Sakura Riese

Sakura is a 22 year old Pokémon Trainer and Ranger from Floaroma, who started her journey after an accident that happened five years ago in a cave that killed her parents and made her sister go missing.

Appearance

This is Sakura's current appearance:

Personality

Sakura has always been a kind girl, always being as nice with others as she can while keeping a warm smile on her face, however it's stated by Lyuri and herself that she was very shy as a kid, having only her family and Grant and no friends whatsoever, but ever since the accident that end up killing her parents and separating her from Lyuri, Sakura has gotten more sociable due to fearing being alone and having nobody to rely on other than Grant and her other Pokémon, this caused a bit of an issue as she always tries to be as nice as she can even when she's really depressed or angry, due to not wanting anyone to think badly of her and leaving her alone, fortunately, she's getting slightly better in this regard.

Sakura also feels a lot of guilt over her parent's death as she was indirectly responsible for it, and ever since finding her sister, she always was a bit unsure if she held some grudge against her for that, however, once the incident with Jacob happened, Lyuri comforted Sakura and told her to not worry about that anymore and only think of the present while also talking about her own doubts about herself, Sakura took the advice to heart and is trying her best to not let the cave-in hold her back. She also has a habit of trying to help everybody, but never asking for something in return and outright declining help unless it's insisted on, this is due to she thinking that others are more important than her, Lyuri also talked to her about that, but it's unknown if this changed much of this habit or not.

Of course, despite being a normally kind and easy-going girl, Sakura does get angry or very serious at times, the best example of her getting angry being when she called Des out for attacking Lake in Olivine right in front of her, and a example of her getting serious being an incident with Jacob where he threatened to kill and/or destroy the Indigo Plateau, where Sakura also called him out on that. She's also very protective of her sister when it's not the inverse that's happening, as shown in the Orre arc.

Details

• Age: 22 (As of 2020)
• Height: 1.59m
• Birthday: June 10, 1997
• Starter Pokémon: Grant, the Arcanine
• Favorite Color: Initially pink, seems to be liking blue as of now.
• Favorite Type: Dark
• Likes: Pokémon in general, tea, travelling
• Dislikes: Pokémon abuse, caves.

History

Sakura lived peacefully on Floaroma Town until her family went on a trip and a Earthquake caused by Lyuri's Sandshrew at Sakura's request unintetionally made a cave-in that ended up killing her parents and separated her from Lyuri. She met Hikari a short time after the accident, who gave her support and she started living with her and her's family, but she quickly decided to go out to search for her missing sister.

Kanjoh-II

After a long time travelling around the world searching for her sister, Sakura met with Chrome, who at Stella's request led them to an airship that was going to Violet City, meeting a lot of other people in the meantime. She stayed at Violet City for a while and learned about the armbands from Diane and tested one of them, becoming able of understanding her Pokémon now. She left the city and went to Goldenrod, where she met Rawst, who joined her at her's search for her's sister, who she thought was in New Moon Island after a nightmare she had.

The two then left to Ecruteak, where Sakura got her first gym badge and met Des, who was running from the police at the time and also got a Pokémon egg from Hikari. They then were called to a Halloween party at Lavender Town and went there, they met Des again and after he explained his situation, Sakura used her position as a Pokémon Ranger to help him with his problem, making it clear to the ex-rocket that he only had one chance. The party ended with a Ghost takeover and Sakura was knocked out by a Shadow Ball while she was investigating the Radio Tower with Des, Trent, Rawst and Origa, missing almost everything that happened in the process.

After that Sakura and Rawst left to Sinnoh and met Hikari in Canalave, who then helped them get to New Moon Island, they were attacked by a swarm of Tentacool and Sakura almost drowned, but they managed to escape and get to the island, where they met Darkrai and discovered that Lyuri really was on the island, soon enough they found her and the sisters were reunited. After going back to Canalave, Hikari left to go back to her home after making a quick trade with Sakura and the remaining trio went back to Johto since Sakura wanted to finish the gym challenge there.

