITY, THIRTEEN YEARS PRIOR ,,
"daddy! daddy, guess what today is! guess, guess! no wait, don't guess! i want to tell you! it's my birthday~"

i remember that day as if it were yesterday. that was before i learned what would become of my life. before i began my training, before i was old enough to realize just what kind of job my father had to contend with. i didn't understand any of it, not the way i do now. regardless, this day remains in my memory, and i'm certain it will never leave me as long as i live. i was five years old then, and i was still a child excited about turning another year older. each year older and i had more of a chance to prove to my father that i was ready. but ready to become what, i couldn't even hope to comprehend at so young an age.

had i known half the things i know now, i might not have been quite so eager to relinquish my childhood to my father's whims. i knew he wanted to train me to be his successor, and to a young child whose dream was to be great, i couldn't wait to start my training. i'm not regretting having trained under my father, per se, only that it seems somewhat ironic now that i'm looking back on this particular day once again. i miss the days of simplicity, even. when there weren't evil trainers to contend with at every turn, when i could just sit back and not have a care in the world besides, "daddy, when will i be old enough to get my own pokémon?"

as it was, my fifth birthday was the day i got my very first pokémon - a venonat whom i chose to call violet. my young self was ecstatic. not only did i finally have a pokémon to call my own, but in giving me a pokémon, my father was essentially telling me that he deemed me ready to become his student as well as his daughter. at that point in time, i couldn't have been happier. but then again, i also had no idea just how demanding both my training and my position as a gym leader later along would do to me. i'm not sure, though, that my father would have given me any chance to reject the path he had chosen for me.

FUCHSIA GYM, TWELVE YEARS PRIOR ,,
"anzu, what are you doing?! just do it the way i tell you and don't try to improvise!"

the first year of my training didn't go well. i quickly discovered just how harsh my father was going to be on me, and i also decided that i didn't much care for it. i didn't want to do the things koga told me to, and i tried to come up with my own ways of doing things. needless to say, he didn't like that too much. he kept saying something about, "i'm the teacher here, and whenever you get better than me, you can do whatever you want and i won't care."

by this time, i had added a pretty pair of female spinarak to my team. i'd come across the mother ariados' nest while on an errand koga had sent me to do. she was nowhere around, and all the eggs had hatched but two. i grabbed them up before the ariados came back, and took them back to koga to see if they would ever hatch, or if there was something wrong with them somehow, and that's why the ariados had left them. i wasn't familiar with the arachnid pokémon then; i didn't know what their patterns were.

well, as it turned out, they did hatch... but i didn't need koga to tell me that. on my way back to fuchsia, they both hatched in my arms, and by the time i got back to the gym, i was having trouble keeping track of the two baby spinarak. koga let me keep them, of course; how could he say no when they were both poison types? but, i guess that's not really the point. where was i before...

oh yes, i remember. i would always go hide in the fuchsia zoo because i hated how tough koga was being on me. i had my pokémon to keep me company, and koga had trouble finding me... for a while. eventually he caught on, and going to the zoo didn't work any more. but that's a story for later. point being, i think koga might have regretted starting my training so early at first. i couldn't say for sure, though; i'm a ninja, not a psychic.

FUCHSIA GYM, TEN YEARS PRIOR ,,
"oh, i'm sorry. koga's not in right now. my name's anzu, and i'm in charge while he's gone."

i loved the look on people's faces every time i told them that i was temporarily in charge of the fuchsia gym while koga was away on important business. they took one look at my eight year-old self and assumed that i was going to be easy to beat. it was the first important job koga had assigned me in my three years of training, and i was determined not to screw it up.

my party had then developed into a venomoth, two ariados, a golbat, and a koffing. i'd been hard at work training them all, and despite his indifferent demeanor, i was almost certain koga was a bit surprised at how well i was doing. i was in the gym one day when he thought i wasn't; i heard him talking to one of his accomplices. "she's progressing rather well, i think."

and coming from koga, that was a compliment of the highest order. i think it was when he left me in charge of the gym, though, that i realized why he pushed me so hard. that rush of pride every time i won a battle, there was nothing that could compare. i lost only once in the week that koga was absent. i was already far beyond koga's accomplices in skill, despite my age; i think that was when my relationship with my father finally began to resolve itself somewhat.

FUCHSIA ZOO, NINE AND A HALF YEARS PRIOR ,,
"there's something going on over at the zoo, anzu. i'm busy at the moment, would you mind investigating for me?"

that particular job was an odd one, let me tell you. first of all, koga had always discouraged me from going to the fuchsia zoo because it 'interrupted my training' too much. he was careful in warning me to go there and do what i needed to, then come straight back and report what i'd found. he knew me better than i knew myself, it seemed like sometimes. but then again, he did practically raise me to be him, to a certain extent.

- finish this kthx.