Chapter Text
Kieran was once a good kid. A good kid born to bad parents. His mother had mental instabilities that led her to be violent towards him and his sister Carmine, and their father was either angry and distant or busy with his work, not even caring about how his wife treats them at all. And with no idea how deal with it properly, their grandfather Yukito and grandmother Hideko (their mother's parents) weren't too much help. Sadly but thankfully for the siblings and their grandparents, the two died in a plane crash shortly after Kieran turned seven years old. Unfortunately, it would be clear to everyone that Carmine has their father's ill temper and Kieran has their mother's twisted mentality.
Kieran and Carmine both attend the esteemed Blueberry Academy, Carmine was even part of the school's League Club as an Elite Four member. However, even with a popular and angry sister, Kieran still got bullied by most of his peers for 'being a weakling' and he wasn't really close to the other Elite Four and the Champion. Sometimes, even Carmine herself would shout at him 'talking back to her'. Despite how depressed it made him, Kieran was still a sweet and caring boy to his pokemon and his loved ones.
That is, until one day, when there was a school trip to the siblings' home region of Kitakami. It was only him and Carmine on the trip from Blueberry. There were just four students from their 'sister academy' Naranja-Uva in Paldea who were also on the trip, one of those students was a girl named Juliana. Upon her first look at Kieran when entering Mossui Town, Juliana fell head over heels for him and was happy to later partner up with him for their assignment. They took pictures of themselves by the signboards telling the story of three pokemon called 'the Loyal Three' who sacrificed their lives protecting Kitakami from an ogre who Kieran admired and felt sorry for, they told each other about certain things in their lives, Juliana even introduced Kieran to Koraidon and took him for a ride on it before having lunch. Unbeknownst to him, he felt the same way towards her. It seemed almost perfect.
However, during the Festival of Masks, Juliana and Carmine met the ogre from the legend, a Pokemon named 'Ogerpon' who dropped it's special teal mask, and Carmine forced Juliana to lie about it to Kieran. The next day, Yukito revealed the truth about the legend where the Loyal Three were actually the villains of the story and Ogerpon killed them for taking her three other masks and killing her master and that the villagers got it wrong. He also told Juliana and Carmine to not tell Kieran as he didn't think he was ready, but Kieran overheard everything and felt betrayed by his family and first real friend. This sent him down a dark path, and as more trouble came along and Juliana kept beating him in every Pokemon battle he challenged her to, the more bitter he became towards her. It made it even worse when Ogerpon chose to go with Juliana rather than him. Juliana hated the region of Kitakami for that whole experience.
A few months after the trip, Kieran grew distant from everyone and put battling and winning in front of everything else. He defeated the top members of the League Club, dethroning the previous champion Drayton and removing his sister from the Elite Four. He became someone most of his peers would fear and used others in the League Club to enhanced his strength and reputation, kicking out lower members who failed to perform to his expectations and rarely giving his own pokemon any breaks either. When Juliana arrived at Blueberry with her twin brother Florian as exchange students, Drayton used their history as a way to dethrone Kieran. Once Juliana defeated him in front of the whole school and Drayton called him 'ex-champion', Kieran swore he would still one day beat her, Juliana breaking down and revealing the rest of their history and her feelings about it to the others once he left to his dorm. She was convinced those at Blueberry were all just as bad as those at Kitakami, and needless to say, Drayton wasn't so happy his plan worked after that.
A while later, Kieran, Carmine, and the twins accompanied one of Blueberry Academy's teachers Ms. Briar on a hunt for the hidden treasure of Area Zero, a place the twins have been to once or twice before. Eventually, they found what they were looking for, a small but legendary pokemon named Terapagos. However, Kieran already snapped at that point, and when Terapagos tried to choose Juliana, he threw a Master Ball to catch it himself. And after another defeat at Juliana's pokemon, Ms. Briar said to Terastalize Terapagos in order to bring forth it's full power, which Kieran decided to do.