During that time, Sakura got the Gym Badge in Azalea and met Alyssa alongside Rawst, Lyuri and Des, they then left to Goldenrod where they stood for a while, during that time, Hikari decided to meet up with the group, staying with them for a while, an accidental prank from Zap made Lyuri wrongly accuse her as the responsible and even chase Sakura around, wanting to punish her for it, she eventually calmed down, though not without help; Des also got Sparkers and Cera during that time and Sakura took an immediatelly liking for the Growlithe but even as Des asked if she wanted to take care of them, she declined and as such, Des kept them for himself, however, during the time where she, Hikari and Lyuri were giving Grant a bath, she went to see what Rawst was doing and met up with him and Alyssa in the National Park, where there was a moment between her and the boy, which made Alyssa try to leave the two of them alone and unfortunately getting lost in the process, without noticing Alyssa being gone, Sakura left to go help Hikari and Lyuri finish the bathing, when she crashed into Des who had Sparkers and Cera with him, the Growlithe jumped at her arms and, overjoyed, she asked if she could stay with the puppy for one day, something that Des accepted.

Sakura learned how Sparkers distrusted Des and, trying to make things a bit easier for the ex-rocket, she tried to convince him to give him another chance, with some success, Des soon came to retrieve his pup, after that, Sakura spent some time relaxing with Seth until Rawst appeared, being conviced by Lyuri and Hikari to call her on a date, Sakura accepted and the two had a date on the National Park, where they eventually hooked up; soon after that Sakura found out Alyssa was in another house in Goldenrod and visited her, she also learned about Eskay's return in Olivine and decided to bring Hikari, Lyuri and Rawst with her, as Des had to leave due to his job, while in Olivine, Sakura didn't do much, but she met Lake who was with Seth, Dylan and Azure at the time, impressed by the Bubble Shield, she asked him a few questions about the bubble's properties, that's when Des came by with Dusty and recognized Lake as the Feraligatr that brought Team Rocket's downfall and had Poncho attack him right in front of Sakura, who had Seth stop the fight with a Bullet Punch.

Sakura then left, angry at Des, who tried to explain himself to her, but it was to no avail, Rawst saw that she seemed upset and asked her what was wrong, to which she pointed at Des, Rawst asked Des what happened and he explained himself to him, Sakura heard everything and suddenly started to yell at him as she called him out on what happened, she then ran to the Pokémon Center, there, Hikari helped her to calm down, the two of them being locked in her room, the following day, Sakura apologized to Des for being rude to him while he apologized for what happened, the two then had a friendly 1-on-1 battled that Sakura won.

After everything had been settled, Hikari and Des left again, Hikari going back to her home and Des going back to continue his work, Sakura and Lyuri decided to meet up at Ecruteak later while Sakura did the gym battle in Cianwood, Rawst went with her and during their stay they had some berry juice, and visited the Safari Zone, where she captured Meteo and Rai. She then won against Chuck and went back to Ecruteak with Rawst, in their stay there, Des and Hikari once again came back, this time Hikari gave everyone a Pokémon Egg, except Sakura herself, they also learned that Des could sew and that he had a crush on Hikari, the latter not ending very well considering that she didn't share the feeling.

At Christmas, the group went to Crewe's home and Sakura and Rawst had their first kiss under a mistletoe planted there by Lyuri as they were sleeping, Sakura also difused the conflict between Hikari and Des in a similar way as to what Hikari did for her in Olivine, she also got an egg from Umbra. After the party, they all went to New Moon Island, where they learned about attributes from Darkrai, after thanking them for the information, she went back to Ecruteak with the others, where she helped Dylan evolve, got Phantom from Hikari as a Christmas present, and ended up witnessing the car crash that Riku and Zap caused, but didn't do anything about it other than helping take them to the Pokémon Center, once everything was taken care of, the group split out again, with Sakura, Lyuri and Rawst going to Mahogany.

During her stay in Mahogany, Sakura met up with Lake again in the Ice Path entrance and learned about the golden voice, one of the powers of those with the Heart of Gold attribute, due to the suspects of the members of Lyuri's team about her having the attribute herself, she tried to replicate the gold voice by talking about how much she missed her parents, said experiment was a success and she explained her situation to Lake, who'd already learned about it from Riku, Rawst then appeared, thinking that she may have moved to Blackthorn without him, even though she hadn't done the gym challenge yet. After that, her egg hatched and she got a Timburr, she also won against Pryce, getting another badge, and accidentally helped Lyuri evolve Jordan, not being sure if she could take Blackthorn's gym, Sakura decided to go back to Goldenrod, with Rawst and Lyuri going with her.

In Goldenrod, Sakura and Lyuri did some disastrous shopping and Lyuri setted up another date for Sakura and Rawst, one that went very well, she also met up with some fangirls of the TV Show, learning that she was now famous in the process.

