Like No One Ever Was - Skyfyre56 (2024)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

The beginning was surreal, like a lucid dream. Or maybe she was the one dreaming, and I was the one dreamed of. It was hard to comprehend, or really focus when I was that young. As such, I skipped through most of my childhood without a care, seeing ‘me’ doing things, but not connecting that with myself. It wasn’t until I was running outside one day that things really clicked for me. That I remembered who I was - or had been.

“Young Miss, please stop running around! You’ll get dirty and catch a cold!” One of the maids called out to me, and I stopped, more in puzzlement. Catch a cold in this weather? Hardly, it’s the middle of summer. Hot sun with a cool breeze is my favorite weather anyways . I opened my mouth to retort, reply that I’d stay clean, she should know that I hated getting dirty anyways but-

It felt like the world tilted sideways, and it did in a way as I reeled and fell over, suddenly losing control of my bodies as the memories hit me. That’s what they are, memories. Not a dream. I’m… I’m someone else .

I tried to bite back my tears and stop myself from hyperventilating as the maid rushed over, fretting over me. She’s massive. Why do I have a giant maid? I thought for about one second before the obvious clicked into place. Right, I’m a child now .

“Are you ok Miss Nemona? Oh please be alright, I’d hate for your parents to come back and see you hurt.” She said, more to herself than me. Still in a daze, I let myself be led back inside, barely noticing some of the strange animals outside.

On the way, I caught a glimpse of my house. Even taking into account my smaller size, it was massive. A sprawling estate with an excellently tended garden, beautifully kept. There were paths set to walk between the greenery and admire the flower beds and the trees, large enough that one really could take a stroll through it, especially with the stairs that led down the other side around the mansion. The elegant tiles right at the front and antique stained glass all around the front door and set within the wooden door to make a small window served as the cherry on top to this very rich pie.

It’s not right. My home has a beautiful garden, but the space is limited. My mother kept everything together and took care of it. It might not have been as precise and orderly as this, but it didn’t feel as artificial either . I wasn’t truly confused anymore about that. I knew the difference, but just felt the need to grumble to myself. Not quite ready to mourn what I had lost.

The front hall was quite a grand thing, a large open space living room. Ridiculously large, really, since it was big enough to go to the back end of the mansion. It definitely wasn’t crowded, but had enough to not feel empty, rugs and lamps placed strategically by paintings hung on the walls. The largest of them was of a very strange pale blue swan captured head on to make its eyes look odd, sticking out at the sides. Cabinets filled with a modest amount of books on either end of the living room itself, with hallways branching off to doors on either side to the rest of the manor. Chairs, a large L-shaped couch and table were set up in the center of the room to relax, and there was even a small kitchenette in there to grab snacks, but what really caught anyone’s attention was the window.

It took up most of the back wall, the curtains pulled fully open to reveal a breathtaking sight. Just off the small hill the mansion was situated on was a vast beach leading to a glittering ocean as far as the eye could see. Off to the side, I could make out a few palm trees poking from below. A real beachside mansion. Wow .

Butlers and maids set about their chores here and there, tidying up in places. Or maybe just trying to look like they were working at my sudden appearance. I distantly noted all this as the maid quickly led me through to the left side of the building. What was her name again? Nemona’s memories, or, I guess mine, make me think it's Leah?

She took me into the true kitchen, where she rummaged in the cupboards for first aid supplies before inspecting. You probably could have just asked me if I was hurt first, before getting that out . I didn’t say that, however, and decided to throw her a bone. “I’m fine Leah, not hurt, so don’t worry.”

My voice sounded odd. It was an odd thing to fixate on, but it just threw me off a bit, to hear my voice and not see it as my own. Leah didn’t seem to believe me, quickly inspecting me, ruffling through my hair to make sure I didn’t have any scrapes. Eventually though, she accepted that if she couldn’t see anything, I probably wasn’t actually hurt.

“Alright, fine, I believe you. But no more time outside, ok? I know you just moved here, but it’s dangerous to go wandering off by yourself,” She said sternly.

We just moved here? Right, we did . Details on the rest of my history and family were still a bit vague and blurry for the moment, but I did recall moving here a few months ago. Wherever ‘here’ is . “Ok. Can I look stuff up on the computer?” Even trying really hard to pronounce the words well, I found I was talking with a bit of childish lisp. Leah looked suspicious instantly.

“ You just want to stay inside?” Then, as if realizing that might give me the chance to go back on what I asked for, she turned around and said “That’s fine, young miss! Stay in the den, I’ll see where your phone has run off to.”

If I didn’t have vague memories of how much ‘I’ like to run about places I’d wonder about how wise it is to try and ‘distract’ a child with electronics. Then again, she’s probably doing her best while my parents are off with their jobs . The pieces were hard to put together, but given how lavish the estate was, I was pretty sure both my parents had very high paying jobs.

The kitchen proper had marble counters and stainless steel for the center island where much of the prep work was done, further selling the opulence of my new life. I could hear the television on in the den, one of the rooms just past the kitchen, but for the moment decided to get a better look at myself.

Climbing up on a stool, I stood on it and looked down at my reflection. It wasn’t the best mirror, but given how well the staff kept things clean, it was good enough. I was small, obviously, being five or so years old. My age also meant I had a bit of that ‘baby pudginess’ left on my cheeks. I was wearing a dress that was frilly and pink enough to make me want to tear it off. Freckles were a new thing, just a few of them dusting the bridge of my nose. I had always thought freckles were cute, so I didn’t mind that change, unlike the rest of it (i.e. being five years old again). The short black hair wasn’t very noteworthy, but the two small locks of green hair that struck out from it along with my vibrant amber eyes, were.

With the time I had to settle down, I started trying to puzzle things out logically. I don’t think they would have dyed one lock of hair for me, so this is probably natural. Definitely a different world I’ve been reborn in. I’ve got a wealthy family at least, which is nice… hopefully. Still can’t remember too much of dear old ‘mom’ or ‘dad’ here, but not sure if that’s just the memories being fuzzy still or they really aren’t around that much .

That thought had me instantly thinking of The Realm in Exalted. Hands off, but incredibly wealthy nobles that can afford tons of servants to look after and basically raise their kids? Check. Anime hair colors? Check again, with special thanks to the Dragonblooded and how their elemental features could change stuff like hair even more as time goes on .

I did my best not to panic, but I was really hoping that it wasn’t the case that I was reborn in Creation. The Dragonblooded might seem like the top dogs, but there were beavies of threats waiting in the shadows to tear them, and the entire world, down. Solar and Lunar exalts might kill me just for being a Dynast (if I was one), to say nothing of the other monsters, all of which could likely manage even if I did get chosen to become an elemental demi-god.

Okay, step 1: Exalt. Step 2: Get five pairs of artifact short daiklaives. Step 3: Heavy artifact armor and that one hearthstone to treat it as medium, or more likely, medium artifact armor. Step 4: Find teacher to learn Thousand Blades Style and Fire Dragon Style. Step 5: Profit. Step 6: Don’t die to assassins in my sleep, or poison, or other rivals in the Realm, or just Celestial exalts that can kill me anyways-

My totally reasonable plans were derailed by a small fragment I heard from the television in the other room. “-what an impressive use of Aura! His opponent is on the backfoot now. Luc-” I didn’t catch the rest, but it had me thinking again.

Right, a television, no way I’m in Creation. Unless it's a Modern Shard? - No, I don’t think it’s quite right.. Aura… is this RWBY? Or rather, Remnant? I thought about that for a minute and tried not to freak out even more. Crud, Remnant is even worse than Creation. Both are besieged by horrors trying to kill all mortals and end the world, but at least people are (generally) winning in Creation. How would I beat an insane immortal witch? Trick her into the Never After (which itself needs Ambrosius to make a portal), something something, big tree make her not my problem?

Things were surprisingly peaceful, however, which had me thinking that this might not be Remnant, even with the mention of Aura. A manor like this would definitely have a security system to deal with the Grimm. Also there weren’t any Faunus among the staff, which traditionally they were kinda given those jobs. Hmm, no Faunus at all might mean I’m in pre-Salem times Remnant. In which case, genocidal brother gods to worry about, but on the plus side, magic! I waved my hands out trying to conjure a lightning bolt, before thinking about where I was or the damage it would cause. Thankfully, nothing happened, beyond me nearly losing balance on the stool.

My antics were interrupted by Leah coming back into the room. “Oh, there you are. Please get down from there,” She lightly scolded, taking me off the stool. “I found your phone, you can play in the den. Kevin will be using the kitchen shortly to prepare dinner.” I was a bit distracted from her words as the red ‘phone’ flew out from behind her and hovered in front of me. The back had a smiling face with large blue eyes and a grin.

“Bzzt - greetings Nemona. I was just charging on one of the docks since I thought you would be outside. What do you wish to look up, bzzt?” The Rotom Phone asked me as it flipped over to show the screen.

I blinked as the pieces finally slid into place. “I’m… I’m in Pokemon.”

Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Chapter Text

Thoughts are in italics

Leah had obviously misheard me and said “Yes young miss, this is a Pokemon known as Rotom. It’s-”

“Really strong! It can possess things and have different forms. Wash Rotom has the least weaknesses, only to Grass I think. Heat Rotom has only two, but it has a ton of resistances!” I exclaimed exuberantly. Rotom is so cool a Pokemon, I always loved having one on my teams in the… games .

“That’s… correct.” She was a bit surprised but rallied back quickly and settled her face back to a neutral smile. “Your father will be happy to hear you know so much. Why don’t you go wait in the den as you look up whatever you want to look up.” It was less a suggestion and more an order I numbly followed as I was dealing with this new information.

Inside the den, I saw the television showing a tournament, where a Lucario was fighting against a Tinkaton. Or maybe a Tinka…tuff? The hammer looks kinda small . Unbidden, a fan image of a ‘dynamax’ Tinkaton popped into my mind, a meme of where only the hammer grew larger. The humor of that mixed with my own sadness as I really tried to deal with the fact that I was stuck in a not-so-fictional feeling world and started to cry.

“Oh no! Bzzt. You seem to be upset. Shall I grab the staff-” Rotom said, reminding me of their presence.

“N-no!” I quickly said, reaching out as if to grab him before he stopped drifting towards the door. I’m glad that no one else heard my outburst. I also guess that’s why they were fine with me searching up whatever - Rotom is sorta the perfect child lock, able to both redirect, block, and report on anything I search, or even anything that happens to me .

It was creepy, in a way, but seeing the back of the phone case and the obvious worry in its eyes, I couldn’t be upset with it for wanting to help me. I need to find out more about this world, just- figure things out .

“I think I heard about a trainer, Ash Ketchum-”

Rotom answered immediately “Bzzt, Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, the champion of Alola and reigning champion of the Master’s Eight tournament.”

It looks like I’m out of anime town at least . It was a relief in many ways - I hadn’t watched the anime in years and while I’d be tempted to get involved in the craziness and help ‘save the world’ a bunch, I wasn’t sure I wanted to leap into that. Out of curiosity, I decided to look up ‘Who is the current Paldean champion?’

That turned up a couple of different results, as I was reminded that Paldea had multiple trainers with the ‘champion rank’, rather than one champion. Skimming over some of their battles and team compositions, they seemed decent, but very few of them seemed ‘champion’ material, at least in my eyes. The ‘los Primero’ did seem slightly better, with a pseudo legendaries in Baxcalibur as his ace.

Blake Hogan. Never heard of this guy before . A bit more digging revealed why. Paldea hadn’t had a great run with champions in tournaments abroad the past few years. Oh sure, our ‘champion ranks’ did really well as elites in the other tournaments, but the bigger events, like the conferences and Masters Eight, they didn’t rank highly.

When I went to play some of the videos, Rotom pleasantly surprised me again by sending the video straight to the television, casting it without my input. “Thanks, Rotom.” Then I set about watching. There were other things I could be doing, panicking about my situation chief among them, but I decided to push that away for the moment and just enjoy myself.

These battles are fun. I enjoyed the games enough but… they were just games. So cool to see how they’re done for real . Terrain was employed quite well in these high level battles, using even little things like ground types breaking up the ground just to interrupt movement and reposition. There were still very flashy destructive attacks too, of course.

“What Move was that?” I wondered aloud as I saw a Zangoose move like she was going for a Slash, but then just sorta grab and squeeze the Mighteyena with her claws only.

“That was ‘Crush Claw’, I believe.” Rotom said. “Though I’m afraid I don’t know all the specifics of the move, I’m a Rotom Phone, not a Rotom Dex.” I blinked. But don’t they all have the app?

“What moves do you know?”

“Oh Bzzt, I have a decent knowledge. Absorb, Accelerock-”

“No no no,” I laughed. “What moves do you know ?” That seemed to flummox the phone for a moment.

“I am capable of Astonish, Double Team,… and I can probably do Thunder Shock.” It eventually said, the matches still ongoing as we spoke. Ouch, not a lot there. Rotom automatically gets a really strong attack in any form, but there’s only so much that one Move can do in a fight .

“Have you ever thought about battling? I bet with some training you could even wipe the floor with guys like that,” I said, pointing to the screen. Admittedly, I had waited until it showed a Grass Type that I felt fairly confident Rotom could beat with most of their different forms. Honestly, kinda surprised someone used an Arboliva to a tournament this high. I mean, clearly, this world is not the games. Pokemon aren’t limited to four Moves at a time and a small cliff isn’t an impenetrable barrier. Even a Pikachu can be worthy of World Champion, but… this trainer doesn’t look like she knows what she’s doing .

Her Pokemon was getting blasted around by the Turtonator her Alolan opponent had out, not able to mount a proper defense let alone offense. Arboliva’s ability was at least triggering to set up the field, but that was when the other trainer started dancing…

“… Ohh! It looks like Arboliva has been hit by a powerful blast and is out!!” The announcer said after Inferno Overdrive wiped out not only the olive pokemon, but also the field, burning down the Grassy Terrain she had tried to set up.

Rotom looked at me dubiously. “Thank you for the support young miss, but I don’t think I’d ever do something like that .”

“Well, that’s just cause you don’t know any Z-moves.” My own words gave me a sudden realization. That’s why we aren’t doing well in the high level tournaments - we don’t have the Terra Orbs! Just like the Pokedex App, they haven’t been invented yet .

It was hardly the only reason, admittedly. Kanto, Johto, and Sinnoh didn’t have an abundance of Mega Stones or any Z-Crystals and I assumed they were doing alright. It does mean I can’t rely on my knowledge of the world perfectly though. My knowledge in… Nemona’s body .

Nemona was a canon character in the latest mainline console Pokemon games, and arguably one of the most important. As you play the game, she’s your Rival, one of the first other characters you’re introduced to. She teaches the player the ropes of how to play the game, and brings you to the school and encourages you to fight gym battles and go against the Elite Four… so that in the end you can fight her, the Champion. Her battle tendency was legendary, much meme’d upon on the internet, but she’s definitely no slouch in a fight, constantly pushing the player until they can become a champion too.

What does it mean to be a major character? I’ll be involved in helping shut off the Time Machine, going down to Area Zero with the ‘player character’, Arven, and Penny. Should I change things? Can I change things?

My curiosity piqued, I researched the topic, curious to see what would be said about the mythical ‘Great Crater of Paldea’ in this world. To do that I grabbed toward my phone, before stopping as it hovered in front of me. “What can I help you with, bzzt?” Right, my phone is sentient now, that’s something I have to deal with .

“Uhh, just wanted to look some things up on the inter- on the PokeNet.” I hastily corrected myself. “Umm, I’ll just type them in myself, if you don’t mind.” They didn’t object, easily allowing me to hold their case and begin typing. I was just too used to doing so in my past life to try just asking Rotom to search everything up. In many ways, the PokeNet was similar to the Internet, though from a quick glance there were less search engines and social media. Many videos were available, mostly on Pokemon and I saw that Rotom was streaming such highlights from Pokevid, the videos uninterrupted as I trawled through the online world for information about the most dangerous place in Paldea.

A plethora of warnings, restrictions, and recommendations to avoid were the first thing that hit me, popping up on the first search. After acknowledging that I knew all the risks, what I got was a League site saying how any exploration to the Great Crater had to be League approved, and it didn’t sound like they approved of missions often or easily. The last time they had approved of a mission to the bottom, Area Zero, had been Heath’s expedition, 200 years ago.

On the other hand, considering how often historically any trips to Area Zero, trying to claim its ‘treasures’ have ended up just pouring money and lives down the drain, I do see where they’re coming from. Still, potential revocation of trainer license? That’s harsh. Then again, the price of failure there is usually death, so they have to hit you with something scary like potentially losing all your Pokemon to try and keep you out .

“Surely you aren’t considering going to the Great Crater, Nemona?” Rotom asked nervously, reminding me of his presence from the back of the very screen I was typing into. “If you’re looking for any rare Pokemon, I’m sure your parents can buy them for you.

I frowned. “No, I’m not going there. At least, not for a long time, till I’m grown up.” Or however old I’d be by the time Arven decides to go down there… again. Maybe I can at least pre-empt the first trip that would end up hurting Mabostiff?

That was still a lot to deal with so I elected to not do so. Which meant having to deal with the other thing I was trying to avoid. I’m in a different world. Different (plot relevant!) body. How did this happen? What should I do? More than just future plans, I had to think about how to blend in. I would probably get put in an asylum if I tried telling Nemona’s parents I was a thirty year old who ended up inside their daughter’s body. If they don’t think I’m some Psychic or Ghost type possessing her at least .

That worrying thought had me quickly scrambling to look up how likely such things were, as well as discreetly try and see how much of a ‘deathworld’ vs. ‘anime world’ this version of Pokemon was. Rotom will keep track of what I search at least, so I can try and search around for info on types of Pokemon in the wild, statistics, and stuff like that .

Despite Ash existing and all, it wasn’t a perfect anime world. There were certainly disappearances every year from young, inexperienced trainers out on their journeys. The numbers overall weren’t bad, however. Only a dozen or so every year from the Great Treasure Hunt. That’s pretty impressive considering just how big Uva Academy is, and how many people of all ages are considered students . The school, unsurprisingly, had some of the best records for such things. I knew it wasn’t a perfect picture, especially since they hardly advertised ‘people die here every year’.

Further investigation muddied the waters, however. So, a lot of the students, especially the older ones who act more as researchers, might not even leave the school library. One guy mentioned his ‘treasure’, a dusty old research scroll from the age of Paldean Kings and Queens found buried in a part of the library, and no sign he went anywhere else during that time. But also, some of the records show students disappearing off the records after the Hunt… but only because they went and found their treasure, which turned out to be like, a desire to be a baker or something and dropped out .

Still, I thought I had pretty good chances of surviving in this world, provided I kept my wits about me. There’s not a lot about specific types or regions to avoid either . Basic generalizations existed, Ghost types being ‘spooky’ and often seen as pranksters, for instance. Grass types having a tendency for nurturing personalities, etc.

‘Gimmieghoul’s are such pests. One of them confused me for a moment, forcing me to empty out my purse looking for a coin, then ignored all of my Poke Coins! I had to spend so long picking them back up.’ One blogger angrily posted. Huh, I guess no one has managed to evolve one into a Gholdengo then. Understandable - in the game you’d need to farm the specific coins off nearly every chest in Paldea to make enough. If all the Gimmie’s hoard part of the gold, no one could see what they evolve into .

The fact that the possession wore off, seemingly naturally, was also surprising to me. I investigated further and saw that most types of mind control or subversion were either ignored by people or quickly broken. Maybe humans developed natural defenses against such things? Like they did to other attacks? Changing tracks, I started looking at more wilderness videos than battle ones. It was still very Pokemon centric, but outside of the professional arena’s they demonstrated that people could survive a stray attack or two.

“Wow, that Magnezone is pretty strong,” I idly commented, having watched some nature documentary-esque videos as I researched. This one showed a Magnezone near the top of the ridge to the Great Crater scaring off some Braviary that flew by with some type of electrical attack I couldn’t name. That was about as close as any official videos got to the Great Crater, and even that one repeatedly warned the dangers and that they had a team of Rangers standing close by off camera. All this and Arven still snuck into the Great Crater. How desperate was he to see his parent?

“They can release powerful discharges of lightning, bzzt!” Rotom helpfully supplied. “Do you want a Magnemite when you’re older?” A pattern was already forming as I looked up the different Pokemon, especially any I stopped on or seemed interested in. Rotom would ask me if I wanted that Pokemon. I figured it was the equivalent of asking a kid ‘what (job) they wanted to be when they grew up.’

“Nah. They’re pretty tough and strong, but the double weakness to ground is killer- It’s rough. I really like Electric types that can eliminate their only weakness, like Eelektross or Rotom.” I think that Magnezone can use Magnet Rise as well to do that? But they’re pretty slow from what I remember, and time wasted in a battle is killer . “If those Braviary’s were better trained they could have hit it with a few Fighting moves and taken it out.”

On that note, I looked up how much a Life Orb cost and if it was a thing here, recalling that Braviary had Sheer Force which could combo well with it. Immediately after reading the price tag, I closed the tab. That is a lot of zeroes. I know I’m maybe rich now, but I’d feel guilty buying that… Even if Life Orbs are pretty cool .

“Dinner time!” Leah’s call came out, and I blinked, realizing that hours had passed in my research.

“Coming!” I yelled back and started scrambling for dinner. The sudden reminder made my belly growl and I was quite aware of how hungry I was all of a sudden. Washing up in the kitchen, I made my way through the house, running to where I recalled the Dining Hall to be. By the time I got there, I was puffed from the running. Okay, I know this house is big and I’m a kid now, but that’s kinda ridiculous. I have got to work on my stamina .

When I looked up, I took in the Dining Hall, getting the full picture of it beyond my blurry baby memories for the first time. A long table, capable of seating a dozen on each side was in the center of the room, an elegant tablecloth draped on top of it that looked fancier than some tapestries hanging on castle walls. Above it hung an elegant crystal chandelier that I could now recognize was in the shape of a Dragonair. Off to the sides stood a few butlers and maids, ready to take care of any request and bring out the food and plates to and from the kitchen. At the very end of the table three people were sitting down.

The two adults were dressed in some of the most garish outfits I’d ever seen. The woman was wearing a shoulderless dress suit, held up by a thin circular strap around her neck and had her white and dark yellow hair up in a bun. The man beside her had something close to some of the martial arts gi’s I’d worn in my previous life, but too fancy and flimsy for any combat sport. The cut of the robes wasn’t right for it either, and the shimmery gold quality to it and the belt didn’t work. His darker yellowish hair is put in a bob cut. Both of their outfits were made of a silky, eye-catching gold material with black diamond trim and patterns. Wait, there’s only one set of characters that can be this flashy. They’re…

“Surprise! We caught a quick flight back and made it in time for dinner.” O’Nare, my mother in this life, said, clapping her hands together.

“Yeah, and I had to wait for you and now Nims,'' the third, much younger person at the table said. I turned to look at her. She was about nine or ten years old, wearing a dark blue skirt and white blouse with lace trim that weren’t anywhere near as gaudy as our parents, but still screamed ‘incredibly wealthy’. She had long white hair, like O’Nare, but it hung loose down to her shoulders, with a single lock of red, much like my green ones, though on the opposite side.

It took me a moment to realize she was talking about me, at which point Billy - our father - said “Such stoicism, Cyan! That’s the Glitterati way, pushing through the hardships! But your sister is here now and the chef has cooked up some delicious lobster for us, so we don’t have to wait any longer.” He motioned to the chair on the other side of him and I rushed up, sitting down.

The meal was delicious, cooked to absolute perfection and I was ravenous. Enough so that I was nearly distracted from the fact that I’m a member of the Glitterati family. Oh boy. This is gonna be a wild trip .

As we ate, Billy and O’Nare, or rather ‘mother’ and ‘father’, regaled us with their trip to Johto. “The dancers put on a splendid show. And the use of special effects, to mimic the ‘burning of the sacred tower’. Incredible!” Billy said.

“Indeed. The girls were so in-synch with their eeveelutions.” O’Nare commented. Okay, so that is a term here, good to know . Then she turned to us. “What have you girls been up to?”

Cyan sat up straighter. “I’ve been studying the economics books you gave me. I’m already on chapter five. I think Nims has just been rolling around in the dirt.”

“Hey!” I said, affronted by what she said. I don’t think even the original was that bad, just overly focused on battles . “I’ve been looking up tons of stuff.” My childish lisp snuck in once again as I wasn’t paying enough attention, unfortunately undercutting my words. Billy and O’Nare didn’t seem to mind, but Cyan looked a bit disbelieving.

“Oh yeah? What’s the relationship between supply and demand then?” She asked. Our parents - Still so weird to think of them like that - tried to explain that I was too young, but I cleared my throat.

“I was mostly looking up Pokemon stuff, but the amount you have, or supply available, determines how much can be charged for it, or the demand, and vice versa, right?” Really not the best at Economics, but I think that sounds about right .

Billy clapped his hands together. “Well done, dear. Our daughter, the little genius. As expected of a Glitterati scion.” I blushed at the weird praise, while Cyan looked a bit shocked. Both him and O’Nare then launched into a lecture, explaining the reciprocal nature of both in much greater detail. They just seemed like ditzy tourists in the DLC, but I guess they don’t each run a massive national company by being dumb… at least when it comes to the details of those jobs .

‘Mother’ was the president of Paldea Realty, while ‘Father’ ran the Rotom Phone Company. When he brought up an example using his company and the phones they made, Leah chimed in from the side. “Nemona is actually quite interested in Rotoms. She mentioned some facts that even I didn’t know about earlier today.” The adults all turned to me, curiosity piqued, and even Cyan was looking at me questioningly.

Guess there’s no way to squirm out of this . “Uh, yeah. I just think they’re really cool in how they can change types based on what machine they possess. And they can also enhance the machine to use really powerful attacks based off of some appliances. That plus their Ability, Levitate, covers any weaknesses from the Electric side they always have, which makes them great battlers!” Was that too much? I hope it wasn’t .

Billy practically had stars in his eyes, holding a hand up to his face as if awed by my ‘brilliance.’ “That’s… correct! Rotom can do so much for us, it’s incredible! We designed the Rotom Phone to make best use of all of their incredible abilities - a regular machine would be burnt out in just a day being possessed by them. We actually make the Rotom Battle Catalog as well, and a number of other appliances for them to use. Not many Rotom’s like battling, however.”

I wonder why? From what I looked up most Pokemon enjoy fighting, in the wild or with trainers helping lead them. They say that all Pokemon have that drive to grow stronger, though few actually seek out to permanently hurt other people or Pokemon. Though that’s almost always followed by a warning on how territorial some Pokemon can be and to be cautious when traveling in the wilderness .

Dinner was finished and I was soon sent off to bed. It felt early, but given how crazy everything had been so far, I was happy to take the excuse.

The bedroom was almost castle-like to my memories from my old life. . A bed that reminded me of royalty took up the center back end of the room. It was adorned with silky curtains that gleamed almost marble-like as I could see the burl wood frame inviting me to sleep. There was an open box of toys on one side, with a mess of plastic Pokemon scattered nearby. Adorning another corner was a small table fit for a child’s tea parties with matching chairs. The closet (if you could call it one) was bigger than your old apartment. Clothes both fancy and functional lined the walls, and I wondered how much money went into the entire furnishings of the room. Thousands of dollars, or whatever the equivalent was the minimum cost for the extravagance in front of my eyes.

Leah quickly ushered me to bed, closing the curtains and cutting out the moonlight that had been streaming in. I didn’t resist, flopping down into the bed, too overwhelmed to even resist her unnecessarily tucking me in. Think that’s enough for tonight. Let’s see if I can wake up and find it was all a crazy dream tomorrow .

Chapter 3: Chapter 3

Chapter Text

Thoughts are in italics

It was not a dream, I found as I woke with a start, sweating and gasping for breath. It was hard to recall, the details slipping like water between my hands, but I remembered being out of place.

I was in an exam, for some university course that I had, somehow, missed half the classes for. I couldn’t understand the questions, and I’d have to tell my parents, but I hadn’t been in university for years now. I told my family about it, but they asked why I looked so weird. Then I walked up to a full-length mirror (a mirror we’d thrown out and remodeled the room years ago) and I saw-

Then I woke up here and - It’s all wrong. My room, my body, my home… It’s all gone .

The tears started flowing and I was crying, trying to hold back sobs that might wake up anyone else. It was still fairly dark, only a sliver of moonlight through the window illuminating my room, so I assumed they would all still be asleep. Not that my attempts managed much… but no one came anyway.

One upside to an enormous house I guess . I thought, in between remembered flashes of friends and family that I’d never see again. I managed to quiet myself down, but did not get back to sleep by the morning.

***

“All right, time for your lessons today, Young Miss.” Leah said with a smile plastered on her face. I understood why - it was hard to get me to focus on these things. Before, it might have been because I was an average, hyperactive young child. Now…

“If two Pawmi are charging a battery with ten volts of electricity each, and then another Pawmi starts charging it too, how many volts of electricity are they charging the battery with?”

“Thirty.” Now I’m just bored. Still, it shouldn’t be too much longer- Rotom made an alarm sound, hovering up in the air. “Ah, lesson’s over, thank you Leah!” I said, scrambling up, halfway out the door before I felt her hand on my shoulder.

“Where do you think you’re going, Young Miss?” She asked in a deceptively sweet tone.

“Outside? The lesson’s done so I was just going to run a bit-”

“Excellent, I’ll let the majordomo know and we can head out together.”

The staff took care of us very seriously, so I was under constant surveillance when I went outside. We walked off the estate and up the path to a nearby hill. The grassy plain rolled gently out before us and there was a long stretch of smooth ground that made for a decent running track, a few trees serving as makeshift markers to help me measure distance. Beyond that was another house, currently being renovated, and in about a decade? Would serve as the home of one the greatest trainers to grace this land, the player character.

“Could we go a bit further-” I began before she interrupted me.

“No, Young Miss,” she said firmly. “I don’t think we should wander farther away from home than this.” I bit back a groan and all the counterarguments sprang to the tip of my tongue. They won’t do any good. I’ve tried before, but she’s adamant on making sure I don’t get into trouble .

With a small sigh, I dedicated that frustrated energy to running. My new body was strong, and part of me wanted to practice martial arts, and split trees apart with my newfound strength!... The other, more sensible part of me recognized that I was only super strong by the standards of a five-year-old in my world, so I’d still need to grow a bit before I could do anything like that (and that Leah would freak out if I tried in front of her). The trainer part of me was analyzing my weaknesses and knew what I needed to work on.

After a few minutes of stretching, I began running, doing suicide runs, (approximately) 100 meter dashes, and laps around the hill. These runs were often interspersed by rest breaks, as my stamina was, frankly, terrible . Is this just part of being a kid again? No, I feel like even a normal child’s body wouldn’t get dead tired from a minute of running. At least the view is nice .

From where I sat, I could see the hill, sloping down towards my house and branching off on different routes towards the major cities of Paldea. Other hills rose up, blocking my view from here of the nearby Los Platos or Mesagoza, but I saw the top of the giant Pokeball tower from the pinnacle school off in the distance. On the other side, I was treated to an endless expanse of blue, the sea stretching out seemingly forever, sparkling in the sunlight. Saying it was nice, was probably an understatement, the view was spectacular, here and down at the beachside home.