Unfortunately, terastalizing Terapagos gave it way too much power to fully control. Before anyone could react quick enough, a blast of energy from Terapagos struck Kieran in the chest, breaking the master ball he caught it with as he fell to the ground. Kieran laid there on his back helplessly, unable to move as he felt his broken ribs puncture his lungs and the ground beneath him shake and crack from Terapagos's power. Kieran knew the others would be dying too if they didn't do anything soon, 'N-No... This wasn't supposed to happen... This is all my fault...', he quietly thought before it all went to black.
A few hours later, Kieran woke up and found the ache he felt before was gone. Not only that, but he was still on the ground and was somewhere he didn't recognize. The sky was a very shocking yet somewhat beautiful reddish hue, he was also nearby a city. But he seemed to have been missing his bag and everything, even his pokemon were gone. What really ticked him off, however, was when he made it to city, most of the people there don't look human. And upon discovering a broken mirror, he saw that he didn't either. Not only were his clothes different like he noticed earlier, but he was surprise to see his own body had changed. His skin was now lilac with spots of dark grey, his hair rather than black and purple was now dark and light purple, his ears were now longer, pointier, and softer, his fingernails were now sharpened claws, a pair of horns now sprouted from his head, he now had Dragonite wings and an Incinaroar tail, and his eyes were now black with yellow pupils. Thinking back to everything from Juliana's trip to Kitakami to that expedition to Area Zero, there was only one place he could think of that would be like this. He was in Hell.
After a moment, Kieran wished desperately to see if the others were okay. Suddenly, his wish was granted as a hand-held Hell Glass, a special mirror for sinners to summon if they ever wish to view Earth from Hell (same thing with saints being able to summon a Heaven Glass), appeared in his hands. As he looked into the glass, he saw the BB League clubroom.
Ms. Briar, Carmine, and the twins were there with the Elite Four and thankfully unharmed, Juliana seemed to have caught Terapagos as well. However, Carmine was lashing out at Ms. Briar for encouraging Kieran to awaken and terastalize Terapagos in the first place. Ms. Briar then left the room, possibly about to get fired for letting a student die on her expedition. Drayton walked up to try and comfort Carmine, she tried to angrily push him away at first, but she ended up crying and sobbing as he gave her a hug, having a look of regret on his own face. It looks like Kieran's death also affected the Elite Four, he apparently meant more to them than he thought. Suddenly, he was listening in on a conversation between the twins.
Juliana sighed, "...I fucking hate this place, I can't wait to back home where people aren't using me or forcing me to keep quiet...", she muttered, "I'm sorry, Julie. ", Florian responded before sitting down next to her, "I really wish there was something I could do.", he continued. "I said it once and I'll say it again. I didn't want things to end this way between me and Kieran. I never asked for his family to make hide the truth from him, I never asked to be forced to join the BB League and defeat him, I never asked for Ogerpon to choose me instead of him. I was hoping the students and staff here at Blueberry Academy were better than the idiots at Kitakami, but no, they're stupid assholes too. And now, I could never tell him how I really feel about him. The universe fucking hates me.", Juliana stated, "It's okay, you might just find love again one day.", Florian tired to reassure her, "...Yeah, someday. Hopefully...", Juliana responded with a sigh.
Kieran saw enough, de-spawning his Hell Glass as tears formed in his eyes. He was angry at someone who he admired and who didn't want to hurt him in the first place, someone who actually was in love with him. He wanted to be as strong as her, but he went about it the wrong way. He thought she was Lil'-Miss-Perfect, he now remembers that's not really the case and that she is human too. Tears started falling down his face as he began to cry. He hoped he would be okay despite how his parents treated him and Carmine, but now he saw that he'll only be remembered by his peers as a monster who eventually was dethroned and then perished due to his own grudge, nearly taking four other people with him. He curled up into a ball as he started sobbing. He hoped his new environment would still claim him in the afterlife soon.