Everybody was called to PEFE after a while, Sakura and Rawst didn't stay in the island for long and went back to Goldenrod, where Sakura met up with an amnesiac Straw and tried to help him out only for him to run away, she asked Grant to look out for him while she tried to do something else, Lyuri stayed in the island and, wishing to visit her sister, she told Rawst that she would go alone to the island and that she wouldn't take long.

Magic Mirror

Sakura fell into the Magic Mirror along with Lyuri, Seth and Dylan, the latter two being the only ones of her team that came with her to the island, Sakura helped during the many different adventures through the worlds, but then she met Daisuke and got separated from the others, Daisuke was a fortune teller that asked Sakura if she wanted to know about her future, she agreed and learned that she and Rawst would have a fight at some point, thinking it was because she took a long time in PEFE, she got out of the Magic Mirror through a portal that suddenly appeared in the area.

Back to Kanjoh-II

Daisuke joined Sakura's team and teleported them out of PEFE, though to Blackthorn instead of Goldenrod, there, she met Jacob in a most certainly unusual meeting, she helped him out by trying to keep him calm when it seemed like Regina was in danger, after said meeting, she warned Grant and Rawst of her position and stood in Blackthorn waiting; during her stay she had a little chat with Seth and met up with Jacob again, before Rawst arrived in Blackthorn.

Things took a turn for the worse when during a chat with Eskay where they talked about their Heart of Gold attribute as well as their past, Daisuke found Jacob and somehow broke his mind and, being forced by an angry Regina, Sakura didn't have a choice other than try her best to fix him up, she eventually did it by using her golden voice, albeit unnintetionally, they also decided to have a battle later, a battle where Sakura saw how different Jacob was from his normal self, it was after the battle ended with a confusing victory by Sakura that she learned that he had a crush on her, but it was also the same time that Daisuke told him about Rawst, Sakura tried to explain that the two of them wouldn't work out, but things weren't getting any better, as such, she said that it would be better for them to relax a bit and think better about the situation.

Sakura then got a call from Lyuri, who said she should come to the Indigo Plateau, she tried to have Daisuke teleport them there, but she instead went to the National Park, she called Lyuri back so that she could pick them up, when Lyuri appeared, they met with Atlas and Hercules, who after a short introduction, challenged both of the sisters for a battle to decide if they were going to go with them or not, the sisters win, and Sakura caught Hercules.

After finally getting into the Indigo Plateau, she met up with Jacob again and ended up saying many things about him that angered him to the point of him blocking the passage to the outside, where Sakura was heading to, with a Rock Slide from Discord, Lyuri ended up attacking Jacob due to that and everyone got in a big arguement, with Jacob many threats to Sakura and the others, until Discord stopped everyone and Sakura, having had enough, asked Alden to teleport her away, Alden also brought Lyuri along with them. They ended up in Floaroma Meadow, where the sisters had a heart to heart talk where Sakura learned what she was doing wrong and how to improve, they then went back to the Indigo Plateau, Jacob already having left the place, Sakura then talked with Eskay and Rawst, who were looking for her at the time and had to be brought back by Lyuri and Alden, feeling much better, she reassured the two of them that everything was fine now.

Unova-2

Upon getting at Virbank, she and Lyuri had another meeting with Jacob, who apologized for his actions and she quickly forgave him for it. She also took part in one of Pokéstar's Movies "From Space With Love" alongside Jacob, Rawst, Herbert and Eskay, who had been genderbent into "Sarah" at the time, during the movie she had to kiss Jacob, but it ended badly and she felt conflicted upon kissing him, leaving her feeling as if she had cheated on Rawst. She spent sometime isolated from the rest of the group, with "Sarah" trying to give her some support until Rawst came to settle the whole issue; after having a relatively short talk her relationship with Rawst was as strong as ever. After some of Lyuri's Pokémon had gotten themselves lost, Sakura, as well as most of the team, went along with her to Castelia to search for them.

Sakura did relatively little during the arc other than interacting with some characters and giving support, she helped Lyuri to get together with Duke after she realized that she was in love with him and all in all she was pretty much free of drama and instead focused on helping others deal with any problems that they might have, with varying success. Her birthday was during the arc as well and she got many gifts from other J-Team members, such as the TM for Tri-Attack from Eskay, a brouche from Grant, a Zorua from Hikari, who she soon named Lusio, as well as others.

Holon

Sakura kept herself mostly in the sidelines during the arc, doing very little other than bonding more with certain characters and some of her mons, eventually being able to forgive Umbra for his past as the Ghost Lord and she also learned about her ancestors as well as the fact that Straw was her distant cousin.