Something else I found catching my eye even more than the gorgeous natural terrain around me were Pokemon. This location was supposedly quiet and calm compared to others (likely another draw and why my parents moved here), but there were still Pokemon all around me. In the skies, Wingulls sang freely and soared through the air, drifting lazily by, while Fletchings swooped around them, racing each other. On the ground, Lechonks milled about nibbling on grass, tiny Scatterbugs (yet still gigantic by my still adjusting standards of ‘bug’) tried to avoid being underfoot of the pig-like Pokemon or chased off by the more territorial Tarountula hanging down from tree branches. Out on the ocean, Buizel drifted on the surface, frolicking playfully with Finizen’s leaping out above the waves.

I can’t believe I missed all of this, even while I was disoriented remembering… everything . Those thoughts still haunted me at times, especially at night, keeping me up and asking questions I had no answers to. ‘How did I get here?’ ‘Why am I here?’ ‘Am I even myself still, or Nemona? Is she dead, or does she just have my memories? Is there a difference?’ However it had happened, no one was showing up to give me the answers, so I just had to keep on moving forward every day. Admittedly, an easier thing to do when you live a life as blessed as mine .

After an hour of exercise, I was marched back inside, as none of the maids or butlers wanted to spend hours on end just watching me run around, get tired, rest, and do it all again, over and over. Of course, while my body was busy, I was thinking and planning. I went straight online once I was done with my bath and no longer so sweaty.

Politics (international and local), technology, business, geography, history, and of course the factor that tied them all together and more: Pokemon . I had so much I wanted to learn about this wonderful world and began voraciously devouring every scrap of information I could get.

Some things were easy, a quick search on the Luugle (one of the main search engines the ‘Pokenet’ had) found the answer easily, for things like ‘Results of X or Y tournament’. Others I had to look through a few more articles. If I wanted to find ‘common migratory patterns of Girafarig in Paldea’, I’d have to look up a few different posts on forums and other sites and cross reference that with the Map App to get a clearer picture. And even then, that’s only because Girafarig is fairly common. Locations of Dragons like my beloved Axew are much closer kept secrets, with information on them scant .

I suspected there was some group intentionally obscuring this knowledge since I knew from the games that there was a lake in the north that had tons of Dragons roaming about, and plenty of Dragon trainers too. I suspected the latter was obscuring the former. Wasn’t Hassel part of a clan about that too?

Unfortunately, as much as I liked the game, I was pretty casual and thus did not seem to be blessed with the perfect knowledge that other self-inserts gained. Isn’t that why the genre exists in the first place? Future/meta-knowledge is the biggest cheat anyway, and I don’t even get all of that or the random superpowers everyone else gets? Unfair!

Aura was something I looked up extensively too, but to little avail. Most references about it were oblique, hidden things. Mentioning great trainers doing great things through ‘physical and mental focus’ or ‘bringing out their hidden potential to save the day.’ Hardly anything that would give me a place to begin. Honestly, I’m not too upset about it. Even at its best, it doesn’t feel like it lets you do much that a Pokemon wouldn’t be able to do better. Still, if I can find a teacher, I would like to learn it. Just seems cool to have, and every trick or skill or edge I can get, I want to aim for .

Anise, another of the maids looking after me and the house, came in to tuck me in for my nap. She was a bit older and a bit less enthusiastic about looking after me, unlike Leah, so when I said “Ok, I’ll go to bed now,” as I sat on the bed, I knew I didn’t even have to pull the covers over me before she had closed the door again and I could go back to my online explorations. To be fair, sometimes I do actually nap. Never really liked napping in my old life, but a child’s body works differently, and sometimes with the nightmares I don’t get as much rest as I’d like at night .

Today however I was feeling fine, and so I motioned for Rotom to come back to me. “Bzzt, are you sure you should keep on searching online? If I knew what you wanted I could compile some search results for you, Young Miss, bzzt.”

So weird to be referred to as ‘Young Miss’ here. Feels… like nobility or something, very much not what the majority of my memories are like. But I know Rotom means well and is just trying to help . “No thanks, I’m not even sure what I’ll want to look up next. There were some forums I wanted to respond to as well.” Rotom gave out a digital sigh but allowed me to peruse the sites. I knew if they actually wanted me to stop, they would just tell Leah or my parents.

My current search had to do with them, actually. My ‘parents’ had been so enamored by the performance they saw in Johto that they decided to buy nine Eevees after their trip, wanting to get their own set with the eight known evolutions and one base for their own little troupe. Not terrible in theory, but they’re not home often enough to see their daughter… uh, daughters I guess (still weird to think that about myself, but getting less). Let alone form the close bonds needed to evolve three of them into an Umbreon, Espeon, and Sylveon .

Besides, I’d hung out with the Eeevees. While it was hard for me to communicate exactly with Pokemon, with a bit of trial and error, I got the impression that the Eevee’s in question had different goals. Two of them were happy as they were, a third ambivalent. The fourth, fifth, and sixth were all hell demons ‘energetic’, and wanted to become Jolteons to be the fastest things around (and would often race each other to that end). The seventh wanted to be a Leafeon, and the eighth and ninth might have wanted to be Flareons, given how closely they huddled to the fireplace or oven.

I brought up my concerns with Leah at lunch today, and she just waved me off. “Oh yes. I imagine the Master and Mistress of the house will get bored of them soon and offer them to their friends or have Hamber sell them to someone else. Perhaps they’ll even offer some to the staff; I think Anise has been eyeing one of them. I raised an eyebrow at that. Anise has been eyeing the Leafeon wannabe not because she wants an Eevee or Leafeon, but because he has the fluffiest tail of the group and wants to use him as a duster . I was more perturbed by how easily they talked about buying or selling Pokemon.

In practice, buying or selling a Pokemon was seen as ‘acceptable’ because you were paying the person for ‘facilitating a good match’. Akin to how you’d pay a matchmaker, but on a more platonic level. Or at least I will always hope so and take great pains to avoid any parts of the Pokenet that go further than that . My worry came from the fact that the regulations I looked up to ensure these laws were upheld were… lax, to say the least.

Both human parties have to sign an official document and send it into the League for any official sale. But there’s nothing from there that guarantees any investigation of the matter! You could easily be putting a Pokemon where it doesn’t want to be, giving it to someone abusive. And there are clearly people who capture Pokemon, fellow sentient creatures, solely to sell them off! I tried posting some of my concerns online, to see if there was something I was missing or if others agreed with me that we needed better protections, but got a bunch of people shouting me down instead.

Things like: ‘Pokemon are way stronger than humans, wtf are you worried about?’

I’d answer: ‘A lot of Pokemon in their first stages are weaker or easily trapped, especially if the people catching them use other Pokemon to keep the newly caught ones in line.’ Which is kinda horrible to think about, but Pokemon are fully capable of thinking for themselves, which means they’re just as capable of being bastards to each other as people are .

They’d counter: ‘If the Pokemon doesn’t want to be there, they can just break out of the ball whenever they want.’

I’d respond: ‘They could be hundreds or thousands of kilometers away from their homes with no way to get back.’ Master Balls exist too, and while those are supposed to be highly regulated by the League, I wouldn’t be surprised if people with enough wealth and connections could get some. When I asked Leah about them, she just said they “were very fancy”, which makes me think she’s seen them before .

Also, I’d be accused of things like: ‘Are you just a Team Plasma wannabe? We won’t give up our Pokemon again for some mad scheme, loser.’

I’d say: ‘I do not agree with anything Ghestis or his cult at the top tried to do, but the base idea of trying to make sure Pokemon are protected is a good one, and one we should take steps to achieve.’ At least that maniac is gone. Most of the really evil teams have been dealt with already in this world . Pretty sure Rainbow Rocket never showed up in Alola this timeline though, so I should keep an eye out if they pop in with a bunch of failed other evil team bosses (and Ghestis) .

Some more moderate posters said: ‘Don’t they track how Pokemon are traded? You can’t trade more than a couple dozen every year, so why would anyone try and get involved in that?’

I’d argue: ‘Some rare Pokemon are traded for vast sums each. Also, there’s no limits on how Pokemon are gifted to others, which means you could ‘give’ them to people working with you, letting you catch and trade hundreds through proxies.’ I understand not wanting to limit how Pokemon that are passed on within families as people would get quite upset if they had a beloved Pokemon in their family they grew up with and wanted to take on their journey. But some of the ‘top rated’ traders seem suspiciously like there’s one barely legal poacher and a bunch of cousins and close friends working with them .

One interesting reply: ‘Pokemon are to be protected from abuse. If you see someone hurting a Pokemon or other suspicious activities, then please report them to the League right away, and we’ll do our best to investigate.

Edit: and thank you for the information on traders that might be looking to skirt the rules, I’ll look into that.’

Gratefully, I said back: ‘Thank you for the hotline number, I appreciate it.’ At least someone is taking my claims seriously. Ah, this user is tagged as an Official Member of the Pokemon League, username… League_Official_Geeta, that makes sense. Huh, guess she isn’t a Champion rank or Chairwoman yet. I wonder when that’ll happen?

Eventually, I gave up on trying to scream into the void and stopped posting on the forums, though I did keep a bit of an eye on them… by which I meant I had Rotom look into it. I felt guilty, but Rotom quickly tried to reassure me. “Bzzt, it’s no problem young Miss. I can automatically alert you if anything comes up. I often scroll these forums anyways- ahem. I mean bzzt, that I…”

I waved him off. “It’s fine if you want to spend some time online. I know I do plenty of that too. What do you tend to look up anyways?”

Rotom blushed, which I was not aware was something they could do, possessing a phone and all. “Just some stuff looking into artificially created Pokemon bzzt. Porygon can also inhabit machines like I can bzzt, but in an entirely different way. Bzzt, I also like listening to Ryhme’s raps.” They admitted.

“Cool.” Rap wasn’t my favorite genre of music, but I did like some of the Youtube ciphers back in my old world that had some Pokemon-based raps and Rhyme was pretty good at what she did. “She’s a Ghost type gym leader too, right? Makes sense you’d like her.”

“Actually, you’re mistaken, bzzt.” I blanched as I realized that was a bit of future knowledge I’d mixed up again. “It’s her sister, Tyme, that's the Rock-type Gym Leader though, so that’s an easy mistake to make, bzzt.”

Hearing the sounds of footsteps approaching the door, I quickly assumed the position of a good, sleeping girl for Anise to ‘wake’ me up for dinner.

Dinner was an interesting affair, to say the least. While I was getting used to the extravagance of our home, and I could definitely appreciate the delectable food, my family was a different story…

“And earlier today, I think I saw… a commoner ,” Billy said in tones one might use to say they had encountered a Legendary, to a level of shock from his wife which matched that, who gasped out loud.

“No! Really?”

“Yes! It was just for a moment, I think they mumbled something about getting lost from the touring group, and by the time I had rubbed my eyes in disbelief, they were gone!” Despite being in an anime-esque world, somehow a giant drop of sweat did not appear on my forehead at the ridiculousness of this all. They do know they’re surrounded by commoners right now, don’t they? The staff counts too .

I looked over at Leah, who caught my glance and slowly but firmly shook her head and raised a finger to her lips, warning me to keep quiet. Laughing, I took a quick sip of water, to hide my reaction, and my new ‘sister’ rolled her eyes. Either at me or our parents, it was hard to tell.

The topic moved on, and they addressed us. “Girls, why don’t you tell us about your days?” O’Nare brightly asked myself and Cyan.

Cyan spoke up first, eagerly puffing up with pride. “My tutors taught me algebra. They said I was very advanced for being able to solve for ‘X’ right away.”

Billy clapped his hands together. “Yes, bravo! Truly you’re a shining star of the Glitterati family.”

“Those lessons will do you well in calculating the values needed, for income tax or phone shipments.” O’Nare added. “Have you decided which business you want to pursue?” Jeez, isn’t that a bit much? She’s only eleven .

“Uhh…” The white-haired girl said, frozen like a deer in the headlights. Yes, I’m still going to call them ‘deer’, regular animals exist in this world too you know! They’re rare, and we can only eat meals like this rib-eye steak because our parents are so rich, but still. A lot of the phrases wouldn’t even translate well - ‘sheepish’ works because sheep are often a little nervous and can’t conjure lightning to electrocute you! And also don’t grow up to become a kangaroo dragon thing. Man, the Mareep line is pretty weird, though kinda cool .

Seeing that my sister was still floundering, I decided to step in. “I had a good day today,” I announced loudly. “I ran a lot and lasted a bit longer than yesterday, and then I looked up a bunch about Pokemon battling.”

I knew Cyan looked up to our parents a lot, which is why she never wanted to disappoint either one of them. They were also busy enough with work that we basically only saw them at dinner time.

Despite that, she didn’t seem to appreciate my save, sneering in a manner that would be subtle… for an eleven-year-old. “What good is looking up Pokemon battles?”

“Plenty, considering I’m gonna be the Champion.” I fired back. You can have both of our parents' companies, battling is all I need. Well, not all I need, but, I mean who could get reborn into Pokemon and not want to ‘be the best?’ We all gotta want that, at least a little bit . Part of that desire might also be coming from the original Nemona, I didn’t know. I doubted I would be quite as crazed about battling as her (or at least, would probably conceal it better if I was), but this was definitely what I wanted.

“I think you mean ‘champion ranked trainer’,” Cyan tried correcting, though she was still a bit off-balanced by my declaration.

“No, not just Champion ranked, the strongest Champion. I’ll be the next La Primera!” The title Nemona always should have had in the games, being a far greater challenge than Geeta was. Honestly, I felt like the only reason she wasn’t declared as such was because Geeta didn’t want there to be that much pressure placed on a teenager's shoulders. But I’m not really a kid, am I? I’ll be able to take it all on when the time comes .

“Oh how magnificent! With your drive you’ll make for an excellent champion!”

“How spectacular! Aim for the top to always push past your limits!”

Billy and O’Nare exclaimed and I could practically see the stars in their eyes. Isn’t this a bit much for a child just randomly saying they want to be a Champion? I mean, they aren’t wrong here, I have the drive and the skill to do so, especially if I get started now - did they see all of that instantly from just a few words? I eyed them suspiciously for a moment before shaking the thought away as silly.

Abruptly, Cyan pushed her chair back. “I’m not hungry any more,” she mumbled, her eyes growing wet. Before she could break out into tears she rushed off, practically running from the room.

“Hmm, well it is good not to overeat when you’re at your limit,” O’Nare said. I (barely) resisted the urge to face-palm. Yeah, they love us but they aren’t the most perceptive. Not that noticing the problem helps me solve it. How do I live up to Nemona’s potential while not stifling her sister’s?

It was a question I couldn’t figure out the answer to over dinner, or before I went to bed that night. Despite that and other things weighing me down, I was happy with the day. Every day I’ll grow and learn a little more, until I become… me, whoever that is .

***

That was the average day I’d settled into in the first few months of having my restored memories, but it couldn’t stay that way forever.

Chapter 4: Chapter 4

Chapter Text

With a grunt, I managed to shove the last toy into the box, the container practically bursting at the seems(but all the toys placed in such a way that wouldn’t damage any of them, of course), before closing the lid shut. Then I began pushing it over to the corner of the room where my little kiddie table was.

“Bzzt, are you sure about this?” Rotom asked hovering concernedly over me. Grunting, I pushed the box over to the corner.

“Whew.” I know my stamina still isn’t great, but I can understand being tired at pushing that thing around. It was like a treasure chest full of toys! An adventuring party could easily find 100 gold pieces worth of children’s toys in there . I chuckled to myself before waving off Rotom. “Nevermind just thought of something funny. As to what you were saying, it’s fine. I need to make some space for the new desk that’s coming in today, and it’s not like I’m throwing the toys out or anything.”

That statement was half true; realistically, I could have easily fit the desk into my room and had a corner full of plushies, spin tops, action figures, and more. I’d been hesitant to move, even touch any of them at first. As days passed, I grew to accept my situation, at least enough to start living and interacting with the pieces of Nemona’s life before I remembered everything. Treating everything like a mausoleum had been depressing.

I even tried playing with them. Unfortunately, children’s toys just weren’t that interesting to me anymore. Many were probably just bought on a whim and made of cheap material. I had fleeting memories of her, or maybe better said would be my past self, seeing an add of t.v. or a toy in a stand and asking for it immediately. This is why my room is so full of junk!! Even the better ones just weren’t that fun to play with. Nothing like Lego existed in this world, which was the first time I was actually disappointed with it compared to my previous world.

Grabbing a pen and paper from the small table, I wrote down: ‘Note to self - make Lego’. It joined a pile of other papers I had there. Several other half-formed ideas and plans were there. Stories, some ‘original’ and others adapted from my world were being plotted out. It was difficult as many themes didn’t fit this world or needed adjustment to fit and hopefully one day achieve the same success they had in my world.

Rotom had offered to help, and I did take them up on it a lot, transcribing some of my ideas, but I liked writing. The act of putting pen to paper, or keystrokes to keyboard, helped me better envision what I wanted and was thinking of. This was part of why I was getting a desk, I was writing so much that I needed a place to properly sit down and work.

Looking at my messy table, I started gathering and organizing the different papers into their piles. Mostly it was based on how far developed they were and the like, but there were some personal papers like a journal I’d taken to writing. I never really wrote in journals before outside of school assignments, but I figured this would be good, to look back at once I’d been here for many years (and all signs pointed to me being in this for the long run). It also helped remind me in oblique ways about my future/past meta-knowledge. Of course, I had more direct notes on those things, legends, and myths that I knew to be oh too true, but those papers were hidden away.

Like the locations of the four Treasures of Ruin. The Beads, Tablets, Vessel, and Sword. While I know that others can research them and theoretically find the seals, I don’t believe anyone has yet, much less know where all the stakes are. Admittedly, my memories on the stakes locations are vague, but I also know the requirements for how one could pull them out. You could just take a child to them and have the innocent kid release powerful Darkness on the land. Not that they don’t have an effect already .

I had previously theorized that humans had developed resistance to Psychic powers or Ghostly possession over time, but I have since revised that. While it was likely somewhat true, it was only to the same degree that people in this world were naturally a bit tougher. There were much greater signs of such danger and more stringent laws and countermeasures in other countries. Some professors had theorized that Paldeans were simply more ‘naturally’ resistant to such things, but I had other ideas on the matter. Historical accounts list the old Kings and Queens of often being despots and make allusions to them using Psychic Pokemon to coerce their rivals. But that all ended a thousand years ago. The same time the Treasures were sealed .

It was all conjecture on my part, but Legendary Pokemon had a significant effect on the world around them. Who was to say that even sealed, the four Legendary Dark type Pokemon didn’t have a similar effect on Paldea? Their energies were diffuse, so not enough to stop or even weaken such attacks in battle, but slowly would break down any mental hold a Ghost or Psychic type might establish over a few hours or days.

“What’s ‘Lego’?” Rotom asked, peering down at what I just wrote.

“Oh, It’s an idea I had for some toys. They’re designed in interconnecting colorful plastic bricks of different shapes and sizes so you build them together to make all sorts of structures. Ideally, they’d be sold in pre-designed sets, with instructions on how to make a certain or a couple of different designs. But you could also buy bulk pieces and mix and match pieces from sets to make anything you want!”

“Why are they called ‘Lego’ though, bzzt?” They asked. Ah, right, can’t say it’s knowledge from a toy company from another world .

“Uhh, because they need to be sturdy to connect well, but that also means that the bricks will sometimes get stuck together when you’re trying to disassemble them. So you might yell ‘let go’ alot.”

“I see,” they said in a tone that indicated they very much did not. Still, they added “bzzt, this seems like quite an inventive idea. I look forward to seeing you develop this.” It’s just an idle thought, not sure if I’ll have the time to start a big company like that or anything. But I could ensure that Bioncle lasts longer- no, I have to focus on becoming the Champion!

“Right. Thanks, Rotom.” Then a message sound interrupted both of us. “What was that?” It was unusual for anyone to send me a message, at least beyond Billy or O’Nare occasionally letting me know directly that they wouldn’t be able to make it back home in time for dinner/before my bedtime. If they even remembered to send that. They try to see us every couple of days or so, and I get how their jobs would keep them busy. Still not sure it’s the best for raising kids, no matter how pampered we are. At least they aren’t forcing me to wear the same gaudy outfits they do . Even outside of vacation wear, Billy and O’Nare’s outfits had way too much gold for my tastes.

“Bzzt, it looks like they’re planning on changing your schedule. You’ve been doing so well and flying ahead in your studies that they’re planning on teaching you the same curriculum as the Young Master.” Rotom was beaming while I was internally despairing.

No no no, this is bad. It means I’ll have less time to write in my own notes and plans. Sure, it means I can avoid the dreaded ‘finger painting’, but I was pretty much able to do that already, just asking for a brush whenever given that as part of my ‘studies’. It just caused my tutors to ‘ooh’ and ‘aww’ over how smart I was… which is probably part of why I’m stuck with this! More importantly though, Cyan… My new sister, Cyan, was the one any of the staff referred to as ‘Young Master.’ She was nice enough, but had been getting more and more upset recently, and directly proportional to how much people had begun praising my ‘brilliance’.

She’s quite intelligent and diligent for a ten-year-old. I can totally see how she’d end up taking over for her parents - our parents - in the future. It’s hardly fair for anyone to compare her to me though. But how do I avoid that?

“Hey, Rotom, can we go see Cyan?”

“Hmm bzzt. She is in the middle of her studies right now…”

“Which means it’s perfect for me to see what it’ll be like! C’mon,” I said, quickly moving past any of their concerns and to Cyan’s room. Knocking once, I entered.

Her room was fairly similar to mine. Way too big, a light fixture far too fancy to be in a child’s bedroom, and with a massive bed and walk-in closet. Where it differed was the fact that it had a bunch of bookshelves about three feet high, filled with a variety of books, and on top of which sat her toys. The walls were also painted a light blue, which I thought looked better than the orange in my room. It also had a desk where Cyan was sitting at, having turned to glare at me.

“Nims, what do you want?” She asked, seeming annoyed by my intrusion. She had been hunched over a set of books on mathematics. In my best ‘little sibling’ attitude, I hopped up onto her desk (which was large enough that even with her books spread out it had space and the structural integrity for me to sit on it).

“I wanted to see what you’re doing. Rotom said I’m gonna be studying the same stuff as you are, so I wanted to see it.” Rotom diligently floated up, a look on their ‘face’ that tried to show how they had tried to stop this and how discomforted they were by it all. For just a set of eyes and a mouth, they do a surprisingly good job of it .

“What!?” Cyan shrieked. “How could they think- you’re five!” She said, as if that explained everything. In a way it kinda does, but I just need you to play along a bit .

“Yeah! Ooh, what’s this stuff?” I asked, looking at one of the sheets she’d been working on. It was mostly multiplication or division, but there were a few algebra questions on it too at the bottom.

She snatched the paper out of my hands. “This is far too advanced for you. Do you even know your multiplication tables?”

“Uhh, Rotom, bring up multiplication tables.” I said, doing my best to sound innocent.

“Yes young mis-”

“No! Rotom, stop that!” Cyan yelled, stomping her feet. I noticed she was wearing little white shoes to go with her white sundress today. “That’s cheating.”

Rotom looked torn between the two of us, before eventually something in my expression caused them to turn to Cyan. “Yes, Young Master. I’m sorry Young Miss, but you’ll need to solve these problems on your own.”

“Aww,” I faux pouted for about half a second before perking up again. “Alright, what are the questions?”

Cyan looked a bit dazed at the quick turnabout but quickly recovered. “Fine, if you have seven great balls, and you sell them for seven hundred Pokedollars each, how much will you make? Ah, going for a word question right away to trip me up. 4900 is the answer, but I don’t want to get it right. 7700? 770? Those seem like answers a child would get and be completely wrong… but that might be a bit too suspicious, given they’re only thinking of moving me up so far in the first place because of how smart I’d shown myself to be .

My attempts at ‘disguising’ my intelligence had thus far not gone well… mostly because I gave up trying less than a week in. There was just way too much to learn to hold myself back that much! But I needed to, here. After a minute of seeming deep in thought about the question, I said: “Four hundred and twen- no, four thousand two hundred.”

Rotom looked surprised, while Cyan was gleeful. “Nope! It’s four thousand nine hundred,” she proudly declared. She gave me a few more questions of lesser difficulty. I got some right, but plenty wrong before my sister said “I think this might be a bit much for you. Now quit bothering me so I can get back to work.” Then in a softer tone, she added “We can hang out after, ok?”

“Okie dokie,” I responded cheerfully before heading out. Alright, that’s one problem dealt with-

Rotom waited until outside the hallway to cut into my thoughts. “That was very kind of you, Nemona.”

“H-huh?” I stuttered turning to face the Plasma Pokemon.

“Don’t worry, bzzt. I won’t tell your parents about this.” ‘ About the fact that I purposefully failed at answering those questions’. I’m surprised that Rotom saw right through me . “I still think you’ll be moved up to some more advanced material though, if not surpassing Young Master quite yet,” They continued.

Part of me felt bad that I hadn’t been nearly sneaky enough. I knew I’d be different with all these memories in my head, but had hoped that some things would just be brushed off as growing up, or like my working out, be seen as close enough to Nemona’s usual hyperactivity to be waved off. Mostly though, I was just glad to have an ally by my side.

“Thanks, Rotom.”

“Ahem.” We both whipped around to see Cyan glaring at us.

“Ah, Cyan. Uhh, how much of that did you hear-”

“All of it!” She snapped walking angrily towards me. I took a step back, caught between fight-or-flight instincts. “You barely left my room before you started bragging about how you tricked me!”

Tears were starting to well in her eyes and I needed to deflect her anger fast before it spiraled out of control. “You were out of my line of sight! That meant you stopped existing!”

“Wha- No! You have object permanence, I know it!” Sticking out my tongue a bit might have helped her deductions along there. Her rage evaporated (for the moment) and was replaced with exasperation and annoyance, she grabbed me and we wrestled for a moment, as siblings are wont to do.

She was much taller and stronger than me, but I had grappling experience from over two decades of martial arts practice. I didn’t try to use any serious moves (she was just trying to noogie me after all), but even with a better understanding of weight, force, and joint motions, I was just able to avoid getting pinned down too long, not turn the tables on her.

After a minute of that, we were both panting, tired. Damn, I guess low stamina runs in the family . “Hah, hah. How can you be better at this too ? It’s not fair.” She whined, and I heard a small sniffle too.

Well, she’s not angry now, but sad isn’t much better. Maybe I can clear things up… without revealing too much of myself. I don’t think she could handle it if she found out I was someone else reincarnated as her sister. Or her sister given all these other memories, or whatever . A part of me also wondered if I was just using that as an excuse because I didn’t want to see how they would react, but I shut that part of me up.

“Can we talk in your room?” I asked. She frowned but nodded, and we walked back inside.

She sat down on her massive four-corner bed, making it clear that despite the vast amount of space on it, there was no room for me . “What do you want? To rub it in my face how much smarter than me you are?” Sullen, but not back to angry, yet at least .

“No, I just… wanted to explain. You’re intelligent too, and you don’t need to compare yourself to me.”

“I don’t know all those stupid little facts that you know!”

“If they’re stupid, why does it matter if I know them?” I countered.

“Argh! Because everyone else thinks that you’re so great, and they’re all looking at you and talking about you. They don’t look at me that way.” Close, but we aren’t at the heart of the issue. I think I need to push a bit to get her to bring them up first though .

“People are dumb. They think that knowing some things are ‘worth’ more than other things.” A nuclear physicist might say that knowledge of Pokemon was frivolous, but how would they fair if they then ended up in this world? “Besides, they’re only acting that way because it’s new. Give it a bit, and they’ll all just take it as fact, be disappointed when I don’t live up to the new expectations they set for me.”

That was something I was actually worried about, and part of why I still wanted to learn so much. I liked living up to expectations, doing the right thing. This was all fake, though. A bit of extra experience and maturity didn’t intrinsically make one a genius, so I have to keep on studying and learning to try and present myself as the genuine article. Though, to be fair, I enjoy learning too. It’s an incredible world here .

“So you say. Mom and Dad are still paying attention to you and not me!” Cyan spat out.

“They’re… honestly they aren’t paying great attention to either of us. They don’t see me any more often than they do you. And they care about you and what you do too! They’d be thrilled to have you running the Rotom Company and the Paldean Realty Group!”

“But what if I don’t want that?! I just want them to, to notice me.” That got her to curl in on herself, tucking her legs up and wrapping her arms around her knees.

I took it as an invitation to sit with her on the bed. “That’s a tough one. They do care for us, but they aren’t the best at noticing… things.” Understatement of the century . “Just try to be yourself and talk to them when you can. I’m sure they’ll appreciate anything you do.”

“Stop showing off then.” My sister grumbled and I huffed in response.

“It’s not like I’m trying to. Honestly didn’t want this in the first place, happier just to try and discover things at my own pace, hoping from topic to topic as I could find them online.” It was hard to just focus on one thing, and I’d find my mind would drift to something else if given a moment. I’d had that problem somewhat in my old life, but it was amped up now, in Nemona’s child-body.

“Try harder,” was Cyan’s unhelpful ‘advice’. She blew the few red strands of hair that had fallen down out of her face and added “I wish I had something super cool that I could show off too. What happened to make you so smart and, and… self-assured.”

“Hey, none of that. You’re plenty smart too.” Not many other 11-year-olds would use ‘self assured’ . “As for seeming confident, that’s all it is.” Lowering my voice as if letting her in on a big secret I added “It’s that way for everyone else too. No one really knows it all, some people are just better at pretending than others.”

“What about mom and dad?” She shot back, able to argue back even while feeling down on herself.

“They don’t know everything either, they just… are so good at pretending they fool themselves.” Hope that was a polite enough way to say ‘your parents are kinda idiots.’ Our parents. sh*t . When that did not cheer her up, I added “Look, we just have to show them something cool you can do too. I’m sure they’ll appreciate that.” Of that, I had no doubt. The Glitterati’s weren’t malicious, just a bit oblivious.

“I can’t do anything better than you, so what’s the point?” She said, her words muffled as she found a pillow on her bed, and was lying face-down on it.

You’re better at guilt tripping than me , I thought but didn’t say. With a sigh, I calmed down and tried to think of something that would help. Getting up, I marched over to her desk, and after a moment of cursing my currently tiny body, climbed up on top of the chair to look at her work.

“You won't find anything special there,” she moaned. In one way, she was correct - her work was quite good but hardly ‘special’. I could spot a few tiny errors in some of her math here and there. But in the margins on her pages, I saw something quite interesting.

“Wait right there, I’ve got something I need to show you.” Without waiting for a response, I rushed into my room, grabbed some of the papers I had sorted, and then ran back. “So, I had this idea for a comic, about a guy who was-”

“Is this just you doing more bragging?” She interrupted me.

