Shiki Kurobane/Background

### Early Life

Shiki was born in an aristocrat family to his parents. Under his parents' influence, showing great promise from birth, Shiki was already subjected to various lessons as he was the heir to the Kurobane family, who was one of the most prestigious families in the Dragon Clan. In fact, the power his family held was so high that should anything happen to the Elders, the Kurobane family would take their place and take the role of the Clan Elders.

When he was a toddler, Shiki had overheard a discussion between his family and the Paradinight family about the genetic enhancements cultivation plan that is to be performed on their Paradinights kids as a prototype test had been done on Shiki himself and it proved to be a success; however, he did not understand what they had been discussing until much later.

He often spent time with Lance and his cousin while the Elders were training them to become the future Dragon Masters of the Dragon Clan. At the start of those sessions, he was given a Gible to take care of. Lance, being the oldest (he was actually born one year before Shiki was, though due to the fact that Shiki's birthday was earlier than Lance's, they just said they were around the same age) was set to become the heir of the Dragon Clan. However, Lance's duties as the future heir of their clan made it hard for the three to have any quality time together.

During sparring sessions, Shiki's talent began to shine, amazing everyone by being about on par with Lance. As Lance's progress began to be questioned, the Dragon Clan Elders suggested training Shiki to be the heir instead. Ultimately, a Pokémon duel was held between the two to decide the future of their clan, which Shiki won. As Shiki showed more talent and confidence than Lance, the Elders decided to make Shiki the heir to the clan, and focused more of their grueling training regime on him instead of Lance, much to his cousin Clair's chagrin.

Shiki continued to train under them while juggling his lessons as heir to the Kurobane family. He became determined to prove himself worthy of being the next head of the Dragon Clan, though he somewhat resented on how much pressure the Elders and his parents were putting on him, not knowing the secret behind his immense talent.

### Shiki and the Cursed Child

However, when the Cursed Child rumour came up, Shiki defied orders, being curious on what made the girl cursed in the first place. However, when he met the girl, all he knew was he fell in love at first sight, as the girl was extremely adorable, but yet looked very frightened because of the treatment they gave her, and that he might do the same thing. He realized that the little girl had inherited the gift that he had read about in the books written about the history of the Dragon Clan, but yet they treated her like a social pariah because of her birth. He was extremely shocked when he watched the mother drag her away by her hair, presumably to punish her, all because of the fact that he talked to her.

Shiki began to despise his Elders and even his parents, considering them inferior to the little girl who did nothing wrong in his opinion, and inwardly denounced them. He talked about it with his friend Lance, and began to openly defy the Elders, though they dismissed it as a growing up stage, and that Shiki would see things their way eventually. His hatred only grew when he watched the little girl get taken away one night, and angry of not being able to do anything, he swore to find the little girl and save her.

### His Journey

Years later, he left his home with the Gible given to him as his starter and decided to forsake his position as heir once he is of age. He already decided that instead of just collecting Gym Badges and entering the Pokémon League, he should gather battling experience and look for the girl first, as the girl could die anytime under Team Rocket's hands. Shiki noted that if he entered the Pokémon League too early, he'd most likely lose, thus he decided to add Pokémon to his team and make them strong first before participating.

### Discovering Mega Evolution and his Aura

He discovered the Evolution Mountain near Stone Town, and while exploring it, accidentally acquired his very first Mega Stones, a Garchompite and a Charizardite X, which he gave to his Garchomp and Charizard respectively, as they seemed drawn to it. He later embedded his Key Stone into his own choker, and discovered the power of Mega Evolution when having a battle with a trainer. His Key Stone glowed, and reacted to the Garchompite, and his Garchomp Mega Evolved, making him wonder what other Pokemon can achieve the form. At some point, he got into a scuffle with an aura user over an Galladite, and he got punched in the stomach with an aura covered fist. In retaliation, he flung a stone at the person's forehead, which caused bleeding, and knocked him out. Shiki left the place, taking the Galladite with him.

Later that night, Shiki noticed that he was glowing blue, and realized that whoever he encountered must have unlocked his aura by accident when he was punched by that aura covered fist. He decided to go to Mt. Silver, where he would be alone, in order to control his new found aura, and perhaps develop some abilities. He also realized he could infuse his aura with his sword to increase their lethality, and eventually discovered his affiliation with wind, and developed his very first ability, Wind Manipulation, within a month. When he was confident he can conceal his aura from the others, he left Mt. Silver via his Charizard. It was then he noticed a group of men taking a little girl away, and sensed the girl's distress.

### Rescuing Amethyst

Shiki suspected it was the same girl that was taken away when he was small, and proceeded to follow the men and listen to their conversation. His suspicions were confirmed once he finished listening and followed them to their base. Shiki then broke in with his Espeon and Charizard, and knocked out a grunt with his new psychic powers, and dressing himself up in his clothes. He used his aura to track the girl down and saw there were grunts guarding the doors.