Relationships

Humans

Sakura has a sister, Lyuri, they are both very close to each other and admire each other's qualities and help with their flaws, Sakura helps Lyuri to deal with her temper while Lyuri helps Sakura to be more assertive, they both protect each other and while sometimes they have different viewpoints on things, they don't really fight as much as other siblings do, in actuality, they are get along very well.

Sakura has a friend and currently boyfriend in Rawst, the two have been together for a while and still seem close, recently they had their first kiss and that only made they get even closer to each other, Sakura deeply loves Rawst and loves his company, currently she's also helping him to get better at taking care of Pokémon, despite being dating, they weren't seen together that much as Sakura tried to spend more time with Lyuri at the time, they seem to be getting over that for now. Sakura has a tendency to worry too much about their relationship, always thinking that something may happen that would make Rawst break up with her, even more so after Daisuke's prediction, but the couple seems to be doing very well at the moment.

She also has a close friend, Hikari who frequently calls her to ask about how things are going, the two of them are as close as sisters, and often refer to each other as such, though since Lyuri's return it seems to have stopped.

She's also friends with Des and, she had some problems with Des after he attacked Lake in Olivine, but Hikari helped her to forgive him and the two went back to being friends, Sakura is often amused by what Des does and they normally get along fairly well together.

She's friends with Alyssa she also worries a bit about her thanks to her reminding her of herself as a child and really wants to be able to help her, but they haven't really made any progress on that.

She's also close friends with Kai, mostly due to them being both Hearts of Gold and also due to their similar past, they both try to help each other with leaving the past behind and also have similar viewpoints on things. Kai considers Sakura to be one of the, if not THE, kindest people he ever met and as such they get along very well, with him even being the first to go look for her after the incident in the Indigo Plateau.

Jacob had a crush on her, unfortunately for him, she already had Rawst, coupled with his unstability, those feelings he had for her ended up causing a lot of tension between the two of them, getting to the point that upon hearing Sakura's reasons to not date him, Jacob became angered to the point that, once Lyuri and other intervened, she threatened to kill her and her sister, Sakura eventually gave him a second chance to him, like she did to Des, they're currently friends, though she is a bit scared of talking about the more particular topics and he still has feelings for her.

Pokémon

Sakura loves her team in general, but she does indeed have a closer relation with some of them:

Grant is her most trusted companion and the one she relies on the most, Grant and Sakura never had problems with each other and have been together for a long time, having a strong bond thanks to that, as such, Grant is really protective of Sakura and worries a lot if they're separated for too long or if something happened while he wasn't looking. Sakura's diary also reveals that she thinks of Grant as a substitute father and as such, she respects him a lot and more often than not does what he tells her to do without arguing about it, but it's rare for Grant to even tell her to do something like that, still, his opinion on things is probably the one she cares the most.

Seth and her are quite close as well, but Sakura thinks of him more like a brother than anything, she doesn't know exactly why Seth likes her more than others, but she certainly enjoys his company, they are often drinking tea together or hanging around together, Seth can also be quite protective of Sakura, just like how Grant can, further making him look like a brother through Sakura's eyes.

Dylan is a Pokémon that Sakura had to keep an eye on since he was and still is a child, Sakura is very patient with the Carracosta and treats him very well as she does with most of the team, Dylan himself likes Sakura a lot and tries to make her proud of him when it's something important, Dylan puts a lot of effort in what he does when he's not playing around, something that Sakura really likes.

Team

Grant

Serenity

Stella

Shade

Lily

Dusty

Seth

Dylan

Rai

Meteo

Phantom

Duncan

Daisuke

Hercules

Halberd

Lusio

Teishi

Lotus

Valentine

Trivia

• Sakura is left-handed, a trait shared with Tagg and Mezzo.
• Her pink hair was an accident from when Lyuri tried to dye her hair, but both ended up liking the result.
• Half of Sakura's team was a gift, the only ones that were captured the usual way were Dusty, Seth, Meteo, Rai, Stella and Lily. Though Shade's case was a bit more complicated.
• She's good at an unspecified card game, beating a experienced Lyuri ten times in a row. She also managed to go rather far on Voltorb Flip on her first time playing it.
• Unlike most cases, Sakura learned about her attribute by using the empathic voice after being told how it worked from another Heart of Gold, instead of learning about it from a legendary.
• Sakura used to go by Sakura Cheryl before finding Lyuri again.