“No, I was getting to it. So I had this idea for a superhero comic and- well look at my drawing.” I held out two pages to her. One was her studies with an intricately drawn flower in the corner, while mine was…

“That looks like a fine Magmar to me,” Cyan co*cked her head to the side, trying to figure out what the problem was.

“Uhh, that’s supposed to be a man in an Ariados themed costume.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. So, I’m not the greatest artist, at all. But I have visions, ideas of stories I want to tell. They could use your help to make them come to life. Can we… can we work together on this?” Can we stop being enemies? Please?

The white-haired girl sat still for a minute before she got up and shook her head. Not in disagreement, but more like she was shaking out all the bad thoughts from before. “Alright, tell me what you want to see. Your ‘vision’.”

“Awesome!” I pumped my fist in the air. “Ok, so Petey Parkour is bitten by a mystical Spinnarak one day, and after feeling sick for a bite, he suddenly finds himself imbued with incredible powers…”

***

“Hey, mom, dad, we have something to show you.” I said before we sat down for dinner. Cyan was standing by my side, looking pretty nervous, but there was a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

“Oh? What do you have for us?” O’Nare asked.

Pulling out the comic from behind my back I presented it to them. “Ta da!” It was only a dozen pages long, and she hadn’t had time to color any more than the front page of our first issue of the ‘Amazing Fantasy’ comic, but there were the fruits of our labor.

Billy joined her as they took the papers and started reading through them. They were for one of the first times I’d seen them, completely silent. Cyan’s grip on my hand tightened and she looked about to say something, probably to apologize, but I shook my head. Don’t worry that it’s bad. You did a great job with Spider-Man .

“This. Is. Incredible!!!” Billy and O’Nare exclaimed together.

“We need to put this in a glass case so it never gets damaged!” O’Nare said.

“We need to start a magazine company and start selling this to the world right away!” Billy declared.

They grabbed us both in a big hug as they each made ever prouder declarations, though with different ideas from them. Are they just coming up with a bunch of stuff and bouncing off each other or arguing? Hard to tell, they’re too happy about it .

“No, no, it’s just a first try, we haven’t even got any villains or anything in there yet- it’s not even fully colored!” Cyan rambled. From the way her face was as red as the one non-white lock of hair she had, I could tell she was embarrassed. The wide grin she couldn’t help but keep on her face showed how happy she was, though, and I couldn’t be happier either. Maybe it’s not so bad, being reborn into this family .

Chapter 5: Chapter 5

Chapter Text

My schedule did change a bit with my tutors giving me more advanced assignments. Occasionally they’d come in person, but most just held the sessions over video call. I wasn’t sure if it had to do with the Ghost (Type) within the machine or some other technical advancement in this world, but such video calls went very smoothly and never had lag or connectivity issues.

More things than just my study curriculum changed. Honestly, doing the work of a third grader wasn’t all that different for me than that of a kindergartener. Especially with Rotom helping cover for me, I can still spend tons of time looking up battles and stuff!

As one would expect, battling was not like it was in the games. One glance at competitive matches showed that. “Look at Champion Iris go! This is her Hydregion’s fifth Draco Meteor!” Despite that, the three-headed monster gave a mighty cry, the attack rained down as strong as the first attack had, only looking a bit more winded than before. Stat changes aren’t as permanent or strictly defined as they are in the games. Some boosts only last a little while, some debuffs can with the right training, just tire out the Pokemon a bit more instead .

No turn order or Move set limitations like that meant that people fought in very different ways. Oftentimes I’d see someone give an order to do an attack that wasn’t super effective, or even was not very effective, just because it was faster, or had better range than an attack that in a turn-based game, wouldn’t have been the right choice. Of course, sometimes even in professional battles, mistakes are made, or adapted around .

It was a subject of much debate in online communities, looking back on big matches to see what strategies were good, the best for the time, or actually incorrect, all viewed through the lens of hindsight. I decided to try and watch a lot of these famous battles before researching what people thought of them after the fact, comparing my insights at the moment to those of the wider world later.

“Bzzt, that’s the third Iris video you’ve watched in the last hour. Do you really like her?” Rotom inquired. I’d gotten more used to the device I was watching, asking me questions and occasionally commenting on what I was doing. It was actually quite nice, having a friend constantly around and interested in what I was into.

“Hmm? Oh, she’s fine. Her Pokemon are what are truly impressive though.” Admittedly, I really liked Dragon Types - hardly an uncommon sentiment from kids my age… but I wasn’t exactly ‘my age’, was I?

Oh well, they’re cool as heck. Maybe I’m ‘basic’ for liking Dragon Types, for Charizard being my favorite starter, but they’re popular for a reason .

“Her Hydergion is quite, uh, something, bzzt. Do you like it?” They had an odd lilt to their voice as they asked the question as if they were nervous or something.

“Oh, it’s pretty cool.” Hydregion was definitely up there on my list of favorite Pokemon. Almost all of the pseudo-legendaries are awesome . “A shame that it’s got that double weakness to Fairy though. But, to be fair, most dragons have one double weakness.”

“They do, bzzt?”

“Yeah, Dragons are naturally weak to Ice, and a ton of them are dual Flying Typed, which also has that weakness- oh, it’s here!” I interrupted my train of thought to focus on the main star of this video. Gleaming in greenish-yellow scaled plating, a black underbelly, and crimson-tipped claws and tusks, Haxorus gave a mighty roar as he entered the field.

“Dragon Dance, then use Dragon Claw!” The Unovan champion shouted, and her dragon followed the command with grace. It managed to make the sinuous movements of dragon dance align with dodging the opposing Gengar’s Shadow Balls, and then rush ahead at lightning speed with its glowing claws, rending into the ghost and knocking it out in seconds.

“Woohoo!” I cheered, watching her Haxorus sweep the rest of the team. I already knew how this battle was going to end, having seen the results online before, but it was fun to watch, and informative. The end results didn’t let me see the techniques and tricks used to achieve those results.

“You really like Haxorus, don’t you.” It wasn’t so much a question as it was an observation from Rotom, but I explained a bit more anyway.

“Oh yeah, they’re probably my favorite Type of Pokemon. So fast and strong, a physical powerhouse! Here, he’s using Outrage, one of the strongest Moves a Dragon Type can learn…” I rambled on as the match continued, extolling the virtues of Haxorus. The one reason I didn’t mention loving them for was probably the most relevant, however.

Haxorus was one of my most memorable team members from the games. I trained up an Axew in Pokemon White on my first playthrough. The XP balance was wack in that game, so it took forever to train him, but I wanted a Haxorus for the Elite Four. Then came N with his giant castle summoning trick, and I fought through Plasma and captured Zekrom. I thought I had to put Zekrom on my team, but when I tried to refuse, I found out I could! So I boxed Zekrom, and kept my original team up against N. Haxorus was up first, against Reshiram, and when he managed to just barely beat a Legendary on his own… It was incredible. One of the greatest moments I’ve ever had in a game. And now I get to live it for real!

As the video ended, Rotom reminded me “Bzzt, you’ve got some more work planned with Cyan, don’t you? You should probably get changed out of your pajamas.” They not-quite reprimanded. On the one hand, it was past noon, but on the other, my new pajamas were super comfy. On the third hand, so were my other clothes. On the fourth hand, to round out the Machamp dilemma-based metaphor, I hadn’t had to go out yet today as I just had some online assignments I completed early on, but could probably change now.

Dismissing Rotom who had some ‘things to discuss with Leah’, I got changed. My caretakers had taken note of my sudden changes (mostly just chalked to ‘growing up’) and made sure to start buying fewer dresses, thankfully. These days I wore pretty much just cargo pants and t-shirts. Hoodies when it was a little chilly. It was colder when I first remembered my past life, but as summer was coming and it got warmer, I started wearing shorts more often. It’s funny, I didn’t like shorts at all in my old life, at least not on me. I don’t mind them here. Might change as I grow up though . A prospect I was still dreading, but there wasn’t anything I could do to avoid it.

Getting changed, I walked over to my sister’s room and found her in there watching a stream. Not wanting to interrupt her and knowing it was about five minutes from the end, I just settled in beside her, pulling up the other chair in the room. She loved streamers, as I found out and with our much-improved relationship, she would invite me to watch some with her.

Iono was already around, and had a sizeable following but wasn’t super popular yet, still a little too early for her to hit the ‘big leagues’. Likewise, she wasn’t a Gym Leader either, but I knew much could change in ten years.

I wasn’t too keen on any of them, but there were plenty of streamers Cyan adored on the Pokenet. She liked this one streamer called ‘Garbinator’. His gimmick seemed to be reviewing things and either calling them ‘Spicy’ or ‘Garbodor’, and would toss whatever the product or CD was of the bad stuff to his Garbodor, who would happily chew it up. I get the idea of listening to someone else review the thing, but these are pretty much just reaction videos that cover 90% of the show, spoil everything, and somehow get more views than the original content! I don’t even like watching sports that much since it means I’m not there, doing the cool thing . Watching Pokemon battles was fine though, since it could give me more ideas on how I’d train up my future team.

I invited her to train and go on runs with me a few times, but she gave up after one outing. She barely even did as much as I did, and that’s like, half of what I could manage working out back in my first world! Admittedly, half of what a fit adult could do is probably pretty impressive by most standards. Something in me churned every time I’d see a video of the massive destructive powers a truly experienced Pokemon could manage. I might not be able to do that, but I know there’s so much further that I can go than where I am now .

After the stream was done, Cyan turned to me and said “Why do you have to wear stuff like that?” She said glaring down at my cargo pants. “It’s so unfashionable!” She didn’t sound as scandalized as the first time she had seen me in them, but this was clearly a battle she wasn’t going to give up right away.

“They have pockets! So many pockets.” I countered eloquently, showing her the many pockets I had. I didn’t have anything to hold in them right now, but it was the principle of the matter.

“I need to show you real fashion sometime. Whatever,” she sighed before pulling out some of the comics we had been working on, and the story-boarding ideas I had given her. “I had some issues with this.”

“Yeah? With what?” Does she not like the constant alliteration? It might be a bit much, but I have to be true to the source material!

“Doc Octillery betraying Petey. I really don’t like it. She was a good person and a mentor to Petey, it feels like the betrayal comes out of nowhere!” Cyan crossed her arms, pouting.

“Well, it is meant to be a shocking swerve. Gotta keep the readers hooked for the next issue.” I argued.

“Isn’t it just a rehash of what happened with Curtis Corners before he becomes Lizardon?”

I stopped at her argument, realizing she did have a pretty solid point there. “I mean, I didn’t have Curtis as much of a mentor to Petey as Octavia was, but you’re right. I do kinda need Doc Octillery to make the Savage Six, hmmm… oh! I know, Doc Octillery will seem like she’s turned against Petey, but actually she was being controlled by the Green Grimmsnarl!”

She smiled, mollified by my suggestion. “Good idea, you said the Green Grimmsnarl was gonna be his archneme-nem- enemy, right? That can help, umm foreshadow their rivalry. And then Octavia and Petey can fight him together.”

“Yeah!” I cheered and we got down to writing. It was a fair bit of actual work, figuring out the art, panel layouts, speech bubble placement, colors, and everything else to fit with the plot. I didn’t mind though, it was a lot of fun, to hang out with my new sister and our parents adored our work.

Later that day, Leah asked me what my favorite Pokemon was. I’d often get asked which ones I liked and had opinions (to the point that people usually stopped asking me that), but she insisted, even when I tried saying I liked all of them.

“Well, Rotom might have already told you, but I like Haxorus a bunch.” Can’t exactly mention Legendaries or Mythicals as my ‘favorite’ then, and I’m guessing Ultra Beasts and Paradox Pokemon fit into those same categories . Legendaries definitely fit the name in this world, and were often revered as such. You wouldn’t just throw out the name of a being in some lands worshiped as deities as your ‘favorite’. Oh sure, there were some people that could fight Legendaries with their whole teams, or even their ace Pokemon. Of course, those people were Champions or World Champions. Even then, it’s never a guaranteed thing .

She blinked, suddenly sweating a bit. Is the heat getting to her in that maid uniform? “Ah, yes, Rotom did mention that. Just… wanted to confirm”

I started rattling off their strong points, explaining just why they were so great to her. “... Dragon Dance can boost their speed and attack, or Swords Dance for even more power. Usually you need a few Technical Machines or ways to teach them Moves to have coverage against Ice or Fairy Types, but that’s not hard. There’s a bunch of other strong Moves they can learn from TMs like Earthquake-”

“Ah, yes. Thank you, Young Miss. By the way, did you finish that test I gave you?”

I frowned, trying to remember her giving me any test and not recalling it at first until I figured out what she meant. “Oh, you mean the Pokemon quiz thing you gave me? Yeah, I finished it a while ago.” Searching through my desk I found it and passed it back to her. “It was fun but really easy.” The questions were pretty basic things, like asking what conditions like Poison and Burn did to your Pokemon, if Berries could help a Pokemon recover, and the most basic of Type match-ups. “Let me know if you find any tougher ones.”

She had a weirdly strained smile on her face. “I should have expected it was too easy to challenge you, Young Miss. Excuse me, I have some arrangements to make. Perhaps Hamber can help…” She muttered to herself. Weird, wonder what that was about? I thought about it before putting the discussion out of my mind. It was only later that I realized the significance of it.

***

My birthday was something I had to be told about the week before it would pass and marked the sixth month since my ‘memories’ had come back. Some days, I wondered if my ‘past life’ had all just been a dream. Other days, the nightmares of everything I’d lost were in full force and I had no such doubts. ‘My’ birthday was one of those days, and I woke up grumpily from such a fitful night. I tried to conceal it and act like nothing was wrong, but Leah saw through me pretty easily, remarking on it at breakfast.

“Someone’s a Grumpig today.” She said as she poured syrup over my pancakes. Perhaps I was just getting spoiled, but that hardly even felt like a special ‘birthday breakfast’ at this point. “But don’t be upset, it’s your birthday today! And we have an extra special surprise for you today.”

“Will B- Mother and Father be coming home early?” I hated how desperate I sounded there. It’s still hard for me to even call them ‘mother’ and ‘father’, but a part of me hopes they’ll be here for a birthday that doesn’t even feel like it’s mine. God, I’m such a mess. Or should I say ‘Arceus’ now?

No divine intervention came to correct me on the proper ways to address them, so Leah continued, her smile dipping for just a second. “Sorry, it looks like work is keeping them busy, honey. But they really wanted to be here.” I already knew Cyan would be busy, she was away on a trip to the Sevi Islands but had spent a day hanging out with me before she left and gave me a fancy notebook.

“I know, thank you, Leah.” I tried to sound thankful, and I was! I knew I could have things a heck of a lot worse than being reborn into an incredibly wealthy family in a near-utopic world of adventure and discovery. But my thoughts still plagued me.

After I finished the meal, I sat at the table and on a piece of paper from my new notebook, started idly writing a poem.

‘Once, there was a Maiden…

… who was always looking forward to the way things would be.

She said, ‘Someday, I’m getting out of this place.’

‘Someday, I’ll kill the boy that put me here.’

‘And while I wait, I don’t much mind,.’

‘Cause it’s better to dream tomorrow than be there.’

‘I’m holding at bay,’ she said, ‘what I know to be true.’

‘That I’ll never get out. I won’t let my dreams die!’

‘I’ll hang on to hope,’ she said, ‘until time itself ends. But-’

‘There’s always an ending,’ said Time.”

Leah peeked over at what I was writing, and I let her. I had taken to writing tons, as well as my training and studying. A desire to keep a hold of the knowledge I held from the other world before I forgot or it got muddied. Everything from books to TV. shows, and songs, I tried to write down as many ideas and reminders as I could. The songs were often only half-remembered, maybe only the chorus written down, but I hoped to be able to find someone with the musical talent to recreate some of my favorites someday. Others, I wonder why there’s any point holding on to scraps of a world far gone .

She seemed fascinated and a bit disturbed by what I had written. I wonder what she’d think of the stuff I actually keep hidden? Information about Pokemon, mostly Legendaries, that would qualify as state secrets at least . It was an amusing idea, but not one I would ever do. I wrote any of the more important stuff in a code and hid it in a shoebox in my closet. I hardly had perfect knowledge of this world, or even Pokemon media in general, but I’d played through most mainline games and there was a lot of dangerous stuff you could pick up there.

Honestly though, what I was most worried about if she, or anyone else ever found out those notes would be the notes about myself . Or rather, the girl Nemona would have been without me. Would they see me as just an imposter, masquerading as their daughter, sister, or friend? Hate me for lying to them about who I was, call me a fraud for relying on my knowledge and maturity, passing it off as fake brilliance? Despise themselves for not noticing, as if anyone could suspect something like this? Or maybe - well, best to just leave that Pandora’s Box shut .

“This is quite a… vivid poem, young Miss.” Leah eventually said, bringing me back to the present. “Quite imaginative.” Her smile was brittle like she didn’t know how to respond here… so she changed the topic, quietly pocketing the paper. “Do you want to see your gift?”

That perked me up a bit, and I nodded, washing up and following her to the living room. In the time I had been eating and writing, the other staff had set up party decorations. Others were shaking their heads, checking the furniture and walls. Are they planning on doing renovations? What really caught my eye however were the two gift boxes sitting on the table in the middle of the room. One was a square box, the other rectangular.

“I know it’s a bit early, we wanted to keep the surprise, but go ahead, open it.” Curious, I sat down on the couch and opened the box. Within it was a gleaming white orb. A red line runs almost all around it with a white dot in the center.

“A… that’s a…” I was speechless. A Pokeball. I’m getting a Pokemon already?!

“It’s a Pokeball! Happy Birthday!” Leah said, and the other butlers and maids cheered as well. “That’s a Premier Ball, so it’s extra special.” I wonder what actually makes a Premier Ball special compared to a regular Pokeball? I took the ball in question and held it reverently. As I did so, I noticed a small card in there as well. It said on it ‘Nemona Glitterati: Junior Trainer License’ with a bunch of different information, like my birthday, eye color, identification number, etc. as you’d expect from a government-issued ID.

“What?” I asked, still a bit shocked by it all.

“That’s a Junior License. For gifted young kids like yourself, you can own a Pokemon! Only one though, until you upgrade to get a full license.” Leah said.

“Wow, that’s incredible. But shouldn’t I have to like, pass a test or something to get this?” I thought I remembered something about that online . Anise just waved me off as she passed by, hefting of all things, a heavy dog bed. If the dog was nine feet tall and needed a bed made of titanium mesh.

“You already did, Leah and Rotom had you take it,” the plump maid said as she dropped the bed in the corner. I opened my mouth to argue, but then closed it, remembering a conversation I had with Leah a while back, where she asked me a bunch of general questions about Pokemon and what to do in the wild. That was it?! I mean, a lot of it was just common sense stuff and I have been looking into it, but still. I guess Rotom recorded it all and they had it sent into the League .

Leah chimed in too. “You already know so much about Haxorus, I’m sure this will be a breeze for you.” It sounded like she was trying to convince herself there, more than me.

I puffed out my cheeks. I mean, I probably would pass any test set for a kid, but still! There’s a bunch you need to know for actually caring for a Pokemon. Even among Type specialists, there are huge variances for each Pokemon from dietary needs to- wait Haxorus?

I must have said the last part out loud because Leah nodded. “Yup! You said it’s your favorite Pokemon. So your parents decided to get you a Haxorus for your birthday.” She had a big grin on her face, but her left eyelid twitched a little as she said that, I distantly noted.

“A Haxorus,” I repeated. “Not an Axew?” She just nodded her head.

“The other box even has a couple of the Technical Machines you mentioned, and a carrying case for when you get more.” I opened it up numbly, still trying to process that, and saw that it indeed had many of the moves I’d mentioned to her. Earthquake, Poison Jab, Iron Head, Body Slam, Shadow Claw, etc. were all in there.

“So there’s a Haxorus in here?” I asked again, holding up the Premier Ball. Outwardly I was remaining calm, inwardly, I was screaming. A freaking Haxorus?! I mean yeah, I love them, they’re really cool, but I never expected to just be given one!! Let alone my whole feelings on the matter of gifting/trading Pokemon, I always thought I’d catch like an Axew and raise them up! Maybe earn the respect of a rowdy but well-meaning Fraxure and form a close bond through battle? I don’t know, just not that I’d have a fully evolved Dragon as my first Pokemon! Ahhhh!!!

“Oh, no. The Haxorus is being shipped over for tomorrow when your parents can see you catch it.” Leah then turned to address some of the other staff. “No, we should probably move the bed over here so the Haxorus can lie in the sun in the afternoon, most Dragons are cold-blooded after all…” A part of me was touched that she had put that much thought into this. That all of them were working so hard to try and get me an incredible birthday gift. The other part of me… This wasn’t what I wanted. It’s not how I hoped any of this, my Birthday, or my first Pokemon catch would go .

With all the adults busy, I slipped out of the room, and then out of the house. Finally free. Huzzah . I wandered down the path to where the cliff was. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure if this was the cliff from the start of the games, where the Player would meet the box Legendary, but it could have been.

Looking out I saw the vast, glittering blue ocean, stretching out to the horizon before me. Behind me were lush fields, trees filled with berries, and flowers well in bloom. It was springtime and you could feel how alive the world felt. Pokemon scampering about in the fields, or flying ones letting out their cries as they flew over the ocean, the sounds of the waves splashing in drifting up.

“What’s wrong, bzzt?” Rotom asked, having followed me. They are an insightful one. I wonder what they know, or at least suspect about me? I’ve always sorta wondered what other people are actually like, but I don’t think you could ever get a perfect picture of who someone else is . Not even if you were a Psychic .

“Nothing. Nothing is really wrong. I mean, I guess I’m worried about a lot of things, but that’s not new.”

Rotom looked upset. “Bzzt. Did- did you not want a Haxorus? We were so sure-” I waved them off.

“It’s not that. I appreciate the effort. I just- I want to make sure that any Pokemon that is going to follow me on my journey wants to be with me, you know? Someone prepared to battle by my side, be my companion, help me through thick and thin, and be willing to let me do the same for them. I don’t know what this Haxorus will be like. If they’ll respect me or even if they wanted to be here for this.”

“I see bzzt…” We sat there for a moment in silence, simply taking the world and our thoughts in. “Would-” I interrupted Rotom as something down below caught my attention at the same time. Slithering about on the sand, I saw a yellow snake-like Pokemon shifting back and forth. It seemed confused and lost.

“Hey, I think they’re in trouble. Let’s help!” I ran to the edge and Rotom nervously followed me.

“What are you, bzzt, doing?!” It cried out as I approached the edge.

“Help me down!” I called out and jumped down. There was a screaming in my ear that I’d later recognize to be Rotom’s as it raced ahead of me. I caught on to the phone case with my free hand and suddenly my momentum was greatly decreased as I drifted down the rest of the way, Rotom still screaming and panicking as I did so. That was awesome. I feel so alive!

Of course, before those screams died down and Rotom recomposed themself, we garnered the attention of the Dunsparce I had seen down below. Immediately the winged snake turned and faced us, shocked and afraid, but from the angry set of its eyes, not unwilling to defend itself if need be.

Holding my hands up in a placating gesture I said: “Easy there. We just saw you and thought you might be in trouble. Do you live around here?” I don’t think Dunsparces lived here in the games, but I could easily be mistaken. Even if I wasn’t, Pokemon here hardly stick to so closely defined areas and routes in absolute fact .

Dunsparce shifted a bit, looking around. Is he… embarrassed? I think he might be looking for a home here. But why? “I don’t think this is the best place for you to make a home.” His head slumped down at that and I thought I might have seen a tear fall from one of his eyes, though it could have just been the salty spray. I hastily amended “I just meant that any tunnels you made would be hard to make into a proper nest in the sand and the water might wash them away. I could help you try and find somewhere better, if you want?”

Offering a hand out to the Dunsparce, he slithered closer, a hopeful expression on his face. One that I unfortunately soured with my next words. “Do you have any family nearby?” I had just been thinking that he might have fallen off the cliffs or taken a path down and gotten a bit confused.

He instead thrashed about angrily, kicking up sand with his tail and moving back and forth taking different postures. It took me a moment to realize that he was acting out others from his family, or whatever group of Dunsparces he had been in before. They were glaring at ‘him’ or dismissing ‘him’ with sweeps of their tails before eventually a group of ‘bigger’ ones (he puffed himself up to represent that, and I noticed that he was actually a bit on the smaller end for Dunsparces) drove him off. He then rolled over and flopped around a bit, which I hoped was just him being lost and confused and not that they had actually pushed him off a cliff! That’s super mean, even if Dunsparces are very tanky .

“That sucks,” I said bluntly. “But I think I could help you, if you’re willing to let me.” He looked curious at that. “We can help you get out of here and find a proper home.”

There was a soft flutter of his tiny wings. I got the impression of a ‘sure, nowhere better to be.’ Seems like telling me his story tanked his mood huh?

“There’s better places than the beach for you to lie on. The sand is coarse and rough, and it gets everywhere. We’ll get you fixed up in a great home. And I’m sure one day you’ll show those jerks that pushed you out what you’re really made of.”

“Dunnn…” the Dunsparce mournfully said, clearly disagreeing with me on that point. But I refused his denial!

“No way, you could be really great one day. Dunsparce are incredible, and I can already tell you have the traits to be strong one day.”

“Really? Bzzt.” Rotom said, hovering in between us. “How can you tell? What- Bzzt. What makes someone strong?”

“A desire to be strong. More than a desire really, a drive. And I can tell Dunsparce has that! When we first landed, most Dunsparce would try to run away, but this guy here, he got ready to defend himself!” I turned to the Pokemon in question. “I’m pretty weak too right now, but I want to be the best, like no one ever was. And I’m going to be. I’m gonna work hard and become the best Champion this world has ever seen!”

At that moment, something crystallized for me. I’ve been feeling morose about what I’ve lost or what didn’t work out, but honestly, I have a great life. Dunsparce’s tale illustrates that well. So, I’m done worrying about the past. I loved the people in my first life, and I’ll do my best to never forget them. Remember everything my friends and family have taught me then… but I won’t be weighed down by that regret either. If I want to be the best, I gotta give it my all. And I honestly do want that. I want to see how far I can go .

Turning down to Dunsparce I said, “Actually, if you want, you could have a home with me.” I held the Premier Ball down for him to inspect. “This is a type of Pokeball. They serve as stasis pods for Pokemon and a way to easily carry you around and let you relax while I travel. But it won’t be all relaxing! I’ve got a ton of training to do if I’m to reach the top, so that means you’ll have tons too.”

Rotom looked on in shock. Dunsparce just tilted his head to the side and said “Dun.” The meaning was pretty clear this time. ‘Why? Why me?’

“Like I said, I think you can do great things. Any Pokemon can, if they have that desire. They’re all blessed with near-limitless potential.” Even a small electric rodent could fight Gods and win . “So if you want to, I’d like you to be my Pokemon, and I’ll be your Trainer. Of course, if you don’t want, I’ll still help you out of here and find a good home, I totally understand-”

“Dun! Sparce Sparce!!” A big smile burst on his face, tears definitely flowing down his eyes this time as he raced ahead. He moved faster than I thought a Dunsparce could go, ramming into the Premier Ball. I wasn’t sure he actually knew how Pokeballs worked, but by chance, he hit the trigger and in a flash of red light, was sucked in.

“That’s- you caught a Dunsparce?” Rotom said, a little disbelieving at the same time as I held my hands up in the air.

“I caught a Pokemon! Woohoo!” I turned around, beginning to run back up, barely noticing what looked like a tunnel off to the side by the cliffs. “C’mon, let's go tell everyone!” Rotom sighed but floated after me as I burned through the energy only a child can have, running back home.

Bursting through the door was a bit of a shock to everyone, and even more so when I opened the ball and revealed my Pokemon. “I caught my first Pokemon!”

Dunsparce gave a loud cry as he was released, then looked around, taking in the strange surroundings and bunch of new people. He seemed a bit frightened at first, slinking back half a foot before shaking it off and slithering in front of me. Aww, so brave! Unnecessary, but still a nice gesture .

The staff were whispering amongst themselves, but Leah was the first to approach me. “That’s wonderful dear, but you can only have one Pokemon with a junior trainer’s license. You’ll have to release him to get your Haxorus.” I could swear at that moment the other staff suddenly glared daggers at her, for some reason.

“No! I wanna keep Dun!” I picked him up and hugged him close to my chest as if someone was going to try and take him away from me. Leah, if anything, seemed relieved.

“Welp, if that’s your choice then. Ok, let’s take all the Haxorus stuff back everyone!” The staff was in a surprisingly good mood, not a word of complaint at having to take back the stuff they spent the morning bringing in. I did stop them when they went to take back the Technical Machines, however.

“Wait, I can still use those! I think Dunsparce can learn a lot of those moves actually.” Earthquake at least, and I think Poison Jab too? His tail can definitely be used for jabbing, even if Poison-Type energy wouldn’t come too naturally .

Leah was surprised. “Really? You still want to battle with…”

“Dun will be a great battler! Dunsparce and Dundunsparce are super tanky, so they’re great at powering through attacks, and as a Normal Type can learn a lot of different moves. Hyper Drill is a super powerful attack of their Type that can pierce the heavens!… Or at least break through any Protect, which is still very impressive given the power it boasts. Oh, you don’t mind if I call you ‘Dun’ for short, right?” I asked the Pokemon in my arms and it nuzzled closer to me. It might not be the most imaginative of names, but if he likes it, that’s good enough for me .

“Dun! Dun Dun!” I laughed at his enthusiastic response.

“I’ll take that as a yes, then.” You know, I think today is a pretty awesome birthday .

Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Chapter Text

Surprisingly, that wasn't the only uncomfortable party I attended that year that ended with me getting a lifelong friend I didn’t expect. Which isn’t that much, but it is weird that it happened twice.

My first notice of the party was the day of the event when I saw we had twice as many staff, as usual, running about.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I saw it, coming back inside from a training session with Dun. Right now I was just working on the basics; dodging, closing distance, and how quickly he could burrow and resurface. It was pretty easy for him to drill through the sand, but still took two seconds to get fully submerged. Once we got that time down to half a second I’d get him started on soft dirt.

The technical machines had gone great, he’d been able to learn a lot of them. Body Slam, Poison Jab, and Earthquake all gave him amazing coverage and power. Unfortunately, he was still pretty young and I could tell he couldn’t use them to his full potential (though he was showing exceptionally close results for the first one; the matching Type energy went a long way in his Moves), so I decided to focus on the basics to start.

Build up a solid foundation and work on the more advanced stuff from there. I think that sounds right. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a ton of information online about how to begin training a young Pokemon. Or rather, there was, but little professional and verified, beyond the generic tips of things like ‘trust in your partner’, and ‘make sure to care for their well-being.’ Perhaps there is no ‘best way’ and the Professors and the like don’t wish to guide potential trainers down limited paths .

