Today was the first day using this new calendar. They tell us it's a way to mark the beginning of Hoenn's expansion, but to me, it still feels strange. The first day of the first month of the first year… It feels like a reminder that everything has changed, that our lives no longer belong to us.

This morning, I was officially informed that I belong to the Fourth Battalion. I've been assigned to a unit. A military unit. I repeat it in my mind, trying to make sense of it, as if doing so would help me process it better… but no. None of this makes sense.

Since this morning, I am no longer just the trainer who once fought under Flannery's orders to defend the gym against challengers. Now, I am in the service of the Hoenn Empire, and our first mission is to conquer Kanto. The same Kanto where a new challenger recently became champion. The same Kanto that rumors say is controlled from the shadows by a criminal organization.

Conquer—it's as if the word must stop being just a sound in the air and begin to weigh on my back, on my conscience. I still find it hard to imagine carrying out such an order.

I can't stop thinking about Slugma. My only companion, my closest friend, who's been with me since I can remember. Ever since my parents gave me his egg when I was just a child, I've cared for him, trained him, and he's saved me from so many problems… I wonder if he understands what's happening or if he only feels my anxiety. He's a fighter, but… if something happens to him in this war… no, I don't even want to imagine it.

Tomorrow I'll meet my squadmates and receive our first mission briefing. I'm trying to focus, to find something that calms me, but nothing works. I feel a knot in my stomach, and for the first time in a long time, I'm terrified.