I was just a little girl on a vacation with my family in Alola. My older sister and I were playing in the water, splashing each other when we both were splashed by someone else. It turned out to be a Magikarp using Splash on us. You have no idea how adorable the Magikarp was to me. My sister tried to shoo her away, but I took a strong liking to her immediately. I wrapped my arms around her, she was quite big especially since I was so little at the time, and begged my sister to let her play wigh us. She caved quickly and so for the rest of the day we played together with the sweet little Magikarp.

It was getting close to supper time so my family was getting ready to leave the beach. I carried the little Magikarp with me up to my parents and proudly showed her to my parents. I asked them if I could take her home and they gladly agreed. My dad had a Magikarp when he was young too so I'm sure he was happy to see me have one too. I always wanted to be like my old man too, I guess that's one reason why I was so drawn to the Magikarp immediately. I was given a pokeball and tapped it to my Magikarp's head. She gladly stayed so I named her Pearl since pearls come from the sea.

I always had her flopping along beside me. I never ever wanted to let her leave my side because I loved her so much.

Later on the vacation, my dad decided to take me fishing to "truly experience the Alolan vacation" as he said it. We caught a Feebas then which my dad caught in a pokeball. She. Was. Beautiful! I told my dad to name her Paris, it was a beautiful name for a beautiful Pokemon after all! He simply chuckled and handed me the pokeball, saying she was all mine! Two Pokemon in one vacation! Can you believe it?! They both become my best friends because of that vacation.

When we got back to our home region of Kanto, I showed all the kids in my class my new Pokemons. Most just laughed saying they were weak. We hadn't gotten to evolution quite yet so I'm sure they wouldn't laugh if they knew what my two precious girls would evolve in to! But it never mattered to me what they'd evolve in to. I just wanted to be their friends forever and I'm not sure anyone in my class really understood what that was like. Some of them I am SURE they still don't understand what it's like. From that day on, I worked hard to train these two girls until they evolved into a beautiful Milotic and a gorgeous Gyarados.

I have my other Pokemon too, of course, since I'm an Elite 4 member, but I will always have a special bond with Pearl and Paris that I'll have with no other. And I'm not sure everyone understands that. It takes a lot of hard work to get here especially at a young age and I think that hard work only strengthened our bond. I'm a water type trainer like no other. Even if I wasn't here though, even if these two lovely gals never evolved, I'd be happy just living with them forever.

-Zora Habernickt
Age 14
Elite 4 Water User

I was lucky to get an interview with Zora Habernickt. She's typically very busy since she's an Elite 4 member. You've heard it here, it doesn't matter what Pokemon you use as long as you love them. If you have ever had a bond like this, I would love to hear about it.