Mom smiled as she turned from directing the staff to look at me. “Nemona hunny, we’re hosting a little house party today. Some very famous and important people will be coming.” I questioned the ‘little’ part, as I saw the giant Swanna ice sculpture being carried behind her. Even more shocking was the fact that Mom was wearing an elegant and tasteful red dress. Wow, this must be important if she isn’t wearing her usual tacky gold stuff. And apparently, she has some inkling that such clothing wouldn’t be appropriate for such an event .

“Oh, ok. Should I just stay in my room then?” She blinked at my question.

“Whyever would you do that? Stay and enjoy the fabulous party.” She swung a handout, waving it around the room at the decorations about. One of the regular staff would have been hit by her arm, but expertly ducked under the blow without tipping the tray he was carrying and went on as if nothing had happened. Nice professionalism .

I bit back a frown. I really don’t like interacting with large crowds. “I just- I thought you might want to talk adult stuff and wouldn’t want me bugging the guests.” I tried to weedle my way out of it, but to no avail.

“I’m sure you won’t be a bug at all, so well behaved my dear. As expected of my daughter.” She gave me a soft, encouraging smile that made it hard for me to hold the forced interaction against her (especially when O’Nare and her had been quite understanding about me canceling the Haxorus order and missing out on seeing me catch Dun). Then her grin broadened. “Besides, there will be another kid your age too. One professor is bringing his child along.”

“Yay,” I said with as much false enthusiasm as I could inject into my voice. A kid is even worse than an adult. I might have a reasonable conversation with adults if they overlook how young I look. With another kid, it’s just going to be awkward .

***

As I expected, the party was quite boring. All the adults were far too quick to ‘coo’ and ‘aww’ over me, and pretty much no one actually bothered to try to interact with me on anything approaching an intelligent level. In spite of the fact that my parents are busy bragging over how ‘smart’ I am!

I let out a sigh and tried to not let it bother me. Probably for the best anyways. I doubt even if one of them would be willing to talk to me on their level that I’d actually have anything I’d want to do with them .

The party was an event for the famous and wealthy to come and mingle. Most of them were important business people like my parents and were more than happy to talk about stocks or ‘funny’ anecdotes that only (to me) showed how out of touch they were with the common folk. Admittedly my only view of how the average person lives their life in this world is through the Pokenet and what I can glean from T.V., but I still think I have a better view of things than most of this lot .

One face that had me do a double take was that of a young man with delicate features and long blue-hair. Outside of his parka and over a decade younger, I didn’t recognize the man until I heard someone call his name. “Grusha! So glad you could make it. I heard you placed second in the Glassedo Slope Grind.”

He smiled and greeted the Galarian man in a business suit who walked over to talk to him. So this is what he’s like before he was a Gym Leader. Before the accident that cut his snowboarding career short. He looks happy . He was far more open than the Icy gym leader I remembered from the games.

Before I had the chance to introduce myself and ask him about his Pokemon and/or snowboarding, another guest arrived, and this one I recognized instantly. His coat was in a slightly different pattern than the one the AI wore in the games, but it had the same color scheme as his body suit, black, purple and some lighter purple highlights. He didn’t have a 5 o’clock shadow but his hair and face for the most part were the same from the games.

Professor Turo. The Real one, not an Artificial Intelligence made in a fit of paranoia down in Area Zero . By his side, holding on to his hand was a young boy that could only be Arven. His hair didn’t fall down to cover one of his eyes yet, but he was just as recognizable to me as his father.

My parents went up to warmly greet him. “Ah, the esteemed Pokemon Professor. It’s a pleasure to have you here,” my mother said.

“Ah, the pleasure is all mine. And thank you for allowing me to bring my son along as well. Finding a sitter on short notice would be difficult and well...” He trailed off before giving a small gesture for the young boy to introduce himself.

“That’s O’Nare for you; her generosity knows no bounds!” Billy declared loudly. Geez, can you simp any harder? Still, it was nice to see that they loved each other so much. More interesting to me though was the way Turo’s gaze intensified at the mention of O’Nare’s ‘generosity.’ My musings on that matter were cut off as I turned to watch the nervous boy stumbling over his words introduce himself to my parents.

“I-I’m Arven, nice to meet you,” he practically whispered. I noticed him clutching something for comfort and saw that he had a Pokeball in his hand. Turo frowned slightly at his son’s shy behavior, which is when I decided to step in, pushing through the crowd to approach them.

“Hello, I’m Nemona.” I offered my hand for Arven to shake. He took it, hesitantly, but still looked a little overwhelmed. Okay, think. What did Arven like in the games? Mabostiff? Probably shouldn’t release him in here though. Sandwiches? “If you’re hungry, we have some appetizers over there.” I pointed at where one of the butlers was carrying a tray of cucumber sandwiches. He perked up right away and started walking over.

“You must tell us all about your research.” My father faux-whispered. Turo chuckled good naturedly.

“Well, I can hardly say everything or else I’ll have nothing to write my papers on. But I do think this will be quite a revolutionary discovery. It has to do with the phenomena of Terastalization-”

“That’s where some Pokemon are randomly found to be a different Type than they’d usually be in the wild.” I interrupted. He blinked, eyeing me a bit more closely.

“Yes, that’s correct. The effect will often wear off with time, or when captured in a Pokeball.” I did my best not to grit my teeth at ‘captured’. Right, this is the guy with 7 Master Balls at least to capture all the Paradox Pokemon. Hmm, I wonder why he just used a regular Pokeball for the other Miraidon? “I’ve been studying Terastalization and believe I’m close to a breakthrough that will allow us to utilize this in a more controlled fashion.”

“Wow. How long have you been studying this?” O’Nare placed a hand on my shoulder at that question.

“Our daughter is quite the little genius; her Glitterati intelligence shining like the brightest star in the land.” My mother praised me, and I cringed a little in embarrassment. “Still, you probably don’t need such questions at a party, Professor.”

“Nonsense. An inquisitive mind is the sign of a budding scientist; I’d never reject such curiosity.” He gave a winning smile to my parents, which seemed just a bit too unreal. Not that they noticed. He’s up to something . To me he said “I’ve been studying this for almost eight years now, along with my team and my wi- my ex-wife.” A bit of real strain showed on his face at that, but he quickly pushed it aside. “I’ve heard how smart you are, young lady. I’m sure if you keep up your studies and stay sharp, you might become a Professor someday too.”

“Nah.” I answered instantly, much to the surprise of the adults. “I mean, I might want to, way off in the future. But I want to be Champion first. That means I have to study as much as possible; knowledge is power afterall.”

He blinked, taking in my statement. “Knowledge is power… a fascinating idea, and one that may be more correct than you know. Especially if I complete my research.”

“If?”

“I’m hoping to get a bit more funding to complete my project and unveil it to all of Paldea.” He gave a significant glance at my parents. They caught it and began walking further into the living room, settling by the couch and table.

I wasn’t directly told off, so I sat down on a chair opposite the professor. “So, you want their money. Why should they give it to you?”

O’Nare considered it for a moment before agreeing. “That’s a wonderful idea, my dear! We’ll host a little interview right now.”

Billy blinked before raising a hand up to cover his face. “Why, from the mouths of babes! Such wisdom from our youngest daughter! And so great of you to notice it as well, my dear wife.” He said to O’Nare before turning to Turo. “We could do this at a later date though, if you’d rather enjoy the party.”

“It’s fine. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to enjoy ourselves afterwards.” I doubt that, or rather, doubt that you care about that. No, this is the only reason why you came to the party in the first place, to get more funding for your research .

“As for why you should sponsor me? You’d be able to put the Glitterati name on the biggest scientific discovery of the century.” Bold, especially since Mega Evolution was widely announced only about a decade and a half ago. Still, if this is the Tera Orbs, it’s not that big an overstatement . I felt he was probably also overselling how much their - our - name would be put on this discovery. Glitterati might be mentioned as one of the sponsors on a couple of papers he wrote while he would get all the public acclaim.

“What do you plan to do with the sponsorship money, exactly? The methodology you plan to use in your research and the like?” My knowledge meant I knew what he was going after already, but I wanted to find out more about what he was like as a person. The game only showed you an AI that had definitely diverged from his base personality, and a glitchy protocol.

“I plan on touring a number of dangerous and exotic locales within Paldea. The study is on Terastalization, so me and my team will set up in areas where such Pokemon undergoing the phenomena have been commonly noted to study and compare them. These findings may be the last piece we need to finish the project.”

“I see. Are you planning on going to the Great Crater?” I steepled my fingertips together, staring him in the eye. Billy, who had been looking on amused at my efforts, started coughing on his drink at that.

“No, I don’t believe I’ll need to delve that deep. However, I do confess that I think there is much to be explored within the Crater. Using records from previous attempts I’d like to make an expedition within at some point… but that’s far off. Another project to look forward to.”

Right, he’s all about the ‘future’ stuff . “You’ve already started this project. Why do you need more money now?”

The smile he’d kept in place this entire time dimmed a notch. “There have been complications within the project structure. My… former wife, Professor Sada, has left. Without her aid we aren’t as far along as we could have been. It’s sad, but we have to move on. Always looking forward.” Darn it. I don’t really have anything else to probe with or try and undermine things here. I really don’t want Arven to grow up without a father for most of his life though… like he will entirely with his mom…

“Do you wish you could go back to when you were with your wife.” I asked suddenly. Turo’s face darkened immensely, his hand suddenly clenched in a fist.

“Nemona!” Billy shouted. Apparently, even for the Glitterati, that was a breach of decorum too far. Which was my point, but I was hardly going to admit to that, so I just turned to him and gave him my most innocent face. Kids say dumb stuff without realizing it all the time, so it’s totally believable that I did that here and not at all me trying to get Turo to publically lose his cool and not get his funding, right?

The gambit failed, however, as a second later Turo let out a deep sigh and waved down my father. “It’s fine. All questions are legitimate searches for knowledge, I can approve of that.” To me, he kneeled down to look me in the eye and said: “No. I loved her, and the times we shared, our memories, and our son, have been some of the greatest treasures in my life. But science marches ever onward. You never know what new treasures will await in the future, which is why even though I’ll always love what we had, I can’t stop striving forward.”

I was stunned into silence. That was really well said… and proof that I’m never going to be able to turn Turo away from his dream. No way to keep Arven’s father around .

Billy started clapping in response, and other guests followed my father’s suit. “Wonderful! That’s simply a splendid way to look at things! Why, my dear O’Nare often says similarly when closing a deal. Speaking of, there’s a great construction team she hires for specialty jobs that I think would be perfect for the ‘waypoint stations’ you were talking about…” Their voices blended in with the rest of the crowd as they started chatting again. I’ll never forget the victorious gleam in Turo’s eyes as he walked away with my father, though.

I definitely need to make apricorn Pokeballs or something like that off the system whenever I go to the Great Crater .

I wasn’t the only one sighing sadly, as I noticed out of the corner of my eye young Arven was doing the same. He was also lightly touching the Pokeball he had at his hip, likely seeking a small measure of comfort.

“Hey. You uh, have a Pokemon too?” I said, holding up my own Pokeball. Establish a point of commonality and most kids open up pretty fast . I was proven correct when that immediately caused him to brighten up.

“Yeah! Maschiff is my best bud. We run around and play all the time and he helps me make food and stuff when dad’s busy.” Seriously? Already letting things go at home, I see . It didn’t improve my opinion of Paldea’s foremost Professor any more, but I let it go for the moment.

“Wanna go play outside then?” He looked eager, but hesitant, glancing over at our parents. “It’s fine, I think they’re busy.” Considering they’re busy unwittingly helping make your life miserable, playing with you now is the least I can do . “Rotom can let us know if they need us anyways.”

The phone in question hovered, smiling at us. “Oh wow, you have a Rotom Phone? That’s so cool!” Arven cheered.

“Be careful - you’ll give them a swollen head. And that’s bad, because they’re pretty much all head already!” Rotom pouted at my joke and I stuck my tongue out to let them know I wasn’t serious. “C’mon, let’s go.” I led the three of us out of the stuffy house party to the beach where Arven could play and actually be happy. I hope you’ll get to keep on to that joy for a while longer. And that I haven’t somehow made this situation worse .

Chapter 7: Interlude I - Rotom

Chapter Text

A feeling of fullness encompassed my artificial body, and I formed my spectral eyes as I exited sleep mode. “Charge at 100% bzzt,” I announced as I floated off the charging dock. There were a couple of docks all over the house for any of the Rotoms that needed a quick charge, but the one I was currently resting in was in Nemona’s room, currently bereft of my owner.

Not her newest companion, however, Dunsparce. The bulbous Normal Type was looking up at me from the ground where he slithered. His large head tilted to the side and his eyes narrowed. “Ar?”

I roughly translated that as ‘What are you doing?’. “Bzzt, I need to recharge and take electrical charge, much like you need to eat food.” Or whatever it is you call when you messily shove your face in a bowl of pate .

Dunsparce glared at me harder, clearly sensing the disdain I felt for him. Some of the staff called Nemona’s starter ‘sleepy’, but they didn’t see the training he went through. When she said he could be strong it awakened some killer instinct inside the land snake. That, or the Technical Machines helping bring out newfound power .

“Un, dun dun, arce.” That disdain was clearly returned by him. What was not crystal clear was exactly what he was saying there. I got the gist though.

“Bzzt, I don’t just ‘sit around all day,’ my duties are quite important to the Young Miss.” I said primly. Dun simply snorted before turning tail and slithering off to explore the rest of the house.

Why that little-! I fumed for a moment before going out to find Nemona. She was downstairs having breakfast, talking animatedly with her sister about some of the fantastical story ideas she had.

Leah, one of the maids most often in charge of the Young Miss while her parents were out, glanced over at me as I waited nearby. “Rotom, is something wrong?”

“Why would you think something was the matter, bzzt?” That was a trick I had learned from humans - deflect answering a question by asking one of your own.

I didn’t have long to feel proud of myself however as she had a follow-up. “Well, you’re discharging a bit of electricity.” Immediately I shut that down, embarrassed at that lack of control. Dammit! I hope I haven’t damaged my case . No matter how I felt about Dun, that didn’t justify my lack of control.

“Is the case fine?” I asked, nervously. None of the sensors I was connected to read any damage, but I couldn’t be sure. Not without leaving the phone.

The maid peered over the case. “No, it’s fine. You seem stressed, is it anything to do with the Young Miss?” Leah inquired.

Blinking, I asked, “No, why would it be?”

“Just- she’s been acting different as of late, hasn’t she?” It was true, over the last few months she had been behaving differently. Nemona was demonstrating intelligence and forethought, which seemed astounding. I could hardly deny that. I’d heard plenty of praise directed toward her, and even about her when she wasn’t around (even when the gossipers in question didn’t know I was listening in), so I assumed the praise was genuine, not over-inflated for one reason or another.

Humans in the outside world were complicated, with many different unstated rules for their social conduct. I understood why most other Rotoms didn’t bother trying to interact with their owners so much. Or maybe it’s just that the owners don’t really reach out to them. Nemona is always dragging me into conversations, talking with me about battles we’re watching or what people are saying on forums .

It was incredible to see the change that had overtaken her, so much so that I started looking into the concept of ‘human Evolution’. I know that every book listed humans as a species without an Evolutionary line, but it really feels like they do, but maybe more of a mental component? What I’d searched said that they didn’t, it was just a gradual process in body and mind, through puberty. People are weird. They take so long to Evolve, and they call it something else instead. But young girls and boys look barely any different, but if you pay close attention, once they’re finished ‘puberty’, they actually look fairly different, like Lechonk .

As it became more apparent, I observed a few flashes of worry or confusion among others at her development. Nemona was taking the same classes as her sister now, but generally doing them faster than even her older sibling. Maybe it’s not like an evolution, but more a ‘mutation’? Some Pokemon, like ugh, Dundunsparce can rarely develop that trait . I disliked the comparison to that boor, but I was proud of my owner. This was just more proof that she was special, like I knew she was going to be, even before I met her.

She didn’t seem to feel the same way, and when just with me revealed her thoughts to be far more self-critical. She would say that she was no ‘true’ genius, and other disparaging comments. Conversely, if she made even a tiny mistake on her homework, she’d say things like ‘How did I fu- screw this up?! I should be better than this.’ And then there were her occasional nightmares…

“Bzzt, I feel she’s doing fine,” I lied. Nemona might have her own issues, but I knew she wouldn’t appreciate me airing them out to someone else. In addition to her newfound intellect and wit came a sense of caution. Occasionally she’d cut herself off when talking about some topic, some Pokemon, or location that she felt needed to be kept secret. Nemona trusts me, but there are some things she won’t let even me see. A few notebooks she writes in she keeps more hidden than the others. I could probably snoop around and find them in her room if I tried but… I didn’t want to do that. For multiple reasons.

Before she could press, Nemona came up to us having finished her breakfast. “Hey, whatcha talking about?”

“Rotom was just making sure that their phone case was alright.” Leah said. I glanced over at her quickly and saw she was trying not to worry Nemona. I wasn’t going to reveal her secrets, but she probably didn’t need to worry about Leah worrying about her either.

“Yes, bzzt. I discharged a bit of electricity and wanted to be sure my casing was fine.” Nemona gave me a once over as well before sticking her thumb up.

“Looks good! We can double check the internals if you think you have any issues, but the outside looks fine. Let me know if you ever want a new phone case or anything.”

“Shouldn’t that be your choice, bzzt? If you want a different color phone-”

“I don’t really care,” She interrupted me. “And even if you picked something I didn’t like,” her eyes darted over to glance at a family photo, her parents wearing their usual bright gold outfits. “It’s your body. It should be your choice what you want to look like.” She smiled at me and I smiled back. I knew it, she really is the best .

The phone was my shell, my connection to the world. I was raised on a nice enough farm but was told alongside my siblings how important it was to be good. To do what your owner asked and if you were well-behaved you could be chosen to get a phone . An electronic device, just for you to possess!

We had been trained a bit on lesser phones and old ‘junk’ electronics, which had still felt like the best thing ever since breaking out of our eggs, so the idea of something better? A device that wouldn’t break down as we controlled it, could connect us to the entire world ? It drove almost all of us on the farm to be on our best behavior. Which was good, because our handlers always warned us of how naturally mischievous we Rotom could be, and we’d have to be very careful to not let those tendencies upset our owners.

I, of course, was the most proper and well-behaved of all of our ‘batch’. A few others chafed at the rules we were given, but not me. I was going to get a specialized phone, no matter what. But even I hadn’t imagined that I’d be chosen by the President himself. For his youngest daughter no less! The joy of that was only eclipsed by how good it felt to be in a proper Rotom Phone.

It was… like living blind all your life and then suddenly being given eyes. It was surprisingly durable in the casing (even if I was still very careful with it), my natural electricity flowed through it perfectly, and even floating with it felt just as easy when outside a device. It was perfect! It also gave me access to things well beyond itself.

The world was so, so, so much vaster than I had ever realized. The farm we had been raised on? A square kilometer inside an even larger building, inside a city much bigger than that. The outside world was incredible! So many different Pokemon in this world, not just the other Rotoms and Dittos they had on the farm or the occasional Greavard the Rotoms could spot-guard it.

As part of her ‘not-an-evolution’ changes, it seemed like my owner, the Young Miss, had begun feeling the same way. She would eagerly go over videos looking at the wilderness of Paldea, explorations of different Pokemon habitats, and especially battles. She once spent ten hours in a day just going over a battle forum, looking up the pros and cons of different battle items! Nemona (and myself for letting her) did get mildly scolded for going that far down the Buneary hole and forgetting other things like lunch that day.

“Hey, can you call Arven?” Nemona asked me out of the blue. Perhaps not ‘out of the blue’ . Lost in thought as I had been, I had missed Leah leaving and Nemona planning out the rest of her day.

“The boy from the party?” I asked. I remembered her getting his phone number - only a regular phone, not a Rotom Phone, I noted with some disdain, though recognizing that most children were not like Nemona.

“Yeah! I wanted to see if he could come over and hang out. Do- do you think that’s fine?” She suddenly asked, appearing nervous.

“I think it’s fine, bzzt.” I replied, a small slip of electricity leaving the end of my voice. While it had been unintentional in the first designs of the phone, it was now built into our devices. Apparently, it helped humans to differentiate our voices/selves from the rest of the audio we could create. It also had a ‘cute’ charm to it, supposedly. “I don’t see why Arven would have a problem with you asking, at least.”

“Oh, yeah, it’s not Arven I’m worried about, it’s his dad. He might have been upset by something I said at the party. Also I don’t know how long it would take for Arven to get here.” She said, frowning lightly as she often did when deep in thought.

Someone disliking Nemona? Feels quite unusual . In addition to her intelligence, she had an uncanny insight to her that let her understand most people she dealt with. Many times she would explain in a show how others would interpret and respond to someone’s actions or words, and was often proven right as the plot unfolded. “It probably doesn’t hurt to ask, bzzt. A flying cab could carry him over fairly quickly in any case.”

She blinked, snapping her fingers as if suddenly realizing: ‘Oh right, I’m rich , I can easily get a flying cab to pick him up quickly.” Flying cabs don’t cost that much. But Nemona can be weirdly miserly considering the family she was born into . Not that I would tell her that, and if I did, she’d probably just say she was being practical. “Right, thanks Rotom! Let’s call Arven.”

I put the call through for the young miss, thinking through my own thoughts while letting her talk to the Professor’s son.

“Sounds good, see you later Arven! Can’t wait to see how Maschiff battles!”

“Wait, wh-” Nemona hung up on him, not noticing the sudden panic in his voice. She was smiling brightly.

“Alright, looks like he’ll be heading over right now. I can get all my studies for today done and might even have some time to look up some more battle videos before me and Dun spar against Arven and Maschiff.”

“Bzzt, you’re planning on having your first battle? How exciting, bzzt.” I said, trying to inject an enthusiasm I couldn’t quite feel into my digital voice.

Nemona shrugged, surprisingly. “I mean, I doubt it’ll be a real battle, just us practicing some Moves in the sand. It’s good experience but… it’s not the same. I’ll have proper matches someday though. Where Dunsparce can shine and show the whole world what he’s made of.” She had a faraway look in her eyes like she could already envision what that future would be like.

“What made you choose Dunsparce, bzzt?” I had to ask. She could have had her pick of any Pokemon in the world. Said her favorite was Haxorus, but then turned it down in favor of, well, a worm . I tried not to look down on Dunsparce, but he was a fairly common ‘mon. Rough around the edges, to say the least.

Nemona looked curiously at me. “I said before, didn’t I? It’s all about his drive.”

“Is ‘drive’ really everything, bzzt? Certain things like type-matchups can’t be overcome. You can’t use electricity on a Ground type, after all.” Nemona is not a normal child . It was something I had thought about privately several times, but I was reminded of it again when she lit up with the biggest smile on her face at my denial.

“There are all sorts of Abilities and techniques that go into a Pokemon Battle - strategy is hugely important. But more than that,- wait, come ‘ere.” She made grabby motions with her hands and I obliged, floating over. Sometimes she liked searching things up on her own rather than just asking me. Apparently, that was just part of what made her quite ‘independent’, according to the adults in the house. Independence is supposedly a good thing, spoken of well for her and the people, but we were always told on the farm that it wasn’t good. Could lead to us acting erratically, and that was bad .

“Brock vs. Ash, bzzt?” I questioned aloud as she continued to type, searching for something to no avail as she groaned. “What are you looking up?”

“I wanted to show you a video, but I guess they didn’t record all the gym matches then. But I can just tell you the tale. It’s about Ash Ketchum, and his first gym battle.”

I turned around to better ‘look’ at the young miss as she told her tale (I could see through the camera on the screen side, but that wasn’t as accurate as the plasma eyes I could project off of the back case). “Ash Ketchum was just a boy at the time, facing off against his first gym leader at eleven years old. Well, technically his second gym leader, but Misty wasn’t acting in capacity as a leader at that time, whatever.” She waved her hands wildly as if to push away the distracting thoughts and I had to hold back a snort at her display.

“So, Ash is facing off against Brock, but all he has are his Pidgeotto and his starter Pikachu. Wait, I think he had Butterfree too? Or maybe it was Metapod at this point, but I don’t think he used it in their fight, either one.”

“Bzzt, either one? Did Ash challenge him again to a higher level battle later on?” I had studied gyms and the like as well, and learned that it was something Gym Leaders would occasionally offer to ‘ace’ trainers. To fight against the teams they reserved for 8 badge holders, or even beyond sometimes.

“Haha, nope. The first match, Ash lost, badly.”

“Really?” It was hard to imagine the World Champion losing so badly. I’d seen some of his matches alongside Nemona, he was incredible.

“Yup. It’s like you said, the type matchup was too much. Brock was the Rock type Gym Leader, and a lot of Rock types in Kanto are Ground type as well. The perfect counter for his team. But he didn’t let that get him down!” She raised a finger up in the sky. “He trained Pikachu, and in their rematch, managed to win, zapping Onix with a powerful Thunderbolt!”

“What? Bzzt, that makes no sense? How could that have hurt such a sturdy Ground type?” I spun around in the air, trying to make sense of this all.

“No idea!” Nemona cheerfully exclaimed. “Well, there was something about a sprinkler system ‘weakening’ the Onix first. But whatever it was, it was their determination, Ash’s and Pikachu’s that pushed them through that day. Every Pokemon has great potential in them, the capability to change the world, reshape it to their whim even. You just have to bring that out.” She let out her last words like they were a whisper and I could practically see the stars in her eyes. I see. This is why people call it ‘childlike’ wonder. Now I’m left wondering…

“Oh shoot! I’ve gotta go study before Arven gets here.” She raced off and I drifted after her.

…If I had been brave enough, and had enough drive to say that I wanted to be her first Pokemon, would she have picked me? In the end, I still said nothing, smiling on as she cheerfully greeted her ‘new friend’. I just hope that she doesn’t evolve past me someday .

Chapter 8: Chapter 7

Chapter Text

“Maschiff, bite that snake!” Arven called out. There wasn’t any anger however, but more desperation. Dunsparce practically scoffed as the scared dog approached, a little bruised from the previous efforts of our training.

“Barrel roll away, then give him a hard stare and Bite yourself!” Dun, my clever little land snake, rolled around Maschiff’s lunge, kicking up a spray of sand where he moved before using Glare that caused the Dark type to freeze up. That moment of paralysis gave Dunsparce time to Bite into Maschiff, causing the dog to howl out in pain. I rolled my eyes, knowing from experience that it wasn’t that bad, and that the dog would definitely play the drama card if he needed to.

True to the point, he turned around and tried biting back at Dun a moment later. Hmm, doesn’t look like he’s doing nearly as much damage as Dunsparce did. Is it Dunsparce outpowering him that much? No, or at least not to explain all of it. I don’t think Maschiff is actually even using the Dark type energy - not the Move Bite, but just a regular bite. That would explain the lack of power .

These things weren’t perfectly guaranteed, but there were signs, things you could look for in battles to get a good ‘feel’ for how strong a Pokemon was, how good they were with a move, etc. I still counted myself as a bare beginner in that regard, but the lack of dark energy surrounding Maschiff’s teeth before it moved in to bite was an indicator even I could pick up on.

“Throw him off with a Flail!” I shouted out, and Dunsparce followed the command, thrashing about until Maschiff let go. Likely due to a combination of both the Paralysis lingering from Glare and from the pain. The dog whimpered, slumping down a bit. Hmm, probably not too faked this time. Might as well call it .

“That’s enough.” I called out at the same time as Arven shouted it out, rushing over to Maschiff’s side. The dog Pokemon whimpered into him as he held the Dark type protectively. “Why do you gotta beat us up so much?” He cried.

“To give us good training,” I responded easily, pulling some Potions out of my pocket. I gave Dunsparce a few sprays from one before scratching the top of his head, reward for a job well done, which he preened at. Arven still looked worried, even as I walked over and gave him a Potion to use on Maschiff. “He’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

“What if it’s not enough for him to get better? What if he’s hurt permanently? Say something, bud!” Maschiff was not saying anything, however I wasn’t nearly as worried as Arven. Partly because I had a better angle and could see the dog sneaking a few of the treats out from Arven’s back pocket. Yeah, definitely mischievous enough for a Dark type .

His words did remind me of some of my worries for the future, not that he could know any of that. Don’t worry, I’ll do my best to ensure you and Maschiff never get hurt like that . Arven noticed what his sneaky puppy was doing then, and changed his expression from worry to anger. Maschiff just gave him a big grin, mouth full of treats while I laughed out loud.

“I think he’ll be fine. But you gotta be prepared for your partner to get hurt in a battle,” I added more seriously. That’s one of the hardest parts of being a trainer, I think. You love your Pokemon, help raise them as much as they teach you, and then you have to watch them get hurt as they fight others . Sure, there were as many guidelines as possible to keep things safe, and Pokemon, even moreso than the humans of this world, were incredibly durable. It didn’t mean invincible, however, and just the idea of seeing their friends in pain or struggling was probably enough to cause some people to quit the gym challenge.

Arven grumbled a bit “I- yeah I guess. I still don’t think I’ll ever be as good as you though.”

“You totally could!” I shook my head vigorously. “That’s what training is all about, getting better and constantly improving.” Arven admittedly wasn’t as strong as Nemona in the games, but that doesn’t mean he’s bad. Just was focused on other stuff there . “You were right to call the fight there though; Maschiff was pretty much beat by that point.”

“Oh. So we’re done now? Yay!” He exclaimed, the boy and dog happily jumping around.

“Hey! If you’ve got that much energy we could totally go for another round.” They both immediately wilted, and I sighed. “Fine, we’ll call it here. Let’s go inside and get cleaned up.” I recalled Dunsparce to his Pokeball, and Arven did the same with Maschiff.

When I first caught Dunsparce, I’d been worried that he wouldn’t like being ‘stuck’ in a ball, so I had him out pretty much all the time. While fun for me, I actually found he doesn’t seem to mind being in his ball much, generally enjoying the rest state the Pokeball brings. It also has the side benefit of immediately clearing off all the dust and sand that was sticking on to him.

“Why?” Arven asked about the ‘getting cleaned up’, uncaring of the sand that was now covering his clothes, nor of the sweat he had from the exercise we did earlier. Not that he didn’t complain plenty about it at the time, even when doing half of my sets. Like I told him though, it’s important to train our bodies alongside our Pokemon. You never know when you’ll need to rely on your own power in the sudden life-or-death moments that can happen when exploring .

Rotom mentioned that I’d been focusing too much on such possibilities whenever I searched those statistics up, but I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to be as prepared as possible! I also couldn’t deny the desire to go out and explore everything this world had to offer. It all seemed so incredible!

Rather than answering his question, I gave Arven a hand up and we walked back to the house from the beach where we had been training. Anise had been assigned to watch over us, but was just waiting at the top of the stairs, not too worried about us. I’d like to say that I’d built up a level of trust among the staff in the year since I’d regained my memories, but given how easily they trusted Arven ever since I started inviting him over, I felt there was another factor.

Owning a Pokemon. It was a huge cultural and societal symbol here. In the eyes of many, once you had a Pokemon, you were an adult. Or close enough, even if you were young. The Junior License that we had definitely did not make us legal adults or anything like that, but there was just a higher level of recognition from the adults once you had a Pokeball, I noticed.

