-u--xenophobia- — 4780 - Pokemon Heartgold

Gold proved difficult to hate. He was a brilliant battler, his Typhlosion a furnace of controlled fury. He helped the old man in Azalea Town chase off Team Rocket. He returned the stolen machine part to the Power Plant without demanding a reward. He even bowed—actually bowed—to the Elder in the Sprout Tower.

A fisherman spat. “You helped create it. We don’t want your kind here.”

“I stopped it,” Gold said, rising. His voice cracked. “I helped .” 4780 - Pokemon Heartgold -u--xenophobia-

Lyra stepped forward. She had known Gold for three months. She had seen him weep when his Togepi hatched. She had watched him give his last Revive to a stranger’s Rattata.

The “war” was a hazy thing—trade sanctions, a few ugly skirmishes near the Indigo Plateau, twenty years cold. But in Johto, it was still a warm ember under the ash. Gold proved difficult to hate

The breaking point came at the Lake of Rage.

“Keep your distance,” her mother warned that night, darning a woolly Slowpoke-tail sweater. “Kantonese have no respect for tradition. They took our Slowpokes during the war. They’d take our souls if they could.” He returned the stolen machine part to the

The xenophobia wasn’t a scream. It was a low, constant hum.