Serena Makiguchi

Serena Isobel Makiguchi is from Vaniville Town in the Kalos region. She was encountered by the Mokusetsu when they were traveling through Lumiose City, Kalos. She was disheveled and exhausted after being used for horrific experiments by the Tekiyoku's Science Division.

Background
Around 5 years before the start of the story, Serena was taken from her home by the Tekiyoku to be used for scientific experiments. This lasted continuously for the next 5 years.

Serena Leaves Her Mother
This started because of when Tekiyoku member, Dr. Zager, led a sub-organization that was called the Science Division to search for a citizen, preferably a young person, to be a human subject for experiments.

Eventually, that division, consisting of Zager and 4 other Tekiyoku scientists, went to Kalos. Upon arriving at Vaniville Town, Dr. Zager saw Serena, who was 13 at the time, a girl by herself at a park, not playing with other people. She was occasionally depressed, but had sudden bursts of anger, when she would kick a tree violently. The 5 of them went up to her. After calming her down, they asked her where she stayed. She led them to her house, mainly from being threatened if she didn't.

The woman who answered the door at the house was the girl's mother, named Grace. She was shocked and demanded to know what was going on. This is when Dr. Zager explained everything about his plan. He said that the experiments wouldn't take any more than 2 months. Upon offering the incentive to pay Grace a very large amount of money (even after the experiment was over), he also said that if Grace didn't allow this, the Tekiyoku would double the taxes for her and her daughter.

Grace pondered this for a long time, saying that it has been a struggle lately to keep up with the regular taxes, but was hesitant to risk her daughter's safety and was about to refuse. Serena stopped Grace boldly, saying that she'll do it. Grace asked why. The daughter explained that she was tired of seeing Grace suffer and that this would help them out. She said that it was only 2 months and that she would feel useful, since other children don't really play with her.

Grace still wasn't about to allow this, but the daughter was persistent and demanded that Grace allow this. Grace eventually hesitantly accepted, telling her daughter to stay safe, and harshly telling the Tekiyoku people that if anything bad happens to her daughter, she would become their worst nightmare. They kindly reassured Grace that her daughter would be safe, and that this would be a huge step forward for science and medicine. Serena packed her things and left with the Science Division.

Experiments
The Science Division conducted experiments on Serena from then, and housed her and gave her food. It was simple stuff, like testing new medicines or new drugs on her, which all went successfully. Serena even didn't think it was as bad as she thought it would be.

The 2 months passed. Serena was ready to go home, but the Science Division wouldn't let her go. They said that they have plenty more experiments to do. Serena resisted to this, but it was to no avail. The experiments got much more harsh. Other experiments caused extreme physical and emotional pain to her. She was extremely sad and wanted to go home, but they wouldn't let her.
 * For instance, one major experiment was a new type of amnesiac medicine that caused the subject to lose some, but not all, of their memory. This caused Serena to forget certain details, like her middle and last name, along with her mother's name entirely.
 * She remembered that she was from Vaniville Town, though, and about the way she got here because of the Tekiyoku, although some specific details were missing from her memory. She was guaranteed that this wasn't permanent, but might last for a few years.

Another major experiment done is pretty complicated, but it basically involved a concoction created by Xerosic in order to try to make humans gain certain physical powers. The effect would be something like making punches emit a wave of visible energy that triples the power of the punch. This experiment didn't work.

Another experiment involved trying to see if Celebi could link to a human's heart and make that human be able to teleport to another place on their own at will. Dr. Zager believed that being connected to Celebi by spending long periods of time with it would help, along with some "magical" potions he invented. Celebi was left alone with Serena for periods of time. During these times, Celebi learned about what Serena has been going through. While it kinda felt sorry for her, Celebi had to help out the Tekiyoku or else the Tekiyoku would kill it. The experiment didn't work, however, which Dr. Zager kinda figured would happen anyway. How the Tekiyoku encountered and temporarily captured Celebi for this is currently unknown, but it was set free after this experiment attempt.
 * During this time, all Legendary and Mythical Pokémon don't like Arceus, so they're okay with helping the Tekiyoku.

A Mother's Concern
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Serena, as another condition to letting the Tekiyoku perform these experiments on Grace's daughter, the Tekiyoku relocated Grace to Kiloude City in Kalos after Serena was taken away. Grace still stays in a decent house and has a job, but Serena has no idea about this. This was mainly done to prevent Serena from contacting Grace in the event that she ran away or something, which the Tekiyoku wouldn't allow anyway.

Meanwhile, Grace was worried sick about her daughter. Upon asking Tekiyoku members that roamed through the city about her daughter, all they would say is that "the experiments are gonna take much longer than expected". Grace deeply wanted her daughter home.