That wasn’t to say that they trusted us completely. They still made sure to watch over us when Arven came over, especially when our Pokemon ‘battled’. We’d sparred a few times, but I couldn’t really consider it a real ‘battle’, not compared to what I’d seen from the videos. A lot of them watched our first battle, the majordomo even recording it for mom and dad. Now, the staff would only leave one person watching over us when we battled now, possibly after seeing that I wouldn’t use any of the more advanced moves against Maschiff.

“Why do we have to battle every time I come over? We musta’ fought a hundred times and I’m still no closer to beating you.” I winced a little at Arven’s words as we started trudging up the stairs.

“We haven’t battled that many times; you’ve only been over like a dozen times.” Arven immediately screwed his face up in concentration, holding his fingers out to start ‘counting’ that out, trying to see if ‘a dozen’ came close to ‘a hundred’. I reached a hand back to grab him as he started to overbalance, pulling him back before he could fall down the stairs.

Oww. He’s not that heavy, but that twinged my wrist a bit. Hope that I don’t have those issues with my wrists in this life . “Ahh! Thanks Nims!” Arven cried out, all grumpiness from before forgotten.

“No problem.” Not sure how I feel about him picking up my sister’s new nickname for me though, or about the nickname in general . I elected not to say anything about that though as we walked back to the house, instead focusing on the battle. “Look, I won’t make you battle any more if you don’t want to, but I think it’s good. You’ve improved a bunch already.”

“Really?” He sounded skeptical, but I could hear a hint of hope poorly hidden in his tone well.

“Definitely. Remember the first time we fought? You and Maschiff just cringed so much Dun was pretty much able to just flop on top of him.” His face grew a bit red as he remembered that. “But you did so much better this time! You gave proper commands and fought for about as long as your partner could. That’s a lot of improvement. It’s just…” I paused for a moment as we reached the door to my house, searching for the right way to convey my message. “I’m constantly working on improving too, you know?”

“Do… do you think dad’ll be proud of how much better I’ve gotten?” Arven asked nervously as we got inside and I resisted the urge to sigh. He’d get the wrong idea if I did, that I was sighing at him rather than his father.

“I think he’s plenty proud of you anyways. But you shouldn’t train to try and get praise from him, or even to surpass me or whatever.” Turning to look back at him I said. “Whatever you want to do, do so for yourself. Put your all into it, and don’t worry so much about comparing yourself to anyone else. So long as you try your best, that’s all that matters.”

An easier thing to say than to do. I know I find myself looking at professional matches and wondering if I’ll match up, how I could possibly reach those heights, etc. But the lesson is a good one. Even if I never manage to make it as far as the original Nemona… I want to try. To become strong and see everything this world has to offer. If I’ve got a second life, might as well make the most of it, right?

Arven was looking a little dazed. I wonder if I pushed him too hard today? Nah, he’s a kid, he’ll spring back just fine . “Alright, I’ll take the upstairs shower, you can use the guest one.” I said, and Anise moved to direct him there. Arven had some spare clothes since he said he might be sleeping over anyways. The boy claimed it was just because ‘[we] had such good food,’ but I felt it had far more to do with how lonely he got.

There was still no word yet on the Tera Orb, but I felt it could only be a matter of weeks at this point, assuming we were anywhere close to the canon timeline of when they’d be invented. Hopefully, Turo will be finished soon and can spend some more time with his son. At least before he tries to make his time machine. I was surprised that he let Arven come over so often. Thought it might have just been neglect, not caring about where Arven went, but apparently he encouraged Arven to come over. I guess the Professor isn’t as upset about what I said at the party as I thought he might be?

I washed quickly; I had always preferred fast showers and being in a different body just increased my desire to get done with that fast. I wonder when I’ll feel comfortable with that? I’ve started calling my family ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ even internally more often. I guess you can get used to anything with enough time .

After getting clean and getting dressed I went down to the dinner table to wait for Arven but he didn’t show up. After a few minutes I started looking around to see if he’d gotten lost (the house was fairly big after all) and found him in the kitchen, intently eyeing all the work the cooks were doing.

I couldn’t help but let out a laugh after that. Looks like Arven is still gonna be a sandwich obsessed kid, despite any changes I make . Arven whirled around, panicking a bit.

“Ah, I was just-”

“It’s fine.” I waved him off, but the head chef was looking a little disapproving at the ruckus I made. Ouch, guess Arven is more trustworthy than me. Or at least less of a disturbance to their work . Not wanting to make a scene, I said “C’mon, let's go. I’ve got a few videos to show you before dinner.”

As we left, I called Rotom up. “Hey Rotom, do you remember the videos I mentioned?” The Rotom phone floated up dutifully.

“Of course, Young Miss.” I bit back a frown. Hmm, Rotom’s felt a bit odd recently, but I don’t know why. I’ve asked a few times, and they’ve said ‘it’s nothing’ or things to that effect, but still. Maybe they’re feeling overworked or underappreciated? I’ll try to give them a break in the future .

“Ok, so in this video we get a comparison of two 1st badge level trainers fighting. I think you’ll get to see some huge benefits from- hey wait, don’t groan! Just one battle video to sum up today’s training! Then we can watch some meme videos and that cooking show you like.” He gave a cheer, echoed by Maschiff, who popped out of his ball to do the same. I sighed, but wasn’t actually upset.

I’m glad I can reach out to Arven. Even if I can’t change much, I’d like to be able to give that kid a better childhood .

Chapter 9: Chapter 8

Chapter Text

Did you hear?” Cyan asked me out of the blue one morning while we were having breakfast.

“Hmm? What?” I asked, still a little confused and waking up.

“About Tera Orbs! They’re the-”

“Turo finished it?!” My sister blinked at my abruptness. “Ah sorry, you were saying?”

She let out an exasperated huff of air at my interruption while I just shrugged. “Probably should have realized you would already know about it. Got your little boyfriend to tell you all about it, huh?” Her teasing tone made me retch internally at the insinuation. Eww. Not my age, not my type .

“He’s not my boyfriend.” My tone was as deadpan as it could be.

"Whatever you say," she taunted again, before giving up when I didn't respond to her prodding. I think she's just looking for something , anything, to tease me about.

Things have gotten better with us hanging out more and working on comics together, but that just means I have to deal with the standard big sibling teasing inherent in having a big sister. .

It was certainly a different dynamic to deal with. Back in my first life, I was the one with the younger sister. My situation being reversed meant I didn’t fit into the role well and was still trying to figure out how my new dynamic sometimes worked.

“Hello?” Her voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Ah, sorry about that.” I said, scratching the back of my head. Hmm, my hair’s getting long, should probably get it cut soon . “You were saying?”

She shook her head, her white bangs falling around her face. “Arceus above, I swear your head seems stuck in the clouds sometimes. Yes, the Tera Orb! Professor Turo just unveiled it as his newest invention. The news said it was going to revolutionize battles or whatever, but I guess you know all about that already.”

“No, I really don’t. Turo told Arven barely anything.” Technically true, and that’s really stretching ‘barely’ from the pretty much nothing he told Arven. Still, I don’t need Cyan questioning Arven about that at some point when she sees him . “Please, tell me about it.”

“Fiiiiiine.” She groaned and acted like it was a big deal but quickly scooted beside me, directing her own Rotom Phone to show us the news. A quick glance at the time showed it really was recent. This happened fifteen minutes ago?! Of course I hadn’t heard of it yet!

In the video, Turo looked a little bit more haggard than I’d seen him before, but that was mostly concealed by the sheer exuberance and energy he had, unveiling his new device.

"The Tera Orb is my team's creation to harness the natural power of Terastalization! The ability to change a Pokemon's type at will, a marvelous new advancement in battling! All in the palm of your hand." He lifted his hand out of his pocket at that moment, revealing the shiny black orb.

With his free hand, he held a Pokeball and released a Porygon Z from it. Then, taking the Tera Orb, he threw it above the Porygon where it burst into light and the Pokemon was transformed. Crystal energy surrounded it and on its head, in the shape of a large gem with a few smaller gems sticking out, was a crystalline crown. “The future is here, and I can’t wait to share it with all of you.” His speech dramatically concluded, the reporters burst into a stream of furious questions.

“Wow, that’s pretty incredible.” I said, half-tuning out the rest of the interview.

Cyan frowned. “You don’t sound like you think it’s incredible.”

“No no, don’t get me wrong, this is huge . In terms of battling it adds a whole new dimension onto how you fight. A couple of dimensions, really. Defensively you can change your typing to completely flip the script on incoming attacks, and offensively everyone knows how much of a boost Terastalized Pokemon can have in the wild. There’s also the question of duration, how long it lasts, when will be the best time to use it-”

“Ok ok, no need to nerd out on me you Pokefreak.” I puffed my cheeks out at that. “So you think it’s big news you just… weren’t surprised by it.” I’ll have to be careful with the things I let slip, Cyan’s actually quite intelligent herself .

“I guessed about as much when I met Turo. The rest I just studied up a bit on my own, but there’s still too little information to say how this will affect things,” I hedged. I had some theories of my own, like how it might lead to increased trade and tourism with Kitikami, the only other region that had Terastalization naturally, but that was mostly due to my unique knowledge.

Our attention was suddenly caught by something Turo said as the press conference was wrapping up. “... I’d like to give a big thanks to my team for their tireless work on this project, I couldn’t have done it without them. We also could not have achieved this without the work from generous sponsors, like Billy & O’Nare Glitterati.” Mom, Dad, just how much did you give him? Am I going to have to worry about him getting his ‘time machine’ up and running ahead of schedule?

“Wow, that’s our parents for you, always knowing the best projects to invest in! That’s their Glitterati brilliance.” I cringed for a moment before I saw Cyan giggling, revealing she was just doing a bit, not actually trying to copy our parents like that.

“Geez, don’t worry me like that! You were acting so cringey,” I said, now laughing as well. We both fell into hysterics for a bit, just laughing at their mannerisms. If it had been anyone else, I might have been upset by them making fun of my (admittedly goofy) parents, but it was something we could share as sisters.

I wonder how my real- first life family is doing? I don’t remember death or the like, so it could just be my memories and mind implanted in Nemona’s head, but maybe I did die. If I did, I hope they managed to move past it . It wasn’t the first time I’d had such thoughts, but it intruded like an ice cold knife cutting through my cheer in the moment.

“C’mon, do you really think I’d be that bad?” Cyan asked, and I did my best to pretend like everything was still fine, and that I wasn’t for reasons utterly unexplainable to her, terribly sad.

“No, no, you just did a really good job in your impression.” I quickly changed the topic, trying to use forced enthusiasm to cover up my sudden melancholy. “Hey, want to see what Dun can do? He’s gotten really strong, and I can’t wait to see him battle.”

My sister rolled her eyes. “Don’t you battle with Arven tons? I saw those fights.”

“You saw one fight- not even! You left halfway through!”

She looked sheepish at that. I will not call it Mareepish! Sheep actually exist here! And Mareep are much tougher than them . Wool is pretty tough, and an even greater deterrent when electrically charged too, something wild Mareep knew. Plus,such packs often had more experienced Flaffys or even Ampharos leading them.

“Alright fine, I’ll watch you and Dunsparce train a bit.”

“Excellent!” I cheered, scarfing down the rest of my breakfast. We raced outside and down the stairs, my sister outpacing me with her longer legs. The shore was as gorgeous a sight as ever. Sparkling blue ocean stretching out as far as the eye could see, soft golden sand beneath our feet. Chatots chattering away above us.

“Haha, I win!” Cyan said. I opened my mouth to argue that we hadn’t ‘officially’ declared a race, before thinking better of it.

“All right, here’s your prize. Let’s go, Dunsparce!” I declared dramatically as I clicked open his Pokeball.

“Aren’t you supposed to throw it?” My sister (un)helpfully added as Dunsparce reared up and… yawned lightly. I was excited for a split second before realizing that wasn’t the Move, he was just a little sleepy.

“Hush you.” I said to her before bringing up Rotom to record this. “Can you help us? I want to show off what we’ve been practicing.” My sister kneeled down and scratched the top of his head, something Dun leaned into a bit. He hadn’t been as big a fan of hers at first, but I realized that was because she tried to hug him, and he only accepted hugs from me. Anyone else trying to hold him like that got him agitated. Once I told her that, she made sure to respect his boundaries and appreciated the head scratches.

“... Of course, bzzt. You two have been working really hard.” Rotom replied hollowly. Hmm, something is definitely up with them. I’ll talk to them about it after .

“Thanks! Now, Dunsparce, time to really show Cyan here what you’re made of. You ready?”

“Sparce!” He affirmed, instantly shaking off the sleepiness, a fire in his eyes. Cyan took a few steps back to give him room to show off the fruits of his labors.

“Alright, let's start off with a Poison Jab on that tree.” I pointed at one of the palm trees standing about three times my height. Dunsparce eagerly slithered ahead, spinning around and jabbing it deep with the point of his tail. The purple ooze that coated his tail right before the impact spread quickly through the tree, giving it a withered look as it started to turn gray.

“It’s weakened, follow it up with a Body Slam!” Sure, Dunsparce already knows it’s weakened from the attack, but the commentary helps when showing off .

He wrenched his tail out, then threw himself into an all-out slam into the poisoned tree, smashing it to bits. I raised a hand up to shield myself from the splinters as it cracked and broke into a thousand pieces.

“God job, now finish things off with your biggest move. Earthquake!” I made sure to point at a boulder that was sitting on the beach (and may have been there from our efforts training days beforehand, breaking off a chunk of the cliffs nearby).

Giving a small trill of victory, Dunsparce raised himself up into the air on the tip of his tail before flopping down. The impact was much heavier than one would think was physically possible however, the Ground energy was infusing the blow. The sand rippled violently beneath our feet, sending Cyan stumbling, and then falling as the aftershocks hit. I was a bit more prepared for it, managing to ride it out by lowering my center of gravity moving with, not against the waves. We weren’t too close to take any major impact from it though. The boulder on the other hand? It was right beside Dunsparce, the waves spreading from the sand straight up through the rock, breaking it apart with ease.

“Th-that was…” Cyan said, shakily getting up.

“That was awesome! Great job Dun!” I ran over to give him a big hug, ignoring the sand that had been kicked up.

“Dun dun!” He wiggled gladly in my arms, puffing himself up a bit with pride. He should be proud, it took a lot of work to get to that point. We’ve been training for months now, getting him used to different terrains like earth and rock vs sand. He could do more damage to the ground/anything on solid ground at first, but could spread the effects further and faster with the sand. Now he’s about on par with both and I think I can say he’s entirely proficient with the Move. Same for Poison Jab, and while it isn’t as ‘flashy’ as the other two, I think he’s mastered Body Slam .

I turned around to Cyan to show off how great my Pokemon was some more, maybe demonstrate some of the more finicky maneuvers we were working on, but I saw a look of shock in her eyes at something behind me. She raised her hand to point at it as I was already whirling back around. There was movement and an angry screech from the rubble, then a burst of rock and water sliced through it and towards me.

My vision spun around me, the impact leaving me dazed and confused. I could barely tell that I was laying on the ground. A pained yell from Dunsparce caught my focus, ignoring the aches and what felt like a scrape above my eyes.

Wrenching myself up from the me-shaped divot in the sand, I saw the battle at hand. Sand and water were kicked around as Dunsparce interposed himself between me and three red squiggly worms poking out of a rock. What? Wait, that’s Wugtrio!

My starter wasn’t doing well, not using Moves beyond the occasional Flail as it panicked. My head was still spinning, Cyan screaming her head off in the background didn’t help but I pushed that aside as I rose on shaky legs. I was still trying to put the situation together, but one fact was clear to me was that Dun would be in trouble if I didn’t give an order to my Pokemon immediately. “Body Slam!”

Dunsparce stopped thrashing about in confusion and launched itself at the wormy trio, slamming hard into them. Wugtrio recoiled, shifting back and I used the opportunity to steady myself. What the heck is going on here?! We were just training and suddenly this wiggling menace appeared. It- it hit me . I wiped away a small trickle of blood dripping down towards my eyes. I’ll deal with how this happened later, I can’t let Dun lose!

Wugtrio approached again, rearing back to slam its heads onto Dunsparce. “Roll away!” I called out and Dun avoided the blow. One Wugtrio head turned to glare at me, recognizing me as a potential problem, while the other two were focused firmly on my Pokemon.

“Follow it up, Body Slam again.” I shouted, and Dun tried to do so, but Wugtrio easily circled around him, firing off rings of water. The problem made itself apparent, clumps of sand sticking to his scales and slowing him down. Some of the thin mucus surrounding the Wugtrio had stuck onto Dun from his contact and dragged him down, more sand sticking to him. The frequent water blasts didn’t help either, making him flinch and making more space between the two.

What do I do? My mind froze, for some reason stuck on the screams Cyan was making. Tearing my eyes away from the scene for a second, I yelled out to Cyan. “Go inside, get help!” Cyan cast one fearful glance back at me and bolted, running up the stairs. Good, that’ll keep her safe and I can focus. And if I fail, we might need an adult here .

“I- I’ll go help the Young Master!!” Rotom said, floating after my sister.

“Right, good,” I called back, distractedly, turning my attention to the fight. At least they’ll be safe I thought as I saw the beatdown that was taking place. Dunsparce was still valiantly trying to get close, but Wugtrio was running literal circles around him, blasting him each time as he went. Dammit, he can’t take much more of this! I instinctually moved towards him, causing two things to happen.

First, Wugtrio immediately stopped, trying to backpedal at my approach. Right, it still sees me as a threat! Better not get close though, it hit me pretty hard last time . The second was that getting a better look at Dun, I could see that he was actually doing a lot better than I thought. It still wasn’t great, he was bruised in more than a few places, but I could tell he could still take a few shots. The Water Pulses aren’t hurting him much! Wugtrio must not be a great special attacker .

My brave land snake used the opportunity Wugtrio’s sudden stop had given him to try and close the distance. I could already tell it wouldn’t be enough though, Wugtrio was still too fast and Dun too slow. “Jump up and drift!” We haven’t perfected that yet, but he’s already close. Just need the Wugtrio to back up and not try anything tricky .

Dunsparce launched itself through the air, leaping towards Wugtrio. Off the ground, the mucus didn’t have anything to catch on to and slow Dunsparce down. It also meant his move was very telegraphed, the three heads of Wugtrio giving something near a scoffing sound as it backed up and to the side slightly. Which is when Dunsparce flapped his little wings as hard as he could! Gliding and curving through the air, he fell on Wugtrio with a heavy Body Slam.

The aquatic Pokemon gave an enraged screech, suddenly changing tactics. Instead of backing up, it charged ahead, a jet of water propelling it past Dunsparce, knocking him on his side. He easily rolled back, but Wugtrio was on him again in an instant.

Rocketing around, Wugtrio kept on striking at Dunsparce, much faster than he could react to, circling around and striking him from a new angle each time he tried to get back up. Damn, is that a Priority Move? I can barely keep track of him with my eyes… Eyes that’s it!

“Glare then jab when he closes!” I shouted as quickly as I could. We’d practiced the maneuver enough that Dun knew what to do even while getting battered. He opened his eyes fully, staring with all his hatred at all three pairs of eyes atop its wobbly heads. The Wugtrio involuntarily halted its approach, its muscles seizing in fear as its momentum carried it closer to Dunsparce without any of the usual power behind its Moves. Spinning around, Dunsparce tried to Poison Jab it with his tail, purple energy surrounding the appendage.

Wugtrio managed to still pull off a speedy reversal - of direction and speed, not the Move, but still ended up grazed by Dunsparce’s tail. Not Poisoned though, it still looks too hearty for that .

“Wugtrio!!!” All three heads shouted angrily as it renewed its assault. This time it was keeping a close eye on the tail, which meant it would sometimes abort its attacks early or only strike grazing blows. It was still enough though, Dunsparce was heavily panting between taking blows, and Wugtrio’s speed was too great even with the Paralysis.

Sand sprayed near my eyes a few times, but otherwise the battle was kept away from me, letting me think and evaluate the conditions. That mucus keeps on slowing him down too…Wait I’ve got it! There was one surefire way to get rid of a debuff like that. It’s risky, but I can’t let him keep on getting hit like this!

Holding up my Pokeball, I recalled Dunsparce. His opponent disappearing in a red beam of light confused Wugtrio for a second, which was all I needed to release Dunsparce again, right beside Wugtrio, free of any mucus.

“EARTHQUAKE!” I yelled as loudly as I could, as if that would enhance the move, then jumping into the air. I think he’s resistant to it, but there’s no dodging this one . Dunsparce performed the move without question, slamming into the ground multiple times and kicking up massive waves of sand, like miniature tsunamis radiating out through the beach.

Wugtrio was already moving away, but caught off guard so close to Dun, it wasn’t able to escape the wide-ranged attack. The Move bashed it around, causing the three heads to smack into each other repeatedly. It swayed around as the Move subsided, one head dropping limp, then the second, and finally the last, draping over its rocky body? Shell? In any case, we had defeated it.

Despite the fact that I hadn’t been involved in the fighting, I was panting nearly as hard as Dun was. I can’t believe that just happened! It was moving so fast and we barely- that Earthquake was amazing, I can’t believe it did that much damage to a Water Type. Wait, are Water Types not resistant to Ground? Damn it, they aren’t! To forget something so simple… I had panicked so much I forgot basic facts like that. Definitely something I have to improve on .

Shaking aside those thoughts for later I rushed over to Dunsparce. “Buddy, you ok?”

“Spar! Un.” Dunsparce responded, still warily eyeing his fallen foe. He still placed himself between me and the fainted Wugtrio, breathing heavily and seemed pretty bruised up. Nothing worse than that though, nothing permanent, I think. Pokemon are really tough, he should be fine with some time to rest and some Potions. The Wugtrio too .

“I think he’s beaten.” Sure, I couldn’t see swirly eyes like in the anime, but it looked pretty thoroughly defeated. Dun nodded, slithering back to my side. He glanced up at his Pokeball but made no other moves towards it, desiring to remain on-guard while the Wugtrio was still near, even if it wasn’t conscious.

A few seconds later, others arrived. Staff members and Cyan were rushing down the stairs to us, my sister giving out a cry for joy when she saw that Dun and I were alright.

“You’re ok?!” My sister cried out, running over to hug me, eliciting a small ‘oof’ from me.

“Yeah, we won!” I gave a weak cheer. I’m really happy, but boy was that stressful and painful. I hope we don’t have to do anything like that again soon . Leah and the others soon surrounded me too, fretting over my wounds. They pulled out handkerchiefs to dab at my cuts, poked and prodded to check for other injuries and generally ignored my attempts to wave them off. I know I look like a mess but I’m fine now!

“I can’t believe that monster attacked you!” Cyan said, stomping over to the downed Wugtrio. If it wasn’t for two of the staff accompanying her, Pokeballs at the ready, I might have been a bit worried about the Wugtrio possibly getting back up while she was too close. “We need to have it-”

“Safely relocated!” I interrupted her.

“Why? That thing attacked you for no reason!” She demanded and I blinked, caught off guard by her anger before seeing the worry behind her anger, biting her lip and hands clenched into fists. She saw her little sister just get hurt and couldn’t do anything about it, of course she’s upset .

Recognizing that, I discarded any high minded, philosophical arguments on why not to hurt a downed foe. “I don’t think they did attack us for ‘no reason’.” Very rarely was a Pokemon so aggressive, and even the ones that were more violent tended to be more on the highly territorial side than actively malicious. So why would it have jumped out from- oh .

“They were probably living in that boulder there.” We had knocked it down several days ago, so it wasn’t hard to believe that another Pokemon could have taken up residence in some nook inside the big rock. “When we destroyed it, they saw us as attacking them and destroying their home.”

“I- fine,” she crossed her arms. “But let’s make sure it’s placed far away from here.”

“No disagreements here.” She was still frowning, but there wasn’t anything I could do about that. Her and the others were worked up into a frenzy worrying about me and it would take a few minutes to calm down. I was helped by the fact that I saw the battle end, but I’d still probably have the jitters for a few hours.

So close to serious injury over an accident. I wonder if I might have been able to communicate with them, if we could have worked this out without a full fight… but then again, if I’d tried to hold off on fighting back, Dunsparce might have lost too .

I resolved to worry about could-have-beens later, and for the moment just be grateful that everyone was alive and well.

Chapter 10: Chapter 9

Chapter Text

“Oh, how could this have happened? To our darling daughters!” Father wailed, hugging both of us tightly.

“But look how they handled the dangerous situation with such aplomb! Such ingenious!” Mother responded, looking at us in awe. We just squirmed awkwardly in Billy’s grasp until he let us go. It was a short-lived reprieve, followed by O’Nare hugging us just as tightly. It really wasn’t that clever. I just beat on Wugtrio until she was defeated .

Our parents had raced back after they heard about the incident. It didn’t look like they were going to be too upset towards us, which I was quite grateful for as Anise and the other staff had already chewed me out.

I hadn’t tried to ‘escape’ their watchful eyes in a while - not since my birthday party almost half a year ago now. Technically, I hadn’t been trying to on the day we fought the Wugtrio either. I just got so excited about showing off Dunsparce to Cyan that I hadn’t thought to inform the staff before we left and no one managed to notice us before we were gone.

Hopefully none of them get fired over it. Hamber was quite upset about it all, but I think he’s reserving judgment until seeing how my parents react . Hamber was the majordomo of the house. He had gray hair with a weird L-shape that covered his left eye, which was either somehow the natural pattern of his hair, or a very carefully maintained style.

I didn’t interact with him much but he mostly seemed to co-ordinate the staff with Billy and O’Nare’s wishes, in the time he had been with us. He had come to my parents highly recommended from… someone, couldn’t recall who, and been given the position of majordomo straight away, not long after we moved here.

Billy let us go, taking another good look at us. I had a few bandages still from a few cuts and scrapes from the incident a few days ago, but nothing serious, and Cyan was fine. “I suppose it should be expected of our Glitterati daughters to deal with dangerous situations so handily, even if it still brings me worry.”

“We’re fine,” I insisted, trying my best to look serious, though I was sure it seemed more like a pout on my childish face. “The Wugtrio was just scared, and Dunsparce managed to protect me. She’s been moved somewhere safe, so there’s no worries.” It’s a shame I was getting looked at/basically grounded when the Ranger they called came in. I’d have loved to ask them about their job. One of the staff used a Pokeball to keep Wugtrio safe and sound in stasis till they arrived, but then it must have been handed off to the Ranger, having the automatic connection broken from the system that records the captures. Then I guess they move the Pokemon to a new location and break the Auric signature connection that a Pokeball has with the Pokemon? Argh, so many questions .

My thoughts were interrupted by O’Nare saying something worrying. “Hmm, maybe we should put a fence around the property, to stop any more wild Pokemon from getting too close.”

“No!” I shouted instantly. Both my parents turned to me looking curiously at me for an explanation. “Uhh…” I stalled. I can’t just say that it’s because I want to be closer to the wonderful nature of this world. That’d be selfish, given that we did have a dangerous incident. But still…

“It would ruin the lovely view of our estate,” I tried, sheepishly. Mother’s eyes widened in surprise before smiling at her for that.

“Such brilliance, as to be expected from our daughter.”

“Cyan made sure to get help right away,” I pointed out. A small fib, but Billy and O’Nare already pay enough attention to me .

“That’s right, we have such amazing daughters!” Cyan’s beaming smile in response to the praise was almost blinding. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long, her smile dropping with mother’s next sentence. “I will have to tell everyone in the realty group about you!”

“You’re leaving already?” She asked, crestfallen as O’Nare nodded. She soon mustered back up and asked “Have you decided where we’re going on vacation?”

“Oh, I’m afraid we won’t be able to go on a family vacation this summer. The Paldean Realty Group is simply swamped with requests. In fact, I really must be getting back right now.”

“Ah, you’re so punctual!” Billy said, raising a hand up as if to shield his eyes from his wife’s ‘brilliance’. “It reminds me that I’m needed back at my company too. We’re working on a new ‘Terastralized’ Phone Case.”

That clicked together a lot of pieces for me. Right, Turo name dropped them during his press conference. With all the buzz surrounding this new item, everyone must be sucking up to them, making new deals… they’ll be busier than ever .

My parents had one more surprise as before leaving, father handed me a shiny black orb, about Pokeball sized. “Wait, this is-”

“That’s right, it’s a Tera Orb! The Professor was so grateful to our little donation that he offered you one.” I raised an eyebrow at the idea of their donation being ‘little’ - I’d seen the zeros on that cheque, before getting caught up with the issue at hand. How did he send it so fast- oh right, I live in a world where beings that can fly faster than the speed of sound or just outright teleport can work delivery jobs . Then I caught on to the second half of that sentence.

“Me specifically?” I didn’t realize I’d made that big an impact on him, or that he’d remember me that much. Or if he did, it wouldn’t be anything good .

“He said he wished he could pay us back for our donation more, but yes, he was quite interested in you too. He said you were very intelligent and he’d expect great things from you.” Why do I feel like Peter Parker after Norman Osborn takes an interest in him? “Go on and try it out,” Billy encouraged, giving me the instructions on how to do so. I could see Hamber in the background sighing and quickly gesturing to some of the other staff to clear space in the living room for us to do this.

“Ah, ok.” I released Dunsparce, who looked around a bit confused at my parents being here before yawning. Stifling a yawn myself - Am I just tired, or is he getting close to learning that Move? It’d be a huge add-on to his arsenal - I told him what we were doing. “We’re going to try the Terastalization thing, ok Dun? Let me know how it feels.” I didn’t expect there would be any problems even ‘early on’ in the Tera Orbs usage but felt I should mention it anyway.

Dunsparce remained ever undaunted, eager to try out this new technique - it had been what everyone had been talking about online, and we’d been stuck inside since the Wugtrio attack, it had been what we’d been looking into a lot.

The ‘button’ around the orb was what you used to start the Terastalization, though it didn’t really need to be pressed, just lightly brushing it with my thumb was enough to start the process. The sphere was shaking around violently in my grip, enough that I had to grasp it with my other hand to keep a hold on it as the energy built up. After two seconds I was losing control of it, so I lifted it up and clumsily tossed it up above Dunsparce, where it cracked open and released a blinding amount of light. In an instant, Dunsparce was covered in a bunch of crystal blocks before they broke open and revealed the shiny, jewel hat-wearing Dunsparce beneath.

“Duuuuuun!” He roared out, wiggling in glee, my parents, sister, and myself watching in awe. It was honestly breathtaking to see in real life and not on a Switch or TV screen. Even the much-maligned ‘jewel hat’ thing looks less derpy in real life. Though, that might just be due to Dun’s proportions compared to other Pokemon .

My starter was busy reveling in the transformation. It didn’t look like the hat slowed down his movements or unbalanced him at all, which was nice. I didn’t order any attacks inside (and so soon after the Wugtrio incident wasn’t going to suggest going outside), but I knew he’d be stronger like this. Body Slam was already his strongest Move, but now it could be an incredible damage dealer against any non-Ghost, Steel, or Rock types.