He signaled to Espeon (with Gallade in the AV), and Espeon proceeded to knock out their Pokémon while he attacked the grunts. Shiki then took the keys to the cell and unlocked them until he was lead to the cramped space. Shiki picked up the girl, and grimly noted at the fact that she was very light and somewhat malnourished before leaving the place with the girl, naming her Pakura Ameyuri after the first Princess Pakura Goldstein, and even giving her an Egg that would contain her starter Pokémon. Shiki even let her share her sleeping bag with him when he realized the nightmares Amethyst would get after being rescued.

### A new companion

Shiki took the girl with him everywhere he went, and taught her everything he knew, while helping her overcome her fear of people and Pokémon and showing her what the world had to offer. At one point, they had obtained Pactum Cards in the PAL Region (AV only), indicating they had made a Temporary Pact with each other and had established a law firm, Legend & Co. Law Offices where they took on cases and defended various clients to great success.

### The Fight

At one point in the AV, Amethyst and Shiki had found out about a mass murder and Amethyst had apparently witnessed it, for she was shaken when they reunited in Natus City. That night, he met his old neighbor, only for Amethyst to be fearful of her and begged them to run. Shiki, angered at Amethyst's behavior, slapped her and ordered her to apologize. A tearful Amethyst begged Shiki not to hate her, only to sense an attack and dodged, severing her arm in the process. Amethyst took her arm and ran away into the forest, as Shiki realized the truth, before killing the girl and running after her, only for her Accidental Magic to activate once more. Shiki found her bracelet, and discovered she could use telepathy.

Locating her, he stalled her captor while teleporting her away with his Gallade, before retreating himself after making sure her captor can't chase them, knowing that his opponent was beyond his capabilities. It was a week later when he learnt that Amethyst was told about the Maga Chest hidden by Pakura Goldstein.

### The Dragon Duo

Eventually, they also discovered their love for each other (after going through something life-threatening) and started dating before becoming the Dragon Duo and even forming careers as a lawyer and a musical band in the process, becoming one of the most popular people in the PAL Region.

During the last day of the Regional Tour however, Shiki was unknowingly drugged by some of his fans, though he had held out until Amethyst took him back to their hotel room, and despite his drugged state, he was able to overpower and ripped her virginity from her, accidentally making their Pact a Permanent one.

Their relationship was never the same for a while, as Shiki was consumed by guilt when he extracted the information of what he actually did to her, and realized he broke the promise of never hurting her.

### The Fallen Phoenix

Sometime after becoming the new Dragon Prince, he encountered Rosaline when she ambushed and attacked Flamma, the Phoenix. Shiki arrived in time before Rosaline could fully steal Flamma's powers. As Rosaline escaped, Shiki took a weakened Flamma to his Hunter's Association. He later had a dream about Arceus telling him his true role and Amethyst's status as the Season Maiden, and that the balance would be tipped if the full powers went to the wrong hands, in other words, the assailant and he had to try and prevent this from happening.

Shiki feared that if Flamma were to die, her powers might pass to her attacker, as the power might attempt to seek to reunite with its other half, which is likely held by the attacker. The possibility of a dangerous individual assuming the powers of the Phoenix had the potential to threaten the balance. In order to avoid this, Shiki elected Amethyst to become the next Phoenix, though he was unsure as to what effects it may have on Amethyst as he had never used his Power Transference as a medium between two parties. However, he knew he had to do it, and called Amethyst over. To ease her worry, he went back to the cave what her favorite fairy tale is, and after a clarification, she lists a few. Shiki asked if she knows The Story of the Balance and Amethyst told him that she loved it the most. Shiki asked her if she would believe the story is true, that there are four roles, and people holding the first two titles can wield large amounts of power that can exceed any aura user and the other two are standing in line waiting to receive those powers should anything happen to the Chosen One or the Phoenix. When Amethyst asked as to why Shiki would tell her that, and he reveals that he had chosen her to be the next Phoenix, and that he was apparently the Dragon Champion and she the Season Maiden.

Shiki took her to a large vault below the Hunter's Association HQ, while filling Amethyst in on how the people are chosen for the four roles and how the titles from the Dragon Champion and Season Maiden transfer to the next one should the current Dragon Champion/Season Maiden ascend to become the new Chosen One/Phoenix and that the Dragon Champion title can be changed depending on the type the person was affiliated with the most. When they reached the opposite end of the vault, they come across a life support machine with Flamma, the current Phoenix, lying inside, comatose. Shiki told Amethyst that she had been attacked, and half of her power was stolen. Amethyst knew what it meant from what Shiki told her, and trusted him to transfer the power to her despite him being inexperienced in doing so. The transfer was successful, though it killed the current host, and they buried her and decorated her gravestone with Gladiolus.