Present
When the story started in July, it's been 5 years since Serena was taken from her home. Shortly after the beginning of July, the Science Division released Serena. This was because Serena's body was beginning to develop immunities to the drugs and medicine given to her, thus weakening the intended effects of the experiments.

Serena was useless now. Dr. Zager and the others in his division simply made her leave. The last experiment attempt took place in Lumiose City, Kalos, so they released her there. They didn't tell her anything about where her mom was, nor did they give her any direction from here nor food nor money to survive a journey home.

They left her for dead.

Serena has been wandering on her own. Her body is very affected negatively from some failed experiments. For example, she sometimes coughs up blood. She feels like she might die. She doesn't know how to get to Vaniville Town to look for her mom.

However, one time, out of frustration, she punched a tree... the previously mentioned failed experiment that Xerosic was overseeing actually worked... the tree fell down.

Serena was first seen in Episode 7. Ash found Serena lying on the ground in a forest in Lumiose City when the Mokusetsu was traveling there after looking for Shizuku, the Water Plate. He asked Serena some questions, but she could barely speak and didn't know the answers to them.

From here, Ash brought Serena to travel with the Mokusetsu and get her home to reunite with her mother. She notably continuously stared at Ash from time to time, which Dawn noticed. She could only confirm that she was from Vaniville Town. They then went to Vaniville Town to Serena's old home. When getting there, they discovered no one was there. They still didn't know where Serena's mom was.

They learned more about her condition from Professor Sycamore, who was one of the scientists originally used by the Science Division, even though he isn't a Tekiyoku member. He morally stopped being a part of this after seeing how harsh the Tekiyoku was being, shortly after they took in Serena. Sycamore remembered enough about Serena to give more helpful information to the Mokusetsu, but he didn't know where her mom was relocated to, since that information was only given to Tekiyoku members.

Serena was still confused about her newfound power to send powerful punches when really angered. These punches can knock down trees and have major impact. She did this one night while they were camping outside, waking up Ash and Alain, the latter of which became angry at Serena and attacked her, accusing her of being a Fighting Manipulator. Ash defended Serena and got Alain to back off.

Serena became involved with the next fight for the Electric Plate, Ikazuchi, in Anistar City, where she was surprised and angered to see Dr. Zager as one of the enemies here, not having seen him since she was released from the Science Division. Serena successfully used her power of strength during this fight to knock Mable into a river and help defeat the enemy. After the defeat, Dr. Zager was impressed and told Serena where her mom was, since it didn't matter to him if they reunited anymore anyway.

After this fight, the Tekiyoku (namely Celosia) also kidnapped Clemont's little sister, Bonnie, to be used for the same nature of experiments as Serena did. An ordeal followed to rescue Bonnie, which, after much emotion, was successful.

Following this, Serena was brought to Kiloude City. She was reunited with her mom, Grace. Serena's memory slowly started coming back. She asked to speak to Ash alone before they left. She thanked him for all he did to help her. She was then about to confess her feelings for him, but changed her mind at the last minute. She said her goodbyes to the Mokusetsu. From here, she stayed with Grace in her house to reconnect and be a family again.

Personality
There's no doubt that Serena has been emotionally traumatized. These experiments have worn her out physically and mentally. She's been cut off from society for years, so she's extremely introverted and tries her best to stay away from other people. She can barely speak at times and will usually look away if she's addressed.

Serena also get very angry every now and then, in short spells. These come suddenly and seemingly without warning to Serena herself.

She has a crush on Ash, after he rescued her from the forest. She's extremely nervous around him, though, and tends to stare at him randomly. She's not as self-aware, though, and may keep staring even if he notices. She'll deny that anything's wrong if he asks. She almost admitted her feelings to him before they separated after she got reunited with her mom. However, she became afraid and didn't tell him before he left.

Naming

 * Her first name, Serena, is her name in both the Japanese and English dub (and actually just about every language) of the Pokémon anime. It comes from the word serene.
 * Her middle name, Isobel (meant to be pronounced as "EYE-soh-bell"), was handpicked by Nocturnal Jay, due to Serena being one of his favorite characters. He's used it since earlier fan fiction, first in Kanto Summer Camp. It's a Scottish name that comes from Isabel, which comes from Elizabeth. The name roughly translates to "devoted to God".
 * Her last name, Makiguchi, is the surname of her Japanese voice actress in the Pokémon anime, Miyaki Makiguchi.

General

 * Her birthday, October 17th, is the same as AmourShipping Day.
 * AmourShipping used to be Nocturnal Jay's favorite ship, before PearlShipping took that place.