Cyan cooed over how ‘adorable’ Dunsparce looked, which had him a little upset (not that she picked up on it) until I praised his strength, which had him back to preening at the attention. He flexed and posed, and our Rotom Phones took some photos and videos of Dunsparce being Teratalized for the next few minutes before it finally wore off.

When it did, the crystal sheen seemed to disintegrate off of him, coalescing back into the Tera Orb. Huh, I kinda forgot about where that went in the excitement. Did it become a part of Dunsparce or just like, disappear to a pocket dimension? I really need to learn more about the science of this world . Picking it up, I could see the shine that had been inside it had diminished, leaving the black ball very dull.

I wondered how I was going to be able to re-use it now, but Billy answered before I could even ask. "Ah, Professor Turo mentioned that you won't be able to use it again until it's recharged. Don’t worry dear, some of our engineering department has been hired to help install charging stations at Pokemon centers throughout the region." My eyes widened. He says it so easily, but this sounds like a massive undertaking that probably involves more than just the Rotom Phone Company. I guess that's another part of why they're so busy .

“Oh, that reminds me,” Mother snapped her fingers, turning to face Hamber. “We’ll need to do a bit of remodeling to install one of those recharger things here, so Nemona can use hers more. It shouldn’t take too much room in the living space, just a pedestal to place it on. Maybe by the entrance?” I tuned them out a bit as they discussed some of the architectural details, the remodeling needing to be done for the new wiring and the like to accommodate it.

That cannot be cheap, this is cutting-edge technology! Government contracts are being done to upgrade the Pokemon Centers… though, considering who we are and the additional crazy amounts of money my parents must be making right now, they can probably afford it. My mind still boggled sometimes at the sheer amount of money I had been born into in this life.

They quickly left after that, heading back out to manage their busy companies that made them said money. Dunsparce got recalled to my Pokeball, in good cheer and generally healthy, but looking a little puffed, like he would at the end of a good workout session.

I noticed Cyan was glued to her phone, looking over the video she had made of Dunsparce’s first Terastalization.

“How’s he look?” I asked.

“Good,” she said happily, but I saw a small frown on her face. Not upset, really, but, like something was bothering her, even if she didn’t truly understand it. “The video is getting a ton of views already, we’re over 10,000 and count-”

“You could get a Pokemon too, you know.” I trailed off awkwardly after suddenly interrupting her. “I think Mom and Dad could get you a Tera Orb as well, if you wanted.”

Cyan looked consideringly at me, then back at the video she’d taken and already posted for the world. “I mean, I guess? It does sound fun… but I’d need to get my Junior License, and I haven’t studied that stuff like you.”

“Hmm, well, you’re almost eleven. You could actually apply early for a full trainer license. The requirements for that aren’t much more than the Junior License.” It was a bit of an archaic rule, and there wasn’t the ‘tradition’ that you had to go on a journey in Paldea as soon as you got your license, but it was an option. “I could help you study for it! Uh, if you wanted.”

She scrunched her face up cutely, deep in thought before finally nodding. “If we’re not going on vacation this year, then at least I can get a Pokemon! I want someone cute! And friendly. And-”

“Lets focus on making sure you pass first, ok? But yeah, we can discuss who you’re looking for in a partner and find someone to suit you.” To be fair, Pokemon as different species do have certain traits they tend towards, so looking for someone who will be compatible with you isn’t a bad idea. I just hope she takes into account their feelings as an individual too .

I realized that Cyan had already marched off to her bedroom to begin studying and ran after her.

“Bzzt, are you sure this is a good idea?” Rotom asked, floating by me. I stopped to answer them.

“Aha, well it will be a good deal of work,” I admitted. “But yeah, I think it’s worth it, it’s nice to see her happy, and working towards a goal for herself rather than being upset that our parents are busy.” Rotom looked at me oddly, so I tried explaining it further. “When there’s something that’s bugging you but there’s nothing you can do to fix it at the time, it helps to focus on something else until you can address the problem.”

“Bzzt, what if there’s nothing you can do in the long term either?” There’s that hitch in their voice… something is up .

“Then you have to change your approach, find a new angle to deal with the problem. Nothing is insurmountable if you put your mind to it.” Not in this world, at least . “Is there some issue you have? I could help-”

“We should go and help the Young Master with her studies, bzzt.” They cut me off. I gave them a skeptical glance before nodding slowly.

“Sure, sounds good.” Definitely something going on here, but I’ll let them handle it on their own… for now. If they’re still acting odd after we’re done helping Cyan, I’ll confront them more directly . “Thanks for all the help Rotom, I really appreciate it.” I added, before running off after my sister.

Chapter 11: Chapter 10

Chapter Text

“Argh, why is this so complicated?” I complained to no one as I slumped over my desk. With all the writing I had been doing in my notebooks my parents (or more likely the staff) had ordered a mahogany desk for me. I’ll probably outgrow it in half a year, tops .

“Perhaps because you decided to look up the construction of an incredibly complicated machine, bzzt?” Rotom answered dryly.

I let out a heavy sigh. “I mean, yeah, I guess. But this is old . The ZERO-One is decades old by now.” This was part of why it was easy to just look up the schematics for it - Professor Oak had freely published them.

“True, bzzt. It looks like Professor Mirror has made a far upgraded version with his own research survey. It can even hover and teleport-”

“Shut upppp,” I groaned. Well, I probably needed this wakeup call. Everyone has been praising my ‘intelligence’ for so long that I started to get a swollen head. Then I look up stuff like this and see how far out of my depth I am .

My studies with Cyan at least were going well so far. While she was technically ahead of me on other topics, we both knew that Pokemon were a field I knew far more than her about. To her credit, she hadn’t complained or been grumpy about me being ‘better’ than her here, and just tried to take in everything I could teach her. I got to learn a few things too. Little details I had missed in my self-guided studies thus far or hadn’t memorized thoroughly enough. No matter how panicky I get, I’m never going to let basic type match-ups get the better of me again .

However, there were still times when my sister was busy, just focusing on reading the material she’d need to apply for her full Trainer’s License or her other studies (she was adamant that this wouldn’t cause her to fall behind in her other subjects). Which left me free to do my own studies. Seeing the construction of the advanced machinery for the Tera Recharge Station inside our own house, I decided to try my hand at some of the mechanics of this world.

Should have remembered just how advanced this world is. Even excluding Pokeballs, the technology of this world is insane . It gave me a newfound respect for the title of ‘Pokemon Professor.’ To achieve it, you basically had to be an omni-disciplinary scientist, existing on the cutting edge of physics, biology, engineering, and even sociology, as a bare minimum.

I suppose there’s a good reason why they’re respected worldwide, in a similar way to Champions, even if in different fields. Kinda crazy to realize that Professor Oak did both . The idea that some people had of me potentially reaching that level seemed crazy. They don’t know that I’m a cheat, coasting on knowledge ahead of my years .

That sprouted a small worry in me, of failing drastically as I got older, but that was only a small part of my worries. I could and would deal with that by applying myself further right now, learning as much as I could about the world. Whether or not I’d reach the level of Professor didn’t matter, not as much as stopping Turo.

He was the real deal. Researching some of the things he’d done, even as a child at Uva Academy… it felt insane, and it highlighted just how dangerous he could be. And I’ll have to stop him. Hopefully, we’ll have the ‘Player Character’ with us too, but I still want to be more prepared. I don’t think trying to counter-hack the Pokeballs will work if Penny can’t manage it, but it won’t hurt to look the basic designs up .

I cleared the ZERO-ONE schematics before bringing up some of the standard Pokeball ones. Pokeballs had been around so long that they weren’t copyright protected or anything like that, though it was technically illegal to make one of your own that wasn’t connected to the League’s systems.

“Are you sure about this, bzzt? Pokeballs may be smaller than that transport relic you were looking at, but they’re still quite complicated. Bzzt, maybe try something easier to start?” Rotom helpfully suggested.

“Oh, I know it’s gonna be tough. This will be a long term project, but I still want to start. If I’m to be a good trainer, I should know a bit more about where I’m putting my Pokemon beyond just, ‘on my belt,’ right?” I paused before adding “Can you bring up some dietary and nutritional guides as well? Thanks Rotom, I should probably know what I’m feeding my Pokemon as well, and it’ll give me something to talk with Arven about.”

I might still have a long way to go, but I’ve got time and a plan. For now, that’ll have to be enough .

***

“Name three Pokemon commonly found in grassy fields.”

“Uhh, Lechonk, Tarountula,... Budew?” She said, and I double-checked my answer card even though I knew Cyan was correct.

“Yes, those are all correct. What should you do if your Pokemon is injured and you don’t have any Potions on hand?”

“Call a Flying Taxi.” That’s not the right answer, but it is a reasonable attempt in the real world .

“That’s a good idea, but the Taxi might not get there in time. What can you do to try and make them better in the meantime?”

“Oh, right! See if I can find a Berry to feed them, like an Oran or a Sitrus Berry.”

“Correct! Alright, here’s a trickier one. When riding a Cyclizar in Glassedo Mountains, what should you always bring with you?”

“Ummm, a camera to take pictures of all the gorgeous sights?” I facepalmed at her last answer. So close, but not quite there .

“No, you should take Freeze Heal and heat packs. Cyclizars are commonly ridden for their speed, but they get cold very easily. With how icy it is on those mountains and how many Ice types there are, you need to make sure your Pokemon doesn’t freeze while carrying you. Dressing warmly is probably a good idea too.”

“Ah, right. So, how did I do?” Cyan asked as she saw I was out of cue cards.

I stretched out in the chair I was sitting in. “Not bad. You got 16 out of 25.” She let out a whimper that made me wonder for half a second if Maschiff was here. “Hey, that’s not bad! We’ve got a month to get that up.”

“Yeah, but I need to get twenty two correct to pass.” She was still biting her lip, a bit worried.

“And you’ll do great. Look how much you’ve already improved from a month of practice.” Admittedly, there’s only ‘up’ to go from getting three questions right, but saying that won’t help . “Hey, what Pokemon do you want to get once you get your license?” Hopefully, this will distract her a bit. Understanding your weaknesses is one thing, but she’s just beating herself up here .

That did seem to distract her, Cyan’s mood flipping around as she considered the question. “Oh that’s a tough one. There’s a lot of cute Pokemon out there, like Skitty or Amaura or Swablu…”

Stifling a chuckle I said “True, they are very cute, but you should also think of how they’ll get along with you. Everyone Pokemon is there own person, but certain lines have different tendencies.”

“Hmm, I don’t know. Are there any Pokemon known for being beautiful, artistic, and very intelligent?”

“I- uhhh,” scrambling to try and pick a Pokemon that embodied all of those traits. “Well, Smeargle’s are known to be great artists.” When she made a face at the idea, I added “They can learn almost any Move too by sketching it out, so even though they aren’t the toughest they can be tricky battlers-”

“No offense Nims, but I’ll leave the battling to you.” I had to resist sighing and acting like an old Grognard and pointing out that ‘not enough young people are taking the gym challenge these days!’ In truth, plenty of people still at least attempted it and in an era of peace it was hardly a requirement for everyone to go through those challenges to secure their future. After a moment she added “I’ll think on it, but maybe not my starter. They seem kinda weird.”

They do have a kinda odd appearance, I get it . As much as I believed in the potential inherent in any Pokemon, that anyone could do great and every Pokemon was probably someone’s favorite, I had my own preferences too. There were some Pokemon I probably wouldn’t seek out to join my team because I thought they looked dumb and were generally weak.

“Fine, as for intelligent, most Psychic Types are pretty smart. Gardevoirs are known for their beauty as well. Florges are rather pretty and have been friends of royalty in the past, helping them make beautiful gardens.” I had always wondered why king/war criminal AZ had a Floette, but looking it up, it was apparently quite a common thing for royalty in Kalos, back in the day. “Oh, and there’s Milotic. It’s not particularly noted for intelligence or artistry (though it definitely could be great at both), but it is said to be the most beautiful Pokemon.”

With Rotom’s help, I pulled up a few images of the Pokemon in question, which Cyan was instantly awed by. “Whoa, that Gardevoir looks so elegant. Oh man, Florges are so beautiful, I know a model who has one just like that! And that Milotic is gorgeous! How hard do you think it would be to get a Milotic Egg?”

“It would be a Feebas Egg first, it needs to evolve to become a Milotic. And I don’t know. They aren’t native to Paldea though.” She thought about my words, looking over the Pokemon a few more times before nodding her head.

“Alright, I’ll think on this, but for now I’m going to go over the book a bit more. Do you have anything else to do or are you going to drool over Leon some more?” She said, referencing a battle video I’d tried showing her earlier that day.

“Wha- I was admiring Cynthia’s battles, not Leon’s, he just happened to be her opponent in one of the videos you saw.” She snickered anyway, but I maturely ignored it. “But no, I’m gonna do some more training!”

“Alright, just make sure you tell-”

“I’ll tell Leah, don’t worry.” I learned my lesson very well, thank you . It had been a month since the ‘Wugtrio incident’, so things were calming down around the house, but people could still get a bit antsy about me heading outside.

After leaving her room, I did indeed tell Leah about what I was doing and she made sure to accompany me outside. The house was kept in quite fine order as usual, so she didn’t have anything else she needed to be doing there. They can get super obsessed with dusting and keeping it spotless at times. Like, I know that’s a lot of their job, but still .

I breathed in the fresh air easily, sprinting down to the beach, Leah trailing behind me. We did plenty of training on the trails or in the grass too, though never too far from home. The beach was just my favorite spot for it due to the wide open space it provided. The sand was annoying, but I almost always had a shower from how sweaty I’d get after training regardless.

“Hey Dun, ready for another session?” I said.

“Dun.” He responded. Hmm, a bit less enthusiastic than he usually is about this, but still agreeing . I was getting better at reading Dunsparce’s mood and what he meant now, but it still wasn’t perfect; one time I had mistaken a stomach ache for being depressed, much to my chagrin (and Dunsparce’s amusem*nt, after the fact).

I thought I had an idea about why he was feeling the way he was now, but decided to hold off on questioning him until after our training. “Ok Dunsparce, I want you to give me the biggest yawn you can. Try to imbue it with as great a feeling of ‘sleepiness’ or tiredness as you can.”

To his credit, the Dunsparce really tried, the winged snake giving his best open-mouth yawn. Without any wild Pokemon around, I was the test subject for that Move to see how well it could work. Which was not fairly well, to be honest. I wasn’t ‘letting’ any potential Move work on me, but I wasn’t an active combatant either and I was not feeling at all tired. This will need some work before it’s viable in battle. I wonder what’s the big issue, I remember Yawn being a Move that Dunsparce can learn naturally .

After a couple dozen more attempts that only got a slight yawn of my own in return, I decided to table the Yawn training. He’s fully awake now and the frustration he’s feeling will only be counterproductive to attempting the technique . “Alright, let’s work on your flight technique.”

Dunsparce perked up a bit at that, wiggling in anticipation. The ‘flight’ training was difficult in its own way, but I could see why my adorable winged snake liked it more than Yawn training; at least with this, the more effort he put in, the more apparent results he got.

“Go for longer wing flaps over shorter, rapid motion,” I suggested. He still had to flap his wings fairly fast, but I thought I saw a bit more air time between his jumps.

He was still a ways away from ‘true’ flight, but his control and maneuverability had improved by leaps and bounds. By shifting his tail he could change his direction easier in the air while his wings worked to keep him aloft. Maneuverability is key in Pokemon battles. Dunsparce isn’t very fast, so this will just have to be one of the tricks he has to keep up with faster Pokemon .

“Good job, that was better than last time we did this drill.” Dunsparce made a disagreeing sound. “No, it was definitely better. Rotom, he lasted longer than before, right?”

“That’s correct, bzzt. Dunsparce remained aloft for 1.3 seconds longer than he did in the longest stretch last week.” For some reason, Rotom’s affirmation just had Dunsparce arguing with the plasma Pokemon. Though there always seemed to be a bit of tension between them. I wonder why?

Crouching down I said to Dunsparce, “I know it might not feel like much, but you’re improving every day.” He opened an eye skeptically before flopping down a little. I continued, deciding to share my hypothesis. “You improved tons early on, but now you’re wondering why it’s suddenly slowed down so much, right? I think it’s cause you haven’t been battling much.”

He raised his head, looking at me confused. “So, we can improve your base fighting ideas, your mobility, your Moves, and even your technique,” I said, the last category being my sort of ‘catch-all’ for fighting concepts that didn’t fall into the other categories or things like Ability or Type. We’d been working on a few such concepts, like teaching him to block with his tail if an attack came close and he couldn’t get out of the way. “And those have gone well, but there’s a theory that Pokemon grow best when pushed in battle. Whether it's fighting for your life in the wilds or for glory against other trainers. You get to learn and experience more from those challenges than any self-imposed conditions can give. So that’s why we’re going to do that.”

Dunsparce suddenly seemed to shrink in on himself, before doing his best to give me a resolute nod, but he was still shaking. Huh? Why’s he so scared- I thought for half a second before realizing what I had said. “We aren’t going to go out in the wilderness and risk our lives!! I was just talking about finding some other trainers, maybe a low level tournament.”

He let out a huge sigh of relief. Silly guy. Jeez, we’ll go exploring eventually, and there will be some risks, but I want most of our training to be controlled and safe. Man, I can barely keep my eyes open right now… I nearly drifted off for a moment before snapping out of it. “Dun! Right there, that sigh! It was almost like Yawn! It must be more than just a feeling of tiredness - you need to project a sense of safety into the move, so the other Pokemon feels that and would be naturally inclined to rest.”

Dunsparce perked up, doing a jump, flipping in the air with joy at the breakthrough. That didn’t help his subsequent attempts at the move however, his exuberance hindered his attempts. Still, I think we’re on the right path and things are gonna go well .

Chapter 12: Chapter 11

Chapter Text

“I passed I passed I passed!” Cyan screamed, running into my room. Guess she’s back from Alfornada. I thought she’d be back later with the fashion show there . She was grinning broadly and had probably been running as soon as she was dropped off from the flying taxi into my room, her hair a little messier than it usually was (which reminded me that my hair was getting pretty long and I’d want to get it cut short for the summer).

I smoothly shifted away one of the notebooks I had been working on as I turned to face her. ‘Legendary Pokemon and where to find them’ would raise enough eyebrows on its own, even without me cross-referencing the lore of this world and my meta-knowledge.

“That’s great! Have you decided on-”

“A Popplio,” she declared firmly.

“Ah, that’s a good choice. I’m surprised though, I didn’t think they were ones you were looking at?” I inquired. Not that I’m complaining, mind. Any of the Alola starters are really cool and strong .

“I wasn’t at first, but when you mentioned Milotic I started looking into some other aquatic Pokemon. Primarina is almost as beautiful as a Milotic, a great singer and dancer, and even as a Popplio they’ll be able to travel with me on the land way easier than a Feebas could.” Thinking ahead, that’s a good sign .

“Sounds good, but how do you plan on getting one?”

She waved my concerns aside. “I already reached out and I’ll have an egg sent from some five star breeders in Alola.” She said, pointing at her phone. “Oh! I’m so excited, my Primarina, she’s going to be the most beautiful singer in the world! Did you know that they’re really hard workers?”

“No, I didn’t,” I admitted. Always so much to discover in this world . “Well, good for you, I know you studied tons. But if you want to evolve her to a Primarina, you’ll need to train her plenty.”

“Urk! That’s true. Could you help me with that?”

“Of course, I’d be happy to!” My sister froze at my words, or maybe the smile on my face.

“Nevermind, I take it back, she can remain a Popplio forever.” I glared at her for a second before my expression broke at the sight of her own twitching lip and we both broke out into laughter. She trusts me, and honestly, I trust her too. We’ve come a long way from where we started .

“Just remember that your Popplio might not always perfectly get along with you-” I began before she interrupted me.

“And to put in the work and understanding yada yada,” she waved my concerns off. “I get it.” I scratched the back of my head sheepishly. I guess I did go on a bit about my views there when I was helping her study. In my defense, I don’t get many captive audiences people who I can talk to about this .

I still went online at times to see what kinds of views people held on that, but most of the talk was dominated by the Tera Orbs. Months later the ‘hype’ around them still hadn’t died. ‘My’ video had gone viral right away, and still got tons of likes and views, being one of the first, but several more had joined since, getting way more views. Most commenters were nice, but some were really rude, especially being upset about the fact that I had Dunsparce, of all things. I did my best to ignore those people.

In part, I suspected it was because there hadn’t been a big tournament with them yet, so everyone was waiting to see how well they could do. Overseas, people were waiting to see how this stacked up against Z-Moves, Dynamax, and Mega-Evolution.

“Alright, alright. I’m surprised you’re back so early. I thought you were going to see Tulip’s fashion show.” She wasn’t a gym leader yet, but Tulip was still a model and a rising star, according to my sister at least.

“I know, but I just got so excited I had to come back here and talk about Pokemon!” She paused as she realized what she said. “Oh no, now I’m going to be an obsessed Pokefreak like you!” She wailed.

“Hey! It’s not like people like Tulip aren’t interested in Pokemon either. She’s actually a really strong Psychic Type specialist- and she’s gone.” My sister immediately started running back out of my room and down the stairs at that.

“Oh wow, I gotta get back then. If I hurry I can still get there in time to watch the show and maybe ask her some questions about beauty and Pokemon tips!” She shouted as she rushed down the stairs. With a small groan, I got up from where I was sitting (tired from having already done a workout for the day), and chased after her.

“Wait up!” I said as we got outside. She already had her Rotom Phone out and was using it to call the Flying Taxi down.

“Hmm? Do you want to come with me?” I paused, considering it for a moment. It’d be interesting to get to talk to Tulip before she becomes a Gym Leader. But on the other hand, I’m not sure how much of a chance I’d get, and it’ll mean sitting through a boring fashion show beforehand .

I thought it over for a moment. Fashion shows aren’t really my thing, and I honestly doubt we’ll actually manage to get that much free advice from Tulip about battling at the end of a fashion show. Spending more time with my sister however, wouldn’t hurt . “Sure.”

“Ok- oh, our ride’s here.” Cyan pointed up, and the taxi was already descending down. Wow, that was fast. Perks of a rich family, I guess . Flying Taxis would often come to help people out for free, or very little cost, if they found a trainer stranded in the wilderness. They could also be used for transport from city to city for a standard fare, though for extra pay like my family could afford, apparently, you could get them to come much faster than they’d otherwise be.

“Wait, I left Rotom recharging! Just a second,” I said, running back through the house to grab Rotom off their charging dock. 47% charge. That could last a couple of days, we should be fine .

“Wha- young miss?” They said, a bit shocked as I woke them from their slumber.

“Sorry, gonna head to Alfornada wanna come with?” I blurted out. They blinked for a second before they slowly bobbed up and down.

“Bzzt, that would be acceptabl-” Grabbing them, I raced back outside. “Wait-!”

I ran and jumped into the Flying Taxi that was already beginning to take off. “Geez! You couldn’t wait one minute?” I complained as I rolled over the side of the basket and inside the taxi.

“Nooooo. The fashion show starts in five minutes!” Cyan complained putting her hands on her hips.

“Oh, are you going to be able to make it?” At my doubts, the pilot just chuckled. He was a middle-aged man with an aviator's cap and goggles. I’d seen him a few times when I’d been on the Flying Taxi before, and knew he often covered this area of Paldea.

“Not to worry young missies. My Sqwakabilly team will get you there in the blink of an eye. Double time fellas!” He called out to the four birds above us, and we suddenly rocketed ahead. I fell back a bit, holding on to the edge.

“Wow, that’s impressive. How do they coordinate so well?” I shouted over the wind. All four of them moving at once in synchronization like that must take a lot of work. Just one bird pulling just a little bit too hard or lightly would unbalance the whole thing .

“They chatter and communicate with each other. Also comes from finding the right balance, I find. I’ve got mostly White plumage Sqwakabillys, they’re very team-oriented, with a Yellow plumed one to lead the others.” He explained.

I nodded thinking about it for a few minutes. My silence prompted Cyan to speak up. “Pokedollar for your thoughts?”

“Just thinking about team-building. Pokemon battles are more than just a series of one vs. one matches, they’re all about how your team functions as a whole. You could easily have a team entirely weaker individually than your opponent, but still win because you organized them better.” Rotom hovered in as well, slightly interested too.

“How so, bzzt? Should not the strongest team win?”

“Well, there are set-up moves, ways to put an opponent at a steep disadvantage even if your first Pokemon loses the fight. Controlling the terrain so that your other Pokemon can continue to use it well even after a Pokemon has fainted, etc. Also just switching around to gain type advantage.” Really, I’m just scratching the surface of how complicated full-scale battles can be. A lot of the videos I’ve studied have shown even things I wouldn’t have expected, like an errant Ice Beam that ‘missed’, can be critically important to the match, 3 or 4 Pokemon later when an opponent has trouble keeping their footing on that section of the battlefield .

I didn’t have time to get into it any further because we were already arriving at Alfornada.

We crested over the rocky ridge separating Alfornada from the rest of Paldea, getting my first glimpse of the city. It was clearly bigger than it was in the games, with more buildings and people stretching out further towards the ocean in this world. Still, it held a rather picturesque image.

Hmm, no, not ‘picturesque’ exactly. It still feels secluded and cozy, however, with the ocean spread out in front of it and the rocky cliffs supporting its back . The largest building by far was a cylindrical one with a flat top, and a large set of stairs winding up around the outside of it to reach the top.

I think there’s a Dark Type gym leader here currently? I hadn’t kept up too much with the current gym leaders since a lot of them would have changed by the time I was anywhere near challenging them. Larry and Kofu were the only ones who were currently Gym Leaders, and the former wasn’t an Elite Four yet.

There were plenty of amenities, but it wasn’t a huge city. Part of me wondered what led to it being built in the first place, as isolated as it was. If it had been built onto the water I’d understand it as a port connection, but it very purposefully doesn’t extend that far. Maybe it was the victim of one conquest or another that stalled out. If the leader of an empire, warband, or budding nation fell, then the people in the new colony might have just settled down on the spot, now wanting to take their chances with the chaos and anarchy further away or closer in . There were a lot of cases like that in Pladea’s history.

“C’mon, we’re here. Stop daydreaming and let’s goooo!” Cyan said, taking me out of my thoughts, and causing me to realize we’d landed.

“Ah, sorry. Thank you for the ride!” I said to the taxi man, and then repeated for the Squwakabillys as I clambered out, then rushed after my sister. I had a bad habit of getting lost in my thoughts if I wasn’t doing anything important at that exact moment; there was just so much to discover! So many new things to think about. Even as I followed my sister, I was wondering what kind of Pokemon lived around here.

The fashion show had already begun by the time we arrived, but only by a couple minutes, and (after a bit of name-dropping from Cyan), we were allowed inside. The fashion show had a catwalk the audience was gathered around it, much like I was ever-so-vaguely aware was the case in my previous life.

What was more unusual was the lighting which was largely handled by Pokemon hanging near the rafters. Occasionally they’d do Moves or something like that to modulate the lighting as different models walked up and down. And the models could be very different indeed as some of them were Pokemon!

The Pokemon admittedly seemed to just be wearing accessories usually, not full outfits like the models, but it was another element of integration I hadn’t anticipated. There were plenty of (thankfully smaller) Pokemon out of their Pokeballs watching the show too. I even saw one Pikachu sitting atop a girl’s head, lightly tugging at her hair and excitedly pointing at a Ponyta in an ascot that had just pranced onto the stage.

With it being acceptable, I decided to let Dunsparce out too. He gave a confused noise before I picked him up off the ground to get a better look at what was going on… which still left him confused. “It’s a fashion show,” I explained. “They’re wearing fancy clothes and accessories. Let me know if you like any of them.” Fashion wasn’t my thing, but I didn’t want to deprive my Pokemon of that if they wanted anything like that.

Dunsparce adopted a look of intense concentration at that, making a few approving sounds at some of the different Pokemodels. I wish I could tell the connections though. The Riolu had little booties on and the Hariyama had large rings, none of which Dunsparce could wear. Only the crown the Dolliv was wearing-

“Wait, those are just Pokemon you want to battle against,” I said, suddenly realizing how Dun had taken my words.

“Spar, sparce!” He agreed happily. If I wasn’t busy holding him, I would have facepalmed. As it was, I laughed out loud, which attracted a few stares from people nearby and a glare from my sister (though it wasn’t loud enough to draw too much attention away from the show). “Du?” He asked, curiously, and I shook my head.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Fashion isn’t my biggest thing either.” I put him back in his ball (since he was decently heavy for my childlike body to hold up) when I saw her enter. A cloud of pink smoke filled the stage at first, created by a Florges and Kirlia standing just backstage. Out of it, Tulip strode onto the catwalk, to much excitement from the crowd. Tulip was wearing a long, dazzling dress with a small train, many symbols of different types woven into the fabric and glittering in the light.

“Impressive. I wonder what type of move they did to make that. Maybe Misty Terrain?” I wondered aloud. The ground around the catwalk wasn’t lingering with the pinkish energy I would have suspected from that, but Tulip did have an ethereal air about her. Possibly a variant of the move .

A lot of trainers, pretty much all of them really, invented ‘variants’ of standard Moves for their Pokemon after a certain point. These Moves tended to be harder to copy and replicate than the standard ones Pokemon could learn, naturally or through Technical Machines. Things like Ash’s ‘Counter Shield’. Announcers and the like would hype them up a lot, but on closer analysis, they were often fairly similar to other ‘base’ Moves (understandable given the vast plethora of techniques out there) with just a few trade-offs. Sometimes the trade-offs could even be mostly unfavorable, so it was something I’d have to be careful of when looking at creating my own. That’s a long way off, however. I still have to get the basics mastered before I’d even want to begin something like that .

Tulip strode effortlessly on the catwalk, staring out straight ahead. For a split-second, however, I thought her gaze met mine. My hand moved to raise Dunsparce’s ball as if to answer an unspoken challenge.

Then the moment broke and she turned around, abruptly pivoting at the end of the catwalk and strutting back down it. Right, that’s silly. She wouldn’t be ‘challenging’ me in the middle of a fashion show! Still, I thought I felt… something there .

Tulip was young (only 16), but was very much the ‘star’ of this show already, so the show was dying down after her debut. Cyan went on and on about her earrings and her dress, a million different details that had completely missed me. At least she’s having fun. It’s nice to see her so happy after how hard she had been pushing herself to study . She also chatted with some other girls, a bit older than her, talking eagerly about the show.

When Cyan marched over at the end of the show and demanded a backstage pass to talk to Tulip, I figured the security team would turn us away. However, just name-dropping us as ‘Glitterati’, and we were escorted in. Really? Is it that easy?! We could have been anyone and just pretended we were rich. Though I guess it is true, and the security team for her is kinda not necessary either, with Tulip having a very strong Pokemon team of her own .

Going backstage, I saw several models removing makeup or otherwise relaxing after the show. Several assistants ran around them, helping clean things up, giving advice, gathering up accessories, and more. It was enlightening to see how many people were involved in prettying someone up and how different the models looked with even a bit of the makeup off and preparations removed.

At Tulip’s door, the security guard knocked and said “Two young VIPs to see you, Tulip.” Something about the way he said that makes me think they have different codes for different people looking for the models . There was silence save for some shifting inside before she responded.

“Send them in.” He opened the door, letting us inside her dressing room before closing it behind us. Tulip was sitting on a chair, her Kirlia and Florges standing on either side of her. She smiled warmly at us. “So nice to see such budding beauties. Did you enjoy the show?”

“Yes!!” Cyan squealed. “You were so pretty Ms. Tulip, your dress looks fantastic, and the way you made an entrance, just wow! I’m Cyan, and this is my sister, Nim- Nemona”

My sister gushed a bit more about Tulip’s show. She was more knowledgeable than me but sounded ‘rough’ in her praise - as to be expected from an eleven-year-old girl who wasn’t a professional. She also talked about how she’d be getting a Popplio soon and talked about how beautiful Tulip’s Pokemon were as well (as I hadn’t seen any Florges or Kirlia in person before, I didn’t really have any point of comparison, though I did assume they were well looked after). Throughout Cyan talking her up, I felt Tulip's gaze on me.

“Thank you so much dear,” she said to Cyan. “This was my biggest show to date, so I’m glad you enjoyed it.” She turned, taking a small set of makeup from her desk and passing it to my sister. “This is the new product La Oran is promoting. I think you’ll quite like it.”

Cyan made a noise so high-pitched that I was surprised that humans could make it, hugging the kit close. Is that something different to Poke Humans, or just me unused to preteen girls? “Thank you thank you thank you!!”

The model smiled at her before turning to me. “I’m afraid I don’t have anything for you. Though to be honest, I don’t know of any makeup that would fit your wild aura.”

“You know about Aura? I’ve been looking all over for information about that-” I stopped as she started giggling.

“Ah, sorry for that. I was merely speaking about your emotional state, not that power which you speak of.”

“Oh. Sorry for assuming-” I began embarrassedly before stopping myself. “Wait a moment, how would you have seen my ‘emotional state’ without Aura of your own?” I mean, she is a Psychic Type specialist, they often have Psychic powers. Is that separate from Aura, or just one aspect of how it can manifest?

Cyan looked between us, a little confused. “What are you two talking about?” We were spared from answering her as someone kicked the door in.

“Tules, you looked great out there!” A young woman with long black hair tied in a ponytail burst into the room, heedless of the security team that had tried to stop her. She was wearing a martial artist’s Gi, a black belt firmly tied around her waist. “Oh? Who are you pipsqueaks?” She asked, looking at us.

Cyan puffed up indignantly. “Who are you to ask us that, after barging in here, you, you brute!” Dendra (as that was only whom I could assume this would be) seemed taken aback by that. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tulip struggling to conceal her laughter while discreetly waving away the security team.

“Cyan, Nemona, this is my old friend, Dendra. Dendra, these are two guests who saw my show. I was just giving them some advice.” Tulip turned back to us. To my sister, she said “Try some natural, simpler beauty techniques to start with your Popplio when you get her. A crown of flowers, maybe coral or a ribbon given Popplio’s aquatic nature, can do as much to bring out one’s beauty as the most expensive accessory, and it gives her a chance to feel out what she will like.” Solid advice, questionable source, given the big fashion show and all .

I stared her straight in the eyes as she turned to me. “For you, I’d say the best way to bring out your, and your Pokemon’s, natural beauty will be in battle. Show off your true self there.”

Dendra clapped her hands behind us, reminding me of her presence. “Ooh, I know of a great tournament for a youngster like you! They’re hosting a beginner’s tournament in Mesagoza in a month. Only people with less than two badges, however.”

“That’d be perfect then, we’ve been looking for just such a challenge. Thank you Dendra-sensei.” I said with a small bow to her. She clutched over her heart, uttering something along the lines of ‘too… cute…’ Gazing back to Tulip’s amber eyes I said. “If you can, please, watch me do well there, and see my ‘natural beauty’ shine.”

Unspoken was my request: ‘If I do well enough, tell me what you know about Aura.’ I don’t really have any leverage to enforce that, but I’m hoping if I do a good enough job, she’ll be willing to tell me what she knows about that mystic art . Aura had been something I’d looked into, but it appeared thus far as if there was little widespread information traded about it - but enough hints that it definitely existed. Psychics were somewhat well known, if only due to flashy Gym Leaders like Sabrina.

Ever so slowly, Tulip nodded. “I think I would like to see that indeed.”

Her martial artist friend let out a whoop of joy, pumping her fist in the air. “Alright, we’ll be cheering you on, Nemona.”

I nodded my new goal set firmly in my mind. Time to enter my first tournament .

Chapter 13: Chapter 12

Chapter Text

With the tournament less than a month away, I got hard into training. Obviously, Dunsparce and I had been training before, but this would be a huge step up in intensity for us, so I needed a plan.

Step 1? “Mother, can I train further out in the wilderness? Dunsparce needs a bit more variety in his training.” I asked, ever so innocently at the dinner table on a rare night when she was with us. The staff behind her, especially Leah, were a bit surprised and looked like they wanted to say something, but O’Nare just clapped her hands together.

“That sounds like a wonderful idea, dear. Looking at a different plot of land can always help invigorate me when I’m having trouble with a different area. It’s the Glitterati way to seek out new answers by looking at problems from different angles,” She declared proudly.

Cyan and I just shared a look at that. I do appreciate Mom’s support, but I don’t think self-aggrandizing is necessary . A flicker of sadness appeared on O’Nare’s face before she quickly swept it away which made me wonder for a moment if she could read minds.

Later on, after we left the dinner table and her eyes lingered on the spot Billy would have been, I realized what it really was. She’s used to him chiming in whenever he says something like that, praising her. She misses him too . It was an easy thing to miss, but I could forget sometimes that the extra work and busyness were hard on them as well.

Step 2? “I’ll need a tent, a dozen Hyper Potions, some Super Potions, Oran and Sitrus Berries-” I began listing off the items I’d need for my ‘training expedition’ as I’d dubbed it.

“No!!” Leah interrupted, hands planted on her hips. “We can’t let you spend a fortnight out in the wilderness on your own, and we can’t spare the staff to have someone go out there with you.” I convinced my mother, but Leah is the one I actually have to convince, no matter what O’Nare said. She’s not just going to let me run off without a good argument .

“But c’mooooon,” I eloquently reasoned. She remained unmoved, her features as if cast out of solid iron.

“You have no experience out in the wilderness.” In a softer tone, she added “You have the makings of an excellent trainer, I will admit, and I know you might feel stifled here-”

“Whaaat? No, I don’-”

“You started off this training expedition idea by doing all of your tutoring assignments planned out for the next two weeks in the same amount of time as you usually do a regular session of schoolwork.” Her tone implied that it was a point we’d be getting back to. I’ll likely have to move up a few grades/curriculum levels again. That shouldn’t be too bad though, Cyan and I are on much better terms now.

She continued “You have some knowledge, but you need some practical courses before you even think about living in the wilderness for a while.” That’s… honestly a good idea. I’ll look into that after the tournament . “Even then, it wouldn’t hurt to just… slow down a bit, young miss. I wish… you didn’t feel the need to rush ahead all the time.” Her voice was wistful, with a tremor of pain in it, and I winced.

“... I’m sorry. I don’t want to worry you or anything. And I plan on taking it easy after this. But I really need to train hard for this tournament - it’s important.” I held my hand up to stop her before she could just deny me. “I see your points too, however. So maybe leave the tent and I’ll go out on my own, and come back before sundown every day? I’ll go no farther than Los Platos too.” Los Platos was a small city, really a town, an hour or two away from our house.

She frowned, looking not fully convinced, but not shooting me down either. “I’ll take Rotom with me too, and a portable charge pack. They can call you and/or a Flying Taxi if anything gets too bad. Plus, I’ll have all those other supplies to make sure Dunsparce is in good health.”

After a long minute of staring me down, Leah finally sighed. “Fine, you can do that. But I’ll be going with you for the first day, and I want you to give me an overview of where you’ll be training.”

Step 2.5? Accept that most plans can’t be rigidly followed and need some adjustment . “Deal!”

Step 3? The training itself. Which is how Dunsparce, Rotom, Leah, and I found ourselves in the hills outside Los Platos.

“Spin! Spin to win!” I called out as Dunsparce did his best to drill through a very solid rock we’d found beside the path. Despite how fast his tail was going, he couldn’t fully pierce through it to the base of his drill tail before losing steam and flopping down beside it. Hyper Drill training is going well. I don’t think he’ll be anywhere near ready to use it by the time of the tournament, but that’s fine. Hyper Drill is what he needs to evolve, so that’s a pretty long-term goal at the moment .

“Alright, now parry!” Dun raised his tail to counter an imaginary blow. That’s good, he’s getting fast enough with that idea that he could probably deflect a Move he saw coming but couldn’t have run away from in time .

“Burrow!” At that, he lowered his tail, drilling it into the ground and retreating beneath the surface. When I gave that command, without any other direction, he was just supposed to rise a few meters in a random direction from where he came from. A moment later, I saw him rise, but only about a meter away from where he went down. Hmm, might need to work on that. His sensing of the ground still needs some fine-tuning .

“Well, it certainly seems like he has the basics down,” Leah commented from the side. For some reason that seemed to upset Dun, the snake doing an odd hiss I interpreted as a scoff. Is it because Leah isn’t a battler? No, some part of his own performance is satisfying to him… Ah, it’s the burrowing . I realized as I saw him burrow again, even though I hadn’t given the command. I hadn’t told him to stop either, but it definitely showed frustration with that.

Dunsparces were an interesting Pokemon. Called the ‘land snake’ Pokemon, they were often found on the land but had tiny wings for limited flight and gliding which let them learn a few Flying Moves. They were also known for access to many Ground Moves despite not being Ground Types and would live in intricate burrows underground. And come to think of it, I found him on the beach, no burrow or tunnel nearby . There was a lot to unpack there, and I didn’t want to air his ‘dirty’ laundry in front of Leah, so I just moved on to the next element of our training: Battling.

“Ok, let’s go for another round. Against… a Fidough!” With that command, I sprinted off, Dunsparce following quickly after me, with Leah following less quickly. No break in between. While the purpose of this training was battle experience, having him run these drills helped keep his fundamentals up, as well as help simulate how exhausting a tournament could be.

The ‘Annual Junior League Tournament’ was, despite the low level of the event, still a huge tournament. The flashiest and best-attended tournaments were the ones for 8 badges and ‘Elite/Champion rank’ trainers. While there were lower-level events, they tended to be local affairs, and not very watched due to the low levels of the trainers. There were some exceptions, however, like how Tyme ran a big tournament every year up in Glaseado Mountain for every trainer with five badges or less. It was called ‘the up-and-comers tournament’ or something like that.

This would be another big one, mostly just due to its location. Mesagoza, the city past Los Platos was massive . I could see part of it, past kilometers of grassy hills and plains, but I couldn’t see the whole city from where I stood on the trail. The size alone meant a lot of people could attend, but the other factor was the school. Plenty of the students would be more researchers or scholars than trainers but still have had their partner Pokemon with them for years, even if they only had one, two, or no badges. Being so close, a lot of them were likely to attend, as well as all of the serious/dedicated new trainers.

Knowing how big this was played a part in why I wanted to push Dunsparce so hard. I felt confident he could take it, however, and he proved it by leaping ahead on a wing-assisted jump past me to land in between myself and a Fidough I spotted.

She was crouched low, growling at us as we made our entrance. The bread-dog Pokemon had taken a step backward at Dun’s landing but wasn’t making any further moves to back up past the tree she stood beside. I wonder why it won’t move from here? I can’t make out anything that would make the area special to her. Then again, I’m hardly a Professor of Fidoughology .

Leah moved to stop me, but I slipped away to introduce myself to the Pokemon. “Sorry for intruding, but we want to spar!” I said, stopping a good distance away from the growling dog. She lowered her growl, switching from ‘aggressive’ to merely ‘wary’, but made no other signs of acceptance.

Understandable. Plenty of Pokemon are eager to test themselves, but many are wary of other Pokemon aggressively attacking them. Some just want to be left alone too . I gave Dun a slight shake of my head, showing this battle was off. “Alright, sorry for disturbing you.” Holding my hand out, I grabbed an Oran Berry Leah placed in my palm from her own backpack.

The Fidough immediately straightened up, eyes fixed on the Berry. Tossing it to her she jumped towards it, grabbing it out of the air with her mouth and scarfing it down. Instantly, her energy did a complete 180, the Fidough trotting up happily towards me.

My maid and I shared a chuckle at her antics. “Well, not sure why that got you so happy, but glad to see there’s no hard feelings,” I said. The games had not been very accurate about how things worked in the world, as you couldn’t just run down wild Pokemon and beat them up to make your team tougher. Well, maybe you could, but it’d be an asshole thing to do. Also, I think you’d start running into problems as the wild Pokemon would soon start running away from you. Or the other way and you’d get a bunch of them or some of the stronger ones looking to drive you out .

Not wanting any of those situations but still needing to train Dunsparce up with actual battles, I’d come up with this strategy of asking politely. Giving treats also helps a lot .

Fidough hadn’t backed away yet and was sniffing curiously towards Leah. “Hmm, you want a bit more? Well, I could give you three more… if you agree to spar Dun here.” I offered, waving a hand down at Dunsparce who had puffed back up, looking interested again.

The wild Pokemon backed up a step, eyeing Dun up before barking three times. “Is that a yes?”

“Fi.”

“Awesome! Alright, let-”

“Fi!” she interrupted me, pawing the ground violently. Huh? She looked so ready to battle though- oh .

“You want four ?” She barked in what I assumed was agreement from how pleased she looked. “That’s highway robbery…” I muttered under my breath before shaking my head. It’s fine, I have oodles of Berries, all preserved and safe in Leah’s bag - Sliph Co. really makes some miraculous stuff . “Fine, you’ve got a deal.” Leah laughed again and outright snorted before hiding it behind her professional demeanor, but this time I felt she was laughing at me, not the dog.

She took a battle stance and I backed up to make room for her and Dunsparce to fight, Leah stepping even further back. There wasn’t a signal or referee, so she took the initiative, pouncing towards Dun. Not fast enough to be a Quick Attack, Tackle then? Or maybe she’s just going for a Bite .

Fighting wild Pokemon added an extra layer of difficulty to battling, in that you couldn’t hear or respond to what Moves were going to be used. I considered it good training for dealing with the more skilled trainers, that would disguise or conceal which Moves they were calling out to their partners.

“Meet it with a Body Slam!” I called out, and Dunsparce did so eagerly, smashing into the Fidough as she collided with him. It was indeed a Tackle, and while Dun looked a little bruised from that exchange, the dog was battered, rolling far away on the ground. She got back up shakily, and when I saw she was still good to go, ordered Dun to Body Slam again.

He did so, but there was a split-second of hesitation as he followed my order. I’ll have to explain what I’m doing later. Ah, and here’s the weakness of a lack of Trainer commands . I saw Fidough rushing back in and tackling again. Despite being outmatched and off-balanced, she couldn’t think clearly of any options other than rushing in, or ways to change up her strategy.

She tanked the hit better this time, not getting sent as far away, but still hurt badly. “Now, Poison Jab!” I called out, seeing her dazed and Dunsparce in close. Eagerly, he gathered the purple energy around his tail and struck deep into her doughy body. She gave a painful cry and toppled over, defeated.

“Oh my,” Leah whispered out, as Dun puffed up with pride. He’d been nervous at the start of the day, but after a few battles was getting much more comfortable, even eager at the thought of a fight. It helped him to realize that not every challenge would be as tough or potentially deadly as the Wugtrio was. He’ll learn in time though that there’s still so much further to go, that there might not even be a peak, no limits to what a determined Pokemon can achieve .

“She’ll be fine, Pokemon are pretty tough,” I reassured Leah. Still, I took out some of the medical supplies I was carrying and moved over to help her. First, I made sure she wasn’t poisoned, seeing no lingering purple spots on her bread-y flesh, and then gave her a Revive to get her back on her feet. She promptly responded to waking up by biting me.

“Oww.” I hissed out while waving Dunsparce and Leah off with my non-bitten hand. They’re always keen to protect me, which I do appreciate, but I don’t need it here. She’s just confused .

Blinking her eyes a few times as she fully realized what was going on, she let go, backing away a little nervously from Dunsparce glaring at her and Leah towering over her. “Dough.” She said, a tad nervously.

“It’s fine,” I answered, shaking out my hand. She hadn’t even pierced the skin, not a real ‘Bite’ Move, and without that, Fidough’s teeth weren’t that sharp. “Alright, thank you for the battle, here are your berries.” Leah nodded stiffly and tossed them over to her (and a bit farther away from us, forcing the dog Pokemon to move away from me to get them, I noted), where she happily began devouring them.

Once we were away from the dog Leah immediately scolded me. “That was reckless. Young Miss,” she tacked on the end, for the bare semblance of keeping to our stations.

“I’m fine, look it didn’t even break the skin.” I said, showing her my hand. While there were a few pink imprints from where she bit, there was no bleeding.

“That doesn’t change the fact that it was reckless,” She crossed her arms. This is more emotional than logical. And honestly, she is right, I could have been more careful there .

“You’re right, I’ll be more careful in the future. I wanted to make sure she was alright, but I could have kept my distance after using the Revive, I’ll make sure to do that in the future.” Leah still wore a frown on her face, but I saw whatever rebuke or lecture on the tip of her tongue fail to break out loud as she eventually just nodded jerkily. Alright, I don’t think she’s going to ban us from the training just from that then, and the rest of the day has been pretty good so far .

“C’mon Dun, let’s go. Try and glide as we move,” I told him as we started walking down the grassy path. Most of the Pokemon nearby had vacated after seeing that battle or were flying high above freely.

“Arce?” He asked as I walked away. He still had trouble hovering just above the surface without losing any altitude, but he was getting better at maximizing the length and time between landing on the ground.

“So, that was me trying to simulate dealing around another Trainer’s commands,” I began to explain, understanding what he was getting at. I’d tried asking any of the few wanderers on the path if they had Pokemon/wanted to battle, but no one was interested. It felt odd, but this location was chosen by my parents because it was very calm, in addition to being picturesque. As such our only battles had been against wild Pokemon, which Dun handled quite well.

“We ‘fought’ that other Fidough before, and you took him out with a single Poison Jab. But, if a trainer hears me say that and knows that they’re weak to the Type of Move, they might command their Pokemon to abort and move away. By trading in with those blows, we can lower their guard, then strike with a Super-Effective Move when they get in close.”

He was silent for a moment, nodding his head to agree, while trying to remain stable in the air. Then, after landing said “Duuuuuuun?” While looking up hopefully at me.

“Huh?”

“I believe the glutton desires some berries, bzzt.” Rotom said, disapprovingly. They were out and about, recording the battle and Move practice footage so we could review it overnight. Rotom has been mostly silent so far, and I thought it was because of Leah, but now I’m thinking there’s something else going on . Dun lashed his tail out aggressively in response, hissing at Rotom.

“Ok, I’ll try and deal with that later, but please try and get along?” They both reluctantly nodded. “As for a Berry, you don’t want to fill up before dinner at home, right?”

Being a Pokemon Trainer was a journey of many discoveries, I was finding out. Seeing what was over that next hill, learning a new Move, uncovering something lost… and learning that your starter had a very expensive palette. In the almost year since I’d had him, Dunsparce had come to adore the meals we got from our chefs at home, and would now turn his nose up at the PokeKibble sold from basic stores. It was all caviar, filet mignon, and artisan salads for Dun.

Still, if he’s begging for Berries, he must be pretty tired . It wasn’t all that surprising, we had been training since sunrise and gave me a good idea of where to aim for by the end of the month. Let’s see if we can get him to go all the way through a day even harder than this by the end of this focus session without needing a Berry. I think that’ll mean he’ll be able to compete all day in the tournament without problems . The tournament might have more intense fights than a day of training, but it would also have more break times.

I asked for a Sitrus Berry from Leah knowing they gave back the most energy. “This should help give you some energy for the rest of the day, then we’ll have a big feast when we get back home, ok?” Dun cheered loudly, eagerly taking the Sitrus Berry I offered him.

We went through the last few exercises I had planned for the day, which were mostly just practicing Moves and one bout against a Tarantoula that quickly conceded under the might of Dunsparce’s Body Slams.

“So, what do you think?” I asked my watcher after the day was done and we stood just outside the gardens of my home, trying to hide any nervousness I was feeling.

She pursed her lips together. “I think it’s still a bit risky, but if that’s the average routine you’re planning, I think things should be safe enough here for you to train on your own. Promise me you’ll stay in touch throughout the day and if anything dangerous occurs, you’ll run away.”

“I promise.” I even mean it, though we may have different opinions on ‘dangerous’. While it was an average day of training for us, I’d probably place it on the lighter end of things. Which is important when working out! Just… we’ll have harder ones too .

“Alright. Rotom, I’m counting on you to keep her honest.” She said before heading inside.

“Yes ma’am, bzzt.” They replied, only for Dun to roll their eyes and mock them.

“Narce un dun.” They said smugly, causing Rotom to gasp in shock and anger. I understood why, assuming I was understanding what Dun was saying.

“Bzzzzzzzzt! At least I’m not a disobedient runt!”

Dunsparce Glared at them, and it was strong enough that I’m fairly certain Rotom would have been Paralyzed if they weren’t an Electric type. “Enough of that you two!” I said, stepping in between them. “Dun, there’s no reason to call Rotom a coward, I was fine with them leaving to get help with Wugtrio. And Rotom, it was rude of Dun but there was no need to be cruel right back.” The two of them averted their gazes, from each other and me, looking a bit ashamed. “Why are you guys sniping at each other so much?”

My land snake gave off a complex answer of “Dun Spar, Un, Ce, Sparce,” which I could not understand. Rotom just turned away from me.

“I’m sorry Dun, I don’t understand what you mean. Rotom, can you help - fairly - translate?”

“Bzzt, it’s difficult…” A small hum of electricity followed as they trailed off. Difficult for you to translate, or difficult for you to talk about? There was more going on here between the two of them than just being tired after a long day. I didn’t think I’d get anywhere by pushing at the end of a long, worry-filled day either, though.

“Can we both agree to put any dislike of each other aside for the time being? I need us all on the same page for the tournament. Dun, you’re doing great and I’m really proud of your progress. Can’t wait to see where you are at the end of this training, you’re going to be so tough, no one would dare mess with you.” He gave a happy warble at that and muttered his name as a semi-sincere apology to Rotom. The kind of ‘I still think you’re wrong, but sorry for being a jerk’ tone.

To Rotom, I said “Thank you for coming out here like this every day. I know it might not be as exciting for you, but we really appreciate the help. And if you ever want to talk about what’s going on, we’re here for you too.” This was joined by an exasperated but encouraging sigh from Dun. Definitely a lot more going on here. He’s pissed at Rotom but also wants them to do… something?

To my surprise, Rotom froze up at that. “Bzzt, I- it’s no prob-” They paused for a good minute, and I’d be worried that they were out of power if they weren’t levitating easily. “Please give me a bit to formulate my answer, bzzt. I have… a lot to think about.”

Yesss! They’re opening up about what’s gotten them so weird . I tried not to let that show on my face, not wanting to pressure them now that I was making a breakthrough. “That’s fine, take your time. Just remember not to lash out at others because of what you’re feeling.” Despite speaking to Rotom, my words were clearly for the two of them, and they both nodded.

It’s not instantaneous, but we’re making progress, slowly and steadily. In a bunch of different areas. Slowly and steadily, we’ll overcome any challenge that comes our way .

Chapter 14: Interlude II - Leah

Chapter Text

A small crack of light illuminated Nemona’s room, showing her form, faintly twitching beneath her Pikachu themed bedsheet. I moved to open the door further, but Rotom hovered up from where they had been charging, doing a small shake to indicate it wouldn’t help. It flashed the time towards me, showing it was still an hour too early for her to wake up.

With a sigh, I gently closed the door. Walking back down the hallway, I bumped into Hamber. “Oh! I’m sorry sir.”

He didn’t look ruffled by the impact. “It’s nothing. Care to join me for a midnight cuppa?” The older man asked, and I nodded.

The house was quiet at this time of night. Most of the staff was gone and the few live-in members like myself had gone to sleep. It gave the place a very deserted feel, and with how dark it could be, might even make you think it was haunted, though I knew better.

In the kitchen we could have the lights on without potentially disturbing anyone else, and he began fixing us up some tea. “Why were you up so late?”

“I could ask the same thing of you.” I fired back before biting my tongue. He was just curious, and as my boss, I shouldn’t be so rude to him . The job here was a great one, by most metrics. Very easy chores to handle most of the time, plenty of free time in the day, and even the girls were well behaved. Well, mostly. I guess that’s the real crux of the problem .

He didn’t take any offense, steeping the tea bag and responding “I like to take a midnight stroll of the property occasionally. Gives a different view of what we manage from day to day. Plus, this is an excellent time to give Greavard a walkie.” The dog in question poked his shaggy head out of a wall, gave a quiet bark, and walked to his food dish. His faithful hound Pokemon (and his other Ghost Type, a spooky Dusclops) was why I knew that the mansion couldn’t be haunted. A shame. If it was just that, then there might be an easy fix to Nemona’s nighttime troubles .

Hamber didn’t press the question, but I caved in a few seconds. “I’m worried about Ne- the Young Miss.” Have to remember to be detached, professional . I’d already noticed that the young girl treated my words as more rule defining than her parent’s. It’s nice that she respects me that much, and I get that part of it due to how overly permissive the Glitterati parents are, but I need to keep in mind my station, especially around the majordomo .

“She seems quite lively and intelligent. What’s the issue?” I gave my superior a look at that as we were both well aware that there was more than that going on in our young charge. Why does he even need me to spell it out? Clearing his throat, he added “Despite how it may seem with the tight ship I run, I’m not omniscient. You might have seen something I haven’t or have some concerns I could put to rest.”

At that I winced. With how seamlessly he’s integrated into the household, I can forget he hasn’t been with us for too long. Only since the Glitterati family moved to Paldea. He might not get how Nemona was before now .

“Oh. Well, it has to do with… a lot of little things, I guess. She’s smart. She’s always been a bright young girl, but recently, it’s downright unnerving how much she seems to understand. The battle skills are one thing; most kids are obsessed with battles at her age, she just has a better head for strategy than most.” Better than mine even. I watched a new elite four battle with her and she accurately called out how Hassel, the newest of the Elite Four was setting up his opponent for a crushing defeat in ways I completely missed . “Her skills at reading people are eerily good for her age too.”

“True, but being intelligent isn’t a bad thing. The Young Master is also quite intelligent for her age,” he countered.

“No, but Young Master doesn’t have the same…” I searched for the right word, having no desire to insult Cyan or Nemona. “Drive. The Young Miss has a drive that pushes her constantly. If she’s not looking up mechanical engineering online, she’s studying history. If she’s not looking into the past, she’s working out - not just running around playing, actually working out.” That’s weird, kids shouldn’t be thinking to do that, not without someone else trying to encourage them to do so, and no one here is .

“She watches international news and argues about civil rights on forums, and of course, the training. She trained for hours every day before the tournament, now it is sun-up to sun-down, every day! And the nightmares-!” He placed a finger to his lips and I cut myself off, realizing my voice was starting to rise.

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be acting hysterically, but I just worry about her.” I took a moment to calm down as he poured the tea for both of us. Oh! This is nice, he remembered I liked this Pinap blend .

“I noticed. Looking up books on child psychology was not the subtlest hint,” he said dryly and I blushed. “Many children have grandiose dreams, few realize what it takes for those dreams to become reality at that age. Some will grow into maturity in time, others find different paths. It seems like she’s a bright young girl, intelligent enough to realize what her goals will take and determined enough to pursue them anyways. You might be a bit young to remember it, but back in my day there was the occasional tale of children becoming champions as teenagers.”

“Yeah, yeah, we all know about Ash and the like. But the nightmares, how she acts like there are huge problems that she has to tackle by herself… I’m worried about her. There are other things too, like her poetry, how I’ll sometimes catch her humming a tune to songs I’ve never heard, or her stories. She used to have such wonderful tales.”

He tilted his head slightly at that. “I’ve heard she still has quite the imagination. She writes that comic with her sister, no?”

“That’s true but… it’s different now. She talks less about the world and more on other things. Everything from board game ideas to philosophy.” It was quite disconcerting to logically argue ethical values and the difficulties of using consequentialism as a set of moral guidelines with a girl less than seven years of age. I shook my head, trying to figure out how to best say it, figure out what exactly I even meant that bugged me so much. “The stories were the biggest change. They’re full of detail and internally consistent, but often feel like she’s trying to fit the story in, like a round peg in a square hole. Before she had far more fanciful, freeform stories, about Legendaries and rare Pokemon, epic journeys.”

“Like?”

“Oh, things like Groudon and Kyogre fighting with ‘Primal Revision’ or something like that before Mega-Rayquaza stopped them. And then something about a meteor and an ‘alien’ Pokemon? Which she was insistent was different than extra-dimensional Uber Beasts.”

He opened his eyes fully from his usual slit-gaze, or at least the one I could see that was not hidden by his hair curl. “Really? That does sound… quite fantastic. I might ask her a bit about that.”

“Good luck. Any time I try asking her about such stories, she Clamperls up, and claims she doesn’t remember anything like that, or forgot. But I can read her well enough to know she’s lying. Do you think she’s embarrassed about her previous stories?”

He took a moment to think it over. “That could be the case,” the majordomo didn’t sound very convinced, however. “Have you tried asking her about these changes in character?”

“I- no sir. I’ve hinted at it, and she refuses to talk to me about it. I… even asked Master O’Nare and Master Billy to ask, but they haven’t had the time to bring such things up.” I bit my tongue at how it seemed like they didn’t care. Of course they laughed off my concerns as silly, it’s not like I have anything concrete. Distortion, it might even be that I’m just working myself up over nothing .

Hamber let out a heavy sigh at that. “I wish you had talked to me about it first, but it does seem like there is something bothering her. However, we can only help her if she wants to be helped. You can lead a Mudbray to water, but you can’t make them drink. Trying to pressure her further might be less than helpful.”

There was silence as I finished my tea, taking it all in. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I just worry about her. All of them, really.”

“As do the rest of us. I’ll inform Masters Billy and O’Nare that they don’t need to pressure her and we’re keeping an eye on the situation. Please, if anything else worries you or the situation worsens, come to me and I’ll see what I can do. For now, just support her.” He tapped the table for a moment, thinking before he said “Why don’t you accompany her to the tournament? I’m sure she’ll appreciate having you there to cheer her on.”

“Really?” Considering Nemona’s parents would be there, that meant I would basically be getting paid to take a day off and have some fun watching the tournament.

“I insist. We must support our charges in any way possible. I’ve noticed the Young Miss has come to rely on you a great deal.”

“I wouldn’t say that, she feels so independent already.” I shook my head. “In any case, thank you for the talk.” As I spoke he finished his tea, getting up from the table. “I think I’ll try to be more open with her, in the future. At least that way we can avoid things like the Haxorus incident again.”

The older man rubbed his hands together. “Indeed, it was quite the kerfuffle canceling the shipment of such a dragon, but she found her new partner so quickly that you were able to do so. Despite how mature they can be, children can also be fickle at times too.”

“No, it wasn’t that. Nemona has some unusual standards, I’ll admit, but she sticks to them pretty firmly.” Whenever asked about a specific Pokemon, she would always preface her opinions by saying how even if she didn’t prefer some Pokemon over others, they were all great. Some of the Pokemon she liked were rare, or strong. A few were generally seen as cute. But some weren’t overly popular, like Dun, who she would often extol the virtues of. “I think when she realized what was happening, she didn’t believe she’d be able to handle a fully grown Dragon.” She hadn’t put up much decorations in her room since moving, but the fact that she had a big poster with a bunch of dragons, including a Haxorus front and center implied she hadn’t given up on that dream.

“Yes, that would have been a bit much for her, no matter how smart she is. Luckily you managed to alert them and stop the transfer before the Haxorus would have been delivered here.” He gave a thin smile. “It would have been a bit more difficult for me to find a Haxorus a good home than it was those Eevee’s the Masters bought.”

“Actually, I feel she underestimated herself. Given the training I saw her put her Dunsparce through? I believe she would have brought even a fierce Pokemon like Haxorus into line.” He blinked, surprised.

“Really now?”

“Yes. The drills she had Dunsparce running were quite intense, drilling through boulders and snapping apart small trees with his body. And I think she might have even been holding back a bit on the training that I oversaw.” Rotom is watching over her though, and they’d tell me if she was doing anything too crazy . “Still glad she didn’t end up taking the Haxorus though, at least for my own sake. I’d have a heart attack every time I saw a Pokemon like that running through the house like Dun does.”

Hamber made an agreeing sound, but seemed focused on my first point. “Hmm, I’ll have to review her battles as well, when I get the chance. Might introduce her to some associates of mine that share an interest in battling and exploration.”

“Oh? That sounds nice, she could use some more friends. She gets along well with that Arven kid, but she doesn’t have anyone else she really plays with.” Mostly what they did was battling ( the Young Miss certainly has a one track mind ), But I had also seen them talking about science or the world, or occasionally cooking together. At least they both seem to have fun together .

“Happy to help. Have a good night, Miss Odale.” He left and I let out a long yawn. Probably for the best that I let this rest. I’m glad he invited me to air things out. Really takes a load off my mind .

Chapter 15: Chapter 13

Chapter Text

Huffing, huffing, "Gawd, why is that?" "Such a long climb?!" I groaned as I pulled myself another inch or so up the cliff.

"Gee, it's almost like this is so off the beaten path because no one goes up here for a reason, bzzt." Rotom drawled sarcastically. They were hovering lightly next to me as I made my way up the hill. A quick glance down revealed that it would be a long fall from where I was, but I wasn't too worried about the fall. No, what worries me, uff, is if my grip slips and I have to try to climb back up this cliff .

All of a sudden, a bit of dirt was pushed out of the side of the cliff, splashing dirt all over my hair. A spinning tail stuck out of the newly made hole. "A little close, Dun!" I shouted at him.

He gave a muffled reply and pulled himself back into the tunnel to begin boring a new path. Dunsparce was natural at digging tunnels and moving underground, but there was a certain skill to making them in battle.

Specifically, the ability to sense where was a safe area to return to, and to judge the position of their enemies by the vibrations in the ground. Exceptional ground types like Digglet could even get an idea of where a flying enemy might be just by the vibrations of the air hitting the ground.

This level of acuity would probably be too much for Dunsparce to handle, but I was hopeful that with time and practice, he'd be able to use it as another method of avoiding attacks and maneuvering around the battlefield. He trained it while I trained my strength and stamina to reach this peak.

"Bzzt, I really don't think you need to try this, young lady," Rotom said again, this time much more sincerely and with less of a smirk. "Especially with the way you were this morning..." I grimaced at the memory.

Waking up early wasn’t something I enjoyed, but I could get used to it. Last night was bad though. Thoughts had been swimming through my mind, of different battle strategies, options to pursue in training, and the mounting pressure… it took me till well past midnight to get to sleep.

The sleep that followed was restless, with my dreams being plagued by visions of my past, friends, and family that were slightly distorted and off. Or were they even? Are my memories of them just going to fade into indistinct blurs over time?

Altogether it left me in a very tired and grumpy spot to wake up early too. Still, training had to go on. We only had a few days left before the three-day long ‘break’ I had planned before the tournament where Dunsparce would only go through light training. I didn’t want him to get too stressed or overwork something right before the big day, so we were just going to stay home then. That might just be me being overly cautious and basing things too much on my previous life experiences. Pokemon recover a lot faster than I did when training for a martial arts tournament. Still, I think that it’ll be good to give him time to decompress a little. Too much cramming isn’t a good thing .

The flip side of that meant we had to put our all into the training right now, which is something I reminded myself of repeatedly as I scaled the cliff. Eventually, I pulled myself over the top, rolling on the grassy slope with a flop. “Ahhh, never doing that again.” I groaned, just taking a moment to relax. Dunsparce had already drilled up to the top and Rotom was floating around looking disappointed but not worried for me, so I figured I was in no imminent danger.

My clothes were filthy, even more so than usual for my training, and I couldn't wait to get home and take a shower.

I cracked one eye open for a split second, trying to guess the time of day from the position of the sun. Only 10:00 am? I moaned again before I felt... something.

It didn't feel like touch or heat, more like weight without substance. I scrambled up and saw the green hills rolling down and up. A few other cliffs jutted up here and there, but they were much smaller than the one I had climbed to get here in the first place.

It was a vast, elevated expanse of land that stretched far beyond Porto Marinada. In this wild area, I could see all kinds of Pokemon. Foraging, exploring, some mingling and greeting each other. Many of them were of different types than the more common Pokemon below. The one that caught - no, demanded - my attention was a large, feline-like Pokemon with greenery built into its body. A Leafeon. Rare enough, but what made it special was the crystalline glow and the crown of flowers sprouting above its head.

It watched us intently from a cliff a few hundred meters away before leaping over and landing near us in an instant. It's fast! And not only fast, but graceful as well , I couldn't help but admire their movements.

It was one thing to be able to move that fast, but there were Pokemon that had sheer speed. To then land so elegantly? That took skill . The kind of skill that would take years to master under the best of circ*mstances. So it was disconcerting to see Dunsparce gathering violet energy on his tail, ready to attack the Grass-type.

“Aha, not this time, buddy,” I said, waving a hand for him to stand down. While it’s good that he’s got a handle on his type matchups, this is not a fight we could win . This whole area, stretching out for a few kilometers, was wild, truly wild, not like the trails or nearby them that trainers would travel through. While wild Pokemon weren’t necessarily violent or aggressive, they followed their own rules, and I could tell that this Leafeon was the one who set down the rules of this place.

“Hello. I’m Nemona. We’ve come to train against some of the Pokemon here, if you’ll allow it.” I moved to offer the Terastalized Pokemon a Berry, but they just shook their head. I guess a Grass type wouldn’t have much problems foraging. Heck, one this strong might just be able to make whole Berry Trees instantly . The plants in this world grew unnaturally fast, with trees able to sprout up 3 meters and be laden with fruit in less than a year since planting, even without a Pokemon tending to them.

They gazed out at some of the Pokemon gathered around in the pseudo-valley below. A few of them were looking back, mildly curious at what Leafeon was doing. Glancing back at Dunsparce, they pointed with their paw at a pack of blue and black-furred canine creatures gathered around. Riolu! Wow, those are pretty rare, I’d never have imagined there would be a pack of them so close to where I live . “Eon.” Then they hopped away to another high point, settling down to watch us.

“Well, that sounded like permission,” I idly commented as I brushed some of the dirt off of me (a mostly futile process) and began walking down to the Riolu. “This should be a good challenge for you, Dun. Riolu are Fighting Types, your one weakness.”

Rock and Steel types could be hard for him to hurt as well, but we’d already covered how to use things like Earthquake to check those counters. The enhanced damage he’d take from Fighting Types, especially using Fighting Moves, was a lesson he had to learn firsthand, and better to experience it for the first time now rather than in the tournament.

“Bzzt, are you sure this is a good idea?” Rotom asked nervously, eyeing not only the Leafeon but also some of the other powerful Pokemon around. There were a lot stronger Pokemon here than the ones on the route. We could see some Swablu and even saw a few Altaria gently drifting around.

"It should be all right," I said, trying to keep my voice even. "We'll do some training, then get out of their hair."

“I believe most of the Pokemon here had fur, not hair, bzzt,” Rotom said, which caused me to giggle.

“Fair.” I stopped conversing with Rotom as we approached the group. Of the slightly more than half dozen of them, three of them stepped forward. The biggest one had a small scowl on his face but seemed more concerned with how the smaller two were looking at him. The other two just seemed wary and confused.

Do they have Telepathy? No, I think that’s just Lucario. I need to catch one of those . Something about my thoughts caused a slight shift in their stances.

Ah, but they do have Empathy though. Welp, I’m being honest about what I want. It should be fine .

“We’d like to challenge you. Anyone who’s willing to spar against Dunsparce here is free to try. We’ll heal up anyone after any round.” I explained. This had mixed results. One of the smaller ones stepped back at that, uninterested, but another Riolu’s ears perked up at that from where she had been meditating, stepping up to meet us.

The big one swaggered forward, ready to fight, and I stepped back to give Dunsparce room. He flexed a little, extending out small but sharp-looking claws. Calling “Begin!” The two Pokemon rushed at each other, Riolu reaching Dunsparce first easily, and striking with his Metal Claw.

Dunsparce cried with pain out but didn’t let that stop him from Body Slamming the Fighting type right back. Riolu was shocked at the force the land snake had dealt him, staggering back. “Poison Jab!” I yelled, Dunsparce quickly capitalizing on the opening to stab Riolu with his tail. The Riolu stumbled back a bit, growling at us, before whimpering and falling to one knee, raising one paw in surrender and another clutching at the prick from the Poison Jab.

“The fight is over!” I called out, quickly rushing over with Potions and Antidotes. I tended to Riolu’s wounds first, as he was the worst hurt and not wanting the Poison to get any worse. Our sparring partner collapsing on us would probably not make the others here happy . Not that it would entirely be our fault - this Riolu was weaker than he was trying to display himself as. An important reminder that being bigger was never a real determiner of power in this world.

Dunsparce puffed up a bit with his victory, but I could see him still warily watching the other two Riolu out of the corner of his eyes. Good, means he isn’t letting it get to his head .

After the healing was done and the first went off to lick his wounds, the second Riolu stepped up, letting out an adorable a fierce battle cry. “Go!” I called out, and the two of them moved toward each other, but this time the wild Pokemon was a bit more hesitant in their approach.

The Riolu’s speed was still much greater, however, and they eventually struck to the side. Dunsparce countered as we’d practiced, spinning his drill tail to ward her off, but that was the opening she had been waiting for! Sliding to the side, she struck his unguarded flank.

Darn it, a feint! “Quick, keep her off balance, then plow in!” Dunsparce took in the command instantly, flopping on the ground to make an Earthquake. He wasn’t putting his full power into it, so it only jostled the Riolu around a bit, rather than doing any real damage, but he could also fire it off faster this way. That close to him, the Riolu had enough trouble staying standing, and no chance of dodging the Body Slam he launched into her.

“Wow, that was incredible,” I said awed, and Rotom decided to chime in too.

“You have trained him quite well, bzzt.” I was glad to hear him being civil, and even complimentary towards Dun after how abrasive they had been before. There was something more than politeness or even honest respect to their tone though. Maybe wistfulness? I didn’t have time to decipher it further though.

“Thank you, but it’s not just that- harass her! Keep up the pressure! - see what he just did there? He figured out a new way to combine his techniques. Using the aftershocks of the Earthquake, he propelled himself ahead, empowering the Body Slam, that’s why she took so much damage from it. I never taught him that, he just figured it out on his own.” My mind was already whirring with ideas on how to incorporate it into our training now, though.

Rotom went silent after that, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the fight to see how they were emoting to that. Dunsparce was tearing up the battlefield, pushing Riolu back, but they were used to it enough that they could dodge the attacks. I also noticed, the last challenger intently watching her fellow’s motions. She’s going to be the toughest fight yet, I’m sure of it. I can… feel it? Somehow, I just know it .

The current combatant finally gave up the defense, springing off a nearby tree to land a heavy blow with her paw that had Dunsparce rolling back in pain. “That’s a Fighting Type move, they’ll hurt a lot, but you gotta get focused!”

My encouragement didn't work right away; she followed up with another strike of the same kind - not a low kick or a sweep. Maybe a rock smash? It seems pretty weak, all in all. - and Dunsparce was once again knocked backwards, staggering in pain. I had a moment's hesitation before I saw the steely glint in his eye.

As Riolu, grinning with her success charged heedlessly in, I called out, “Jab now!” She had no chance to reverse her momentum before Dunsparce swiveled, jabbing in with his tail, instantly covered in the purple poison energy. She swayed for a moment before collapsing in a heap on the ground.

I took the time to patch everyone up again (Potions were amazing ) and checked in on Dunsparce, to see how he was doing.

“So, that was your first time taking on your Type weakness. I don’t, can’t, know what it’s like to be hit by that, but I’m proud of you for pushing through.” Dunsparce gave a bright almost ‘chirp’ like sound at that praise. “There’s no shame in calling it here if you think you aren’t up for another fight.” Before I could get the words out he was vehemently shaking his head.

“Alright then!” I pumped my fist up. “Just know that this will be a lot tougher than the other fights, so give it your all,” I cheered.

“Duuuun!” He cried back, tail beating lightly against the ground in anticipation. I think we both know that we aren’t going to be coming back here again for a while. That was a tough climb up, too tough for me to have tried it, if I’m being honest. And while the Leafeon has been accepting of our presence so far, I think it’s more as a ‘rare curiosity’ than accepting us as frequent visitors to its domain .

Not that I thought that they would hurt us, but I was pretty sure he could bar any paths we tried to get back up. Today would be the only chance we got at this.

With that in mind, I could see why Dunsparce wanted to push it to end on a high note, taking on the toughest challenger… of the small pack of Riolu’s we actually had a chance against. Still a big deal to us!

The final Riolu stepped up, no battle cries or bravado here, just a calm, measured gait as she stepped forward. Dunsparce wiggled his way over to square off against her “Go.” I said and she began immediately. Not running towards my Pokemon, but instead punching the air. The force created ripples in the air, flying out and smashing straight into Dun! Dammit! I forgot that the Lucario line can do ranged Fighting Moves like that .

Dunsparce was valiantly trying to advance through the attacks, but there was no point - she could easily outpace him even if he wasn’t trying to dodge the attacks (and given her precision, I doubted dodging would have worked either). Let’s slow her down a bit . “Glare!” I called out, and Dunsparce responded, fixing her with a killer stare.

Her muscles immediately contracted, spasming and causing her next attack to go wide, despite Dunsparce stopping for a second to use his Move. The fact that it remained slightly cohesive despite the Paralysis was impressive.

“Poison Jab!” I called out as Dunsparce closed in. Riolu tried to dodge but still ended up graved by Dun’s tail as she retreated, her muscles still moving too stiffly. Dunsparce tried to follow it up with some Body Slams, landing solid hits as she moved to get away, but I saw her landing a few point-blank Fighting Type air bursts of her own. Darn, why can’t I remember the name of that Move? It’s not Aura Sphere, it doesn't deal nearly enough damage for that .

In fact, it was doing a fair bit less than I had first been worried about. Sure, it still hurt Dun, but he was tanking the hits well and dealing back more than he was taking now that the Paralysis slowed her down too much to move.

She proved herself to be a cut above the other Riolu, when she ducked down, perfectly dodging a Body Slam. Then, half kneeling and holding a forepaw to the ground, she was surrounded with green energy, the grass swaying all around her.

“Huh?” I said, looking confused, and Dunsparce did much the same. Our mistake, as she suddenly rushed towards him, blurring across the battlefield. He got knocked up into the air, flopping back down as she blew by him.

“Shake it off! Earthquake into Body Slam!” He tried to do so, but with the power of Trailblaze ( That’s the name of that Move! How did she learn it? ) speeding her up, the Riolu was able to partially go back to her old tactics, dodging around and firing air bursts at Dun. Occasionally, with her muscle spasms and the shaking ground, Dunsparce was able to get close enough to land a hit, but those were coming fewer and farther between as she used Trailblaze to speed up.

“Whack a mole! 60 degrees, four meters!” Dunsparce drilled through the ground, hiding underneath the ground. Riolu aborted her latest charge, looking confused and wary. Almost exactly where I had planned, Dunsparce burst out of the ground beside her and swung his body around to smack into her. She bent back with the blow, but not enough to avoid it…

“BARREL ROLL!” I shouted desperately, sweeping my arms in front of me as if that would somehow help him move faster. The Riolu twisted back, taking the force of the hit she had taken into a devastating Counter that Dunsparce barely avoided. We were both somewhat shocked, but he had reacted fast to my shout, pushing himself away, propelled ever so slightly (but critically) by his little wings and just evading the strike that cracked the earth through its sheer force.

Riolu was breathing heavily, that last shot had taken a lot out of her, but she wasn't done yet. Dunsparce, for his part, looked quite battered. The fight would seem to be in my favor, but with a lack of ranged attacks, I felt it was tilted in her favor, even though she was on her last legs. Whack a mole won't surprise her again, she'll just detect next time (I'm almost sure that's how she dodged before Trailblaze). We can't catch her in melee with her speed boosts...it's not perfect yet, but we'll just have to try it.

“Dun, Yawn,” I called out, hoping that the general weary state of both fighters would be enough. He let out a massive Yawn as she struck him with an air burst. He let out a cry from the pain as the compressed air glanced off his side. Used to the pain of a super effective Move, however, he was able to rush forward, even as Riolu swayed from the drowsiness.

“Earthquake!” Despite the proximity, sleepiness, and Paralysis, Riolu had enough celerity to jump into the air and avoid the Move. “Body Slam.” I knew now how fast Dunsparce could push himself off of an Earthquake now, so he’d probably have time to hit her and at least tie, assuming he couldn’t take one more hit.

Riolu elected not to meet him head-on, however, firing out a burst of compressed air to the side to push herself mid-air out of the way, rather than aiming at him. Smart, could have worked too, if he missed and overextended, but despite the look of them, those wings aren’t decorative . “Glide! Swivel and crash into her!” I called out before Dun could drift past her.

The blue-furred Pokemon gave a small yelp of surprise as Dunsparce spun around mid-air and dived toward her like a ballistic missile. His large head slammed into her and she was down for the count, giving out a cry before hitting the ground, rolling around a bit, and lying still.

She doesn’t have the swirly eyes . It was a truly minor complaint, and probably made sense that it wouldn’t be a thing actually in the real world, rather than in the anime, but still. It would definitely be handy for telling when someone has fainted or not .

It was pretty clear in this case though, that shehad fainted. Dunsparce wasn’t doing much better overall, swaying a little and very bruised up. Despite his exertions and injuries, however, he was proudly calling out his name for the world to hear, triumphant. Good for you, buddy . I used a Revive, crumpling up the sharp-smelling crystal to bring Riolu back to clarity and then applying a few Super Potions to tend to some of her wounds.

She accepted the first few sprays, letting out a sigh of relief at that, but soon enough waved me off, before I was even finished, walking off stiffly. Pride? Or maybe something else. In any case, she was quite skilled, especially for a wild Pokemon. I’ll have to keep that in mind, that more than just raw ‘elemental’ power, wild Pokemon can have plenty of skill and tactical knowledge too . She walked past her pack, ignoring them even as they were excitedly chatting amongst themselves, sometimes acting out making motions about different parts and Moves of the battles. The last fighter went to a nearby rock with a flat top, sat down, and began to meditate.

I used the rest of the potion on Dun and pulled another Super Potion to tend to the rest of his injuries. He gave a happy warble before the three of us (including Rotom) turned to face Leafeon as they stepped towards us again. “Lea. Fe.” It wasn’t said harshly or in anger, indeed, they seemed amused at our fights and maybe even slightly glad for what we did for the pack. However, it was clearly time for us to go.

“Thank you for this,” I said, giving them a bow of my head. Dunsparce followed suit, and then followed me and left.

***

After the battles, we headed back down to the Pokemon Center beside Los Platos to get Dunsparce checked up. Potions were great, but it really helped to get properly looked at in a center after a couple of tough battles.

The Pokemon centers were a bit different in Paldea than in other regions. Part of that was the advancements in technology we had to allow for more compact centers with less space needed to be taken up, while still having all the standard amenities. That is, a healing machine and a small shop - you could trade in ‘rare finds’ for money or League Points, but there wasn’t a direct Technical Machine Machine. Perhaps a later creation, like the Pokedex App, or maybe just an ease of game mechanics. They don’t have the ‘Choice’ Items here, so things aren’t 1 for 1 .

The other side of the Center’s design was an attempt to try and have further reach across the vast land. The cities were somewhat scattered, so for a weary explorer, it made sense to have more numerous, compact, safe places to rest up in than just one Center per city. Despite how the remoteness would seem like a potential risk from wild attacks, I knew that there was a barrier built into the edges of each Center. From there, a metal dome could pop up and seal the place off.

It wasn’t perfect - if some really strong wild Pokemon decided to break through, I couldn’t imagine much in this world being able to stop them. But each Center’s locations were carefully chosen by the rangers to ensure that they would be in relatively stable locations in the wild, while also being well-spaced and accessible for travelers. The small area of the Centers also made it less likely for wild Pokemon to consider it an infringement on their territory. It was kinda crazy to consider all the work and consideration needed to create these basically outposts, but people found a way. I knew all of this from the research I had done on the Centers in my ongoing frustrations studies into the advanced engineering of this world.

“Your Dunsparce is looking fine, Miss.” The Nurse Joy said, taking me out of my thoughts as she grabbed the Pokeball out of the healing device and passed it back to me. “He’ll probably still be a bit tired however, so take it easy for the next bit,” she warned

“Got it, thank you. We went through some pretty tough training this morning, so taking a cool down for the afternoon sounds good.” I responded.

“You’ve been training hard; I’ve never seen a Dunsparce so… fit before.” She had a slightly confused expression on her face. I guess there aren’t many trainers that use Dunsparce, especially since Larry isn’t even a Gym Leader yet. Not because they can’t be strong, but because most would rather run away first than fight, so few people catch them .

“Yeah, we’re competing in the Junior Tournament up at Mesagoza in a week and a half. We gotta work hard if we want to do well! But, I have no doubts. Dun is great.” He must have heard me in his ball because it wiggled a bit in my hand.

The Nurse smiled. “It’s great to see a young trainer with such a close bond. I might go and see you battle there.” Oh wow, I hadn’t realized my few visits had made such a big impression .

“Don’t you live here?” I asked and she gave me a smirk.

“I don’t live in the Pokemon Center, Miss Glitterati.” I scratched the back of my head sheepishly at that.

"Ah, sorry. I guess I forgot how close it was." Looking out over the hills, it was easy to see the massive walls that surrounded the largest city in the land - perhaps even the largest city in the world. "Even when we're training, my guardians don't want me traveling too far from home." There was a suspicious look in her eyes at my unbelievably dirty clothes that told me she had some doubts about how well I had followed the rules. I studiously refused to answer the unspoken question. Instead, I changed the subject.

"I guess you don't live 'here' either," I said, waving my arms around at the Pokemon Center. “But what about the nurses and shopkeeps in the more remote Centers?”

“Well, you’re right in that I live in town, but there is a shelter beneath the center.” She admitted. I was surprised at first, but it made a lot of sense. They probably have a similar dome-type structure going underground all the time. It would stop any Pokemon that might accidentally burrow into it and give them more space to use . “It’s kind of cramped, even for a few people, but it gives trainers that are really exhausted some place to rest without calling in a Flying Taxi. I’m glad I don’t get stationed out there - they get more time off and get rotated out by the taxi’s and rangers, but I’ve heard from my colleagues that it can get pretty rough.”

I almost asked her why she got into being a Pokemon Nurse… but held my tongue. It felt too personal, too awkward. Or maybe that’s just an excuse for not being good at talking to others . In any case, I thanked her and gave my farewell, searching for a good spot to rest up.

I liked picnics as much as the next… well, the next non-Paldean because they seemed a little obsessed with them. I get that they’re good for eating outside and that the dimensional pockets in my bag plus easily foldable tables make for an easy enough setup outside, but I don’t know. Seems like a bit much to do every day when you’re on the road . Though, I knew it was just because I didn’t like sandwiches. Maybe I can blame it on being Unovan? And hope no one calls me out on it? I thought as I took out the meat and bread keeping them separate as I put the deconstructed sandwich on my plate.

Releasing Dun by his food bowl, I sat back and Rotom floated up, knowing well that I’d want to review the battles. Dunsparce liked it too, but he tended to be a bit more focused on the food right after training than the video. We both were there, but it helps to be able to go over things slowly, without the rush. A different angle also helps .

“Pause it right there.” I said, right as the Riolu in our final battle was crouched. “Now play it at half-speed.” I saw the green light bloom beneath their feet before they shot forward, ripping up the grass as they went. “I remember now, that’s Trailblaze!” Can’t believe I didn’t recognize it before .

“Trailblaze, bzzt?” Rotom inquired.

“Yeah, it’s a Grass Type Move that does decent damage, but more importantly, makes you faster each time you use it. I didn’t even realize that Riolu could learn it.” I recognized the Move this time from a few times I’d seen it in televised matches. “Hmm…” Isn’t Trailblaze a TM Move? Yeah, I think it is. I guess that means that Riolu had a Trainer once. I wonder why they’d leave the Riolu- Or maybe I’m looking at it wrong. Technical Machines can’t be learned by every Pokemon, they’re limited, which means that aside from the device, there has to be a base level of compatibility with the Move in question. And while TMs can help teach up a Pokemon on a new Move fast with modern technology, they’ve had Move Tutors to help Pokemon learn Moves outside their base set as long as Hisui at least. Who’s to say that only humans could help a Pokemon learn a Move outside their common knowledge? Like say, a natural Grass Tera Leafeon helping a Riolu learn a Grass Move without a TM .

“Dun Du?” Dunsparce asked, lifting his head from the bowl. I got the feeling that he felt the bowl was ‘inelegant’ after seeing our plates, but given his body, plate eating was… messy, to say the least. My answer was to get him a very fancy, gold-plated bowl. Was it gold-plated, or did they just make the whole thing out of gold? That feels like overdoing it, but I did ask my parents…

Dun shook me out of my thoughts again. “Sparce.” He rolled his eyes slightly at my absentmindedness, while Rotom suppressed a giggle.

“Right, sorry. Just thinking we might see a lot of that Move in the tournament, so it was good luck to practice against it here.”

“Bzzt, why do you believe you’ll see it often in the tournament? It’s a rather rare Move from what I can recall of the professional matches you’ve reviewed, bzzt.” Rotom said, puzzled.

“That’s right, good memory Rotom!” The ghost in the machine smiled at my praise. “It isn’t used a ton in the higher level stuff, but given this is a low level competition, the trainers will only have 1 badge at most. Mesagoza is situated with two gyms nearby on either side. The Bug Gym to the West, and the Grass Gym to the East.” As I spoke, I pointed out with my arms to the horizon on either side of the massive mega-city.

“The Gyms will often give TMs as rewards for winning, and the TM for the Grass Gym? Trailblaze.” At least, I think so. Brassius isn’t even leading that Gym right now, let alone if the rewards change based on badge level or other factors not in the game I never considered… whoops .

It was too late to take back my hasty words now, however, Rotom gasping in surprise while Dunsparce nodded his head in determination, just taking it as a matter of fact that I knew everything. Rotom, however, questioned me (though I suspected it was more on reflex rather than not really believing me). “How do you know that, bzzt?”

“Haha, well, I’ve just been studying a lot?” I scratched the back of my head awkwardly. That’s not good enough to cover my meta-knowledge, I need something better . “Just, they say your Journey, or Treasure Hunt here, is a really big deal, so I want to make sure I get it right, you know? I’m probably overthinking things, but it doesn’t hurt to make some plans for the future.”

“Right, you probably have everything planned out, bzzt. Like every member of your team and how you’ll beat all the gyms.” Rotom said, an odd inflection in their voice.

“Hmm? Oh, nothing like that. Sure, I have Pokemon I like and think are particularly cool, but I don’t have any specific plans set in stone or anything.”

“Bzzt, I’m sure your parents could arrange for you to get any Pokemon you’d want.”

“Arce?” Dunsparce added, turning up from the video to look at me too.

I shook my head. “There are too many Pokemon in the world that I’d love to train for that to work out. And some, even my parents couldn’t buy for me.” Like legendaries or ancient Pokemon like Hisuan Zorua. Not that I’d really want them to try to, for a lot of reasons . “But more to the point, whatever type of Pokemon I could want, I wouldn’t be sure they’d be compatible with me. That’s what’s most important. Any Pokemon can be strong, I want ones who will,” I paused for a second almost feeling embarrassed before admitting: “I want ones who will be my friends too. You can’t buy a love for adventure, a desire to get stronger, or a kind soul.”

They were both staring at me now, Rotom having flipped over fully to face me and I felt my face flush feeling incredibly embarrassed. This is why I hate talking. I get overly dramatic . “Uh, but yeah, that’s why I don’t have a team planned out in advance. I don’t know who any Pokemon I meet will be like, and even that isn’t a guarantee; I could meet someone who was great, but not at all what I had thought a friend could be like.”

“Am- am I your friend?” Rotom stuttered, losing their usual verbal tic.

“Wha-? Of course! You helped me out so much, and you’ve got a great snark and dry sense of humor- wait.” I looked at Rotom, realizing what they were asking. “Do you want to be on my team?”

“... Yes.” It took them a moment to say it, but their face was determined and serious.

“Of course! I’d love to have you on my team. This is something you’ve been thinking about for a while, haven’t you?”

“Ever since you mentioned Rotom being ‘strong Pokemon’, bzzt,” they admitted. Oh jeez, that was something I said on literally the first day I got here. Can’t believe I missed that all this time .

“Ah. Sorry about that, I always thought you didn’t want to fight. Which is fine,” I added quickly. “You can still be our friend, even a part of the team if you don’t want to fight. You already do a ton helping organize my days and record the matches-”

“I want to get stronger. To fight in matches, to help you become a Champion rank!” They declared proudly and I couldn’t help but grin broadly. “But… I’m worried that I won’t be good enough at it, bzzt. I don’t have good fighting instincts like you, or Dun,” they added begrudgingly.

“That’s not a problem! Or well, it is, but it’s dealable like any problem. No one is a perfect fighter to start, and I get that it’s scary. You’re willing to take the first step though and that’s all that matters. We can work on your skills, help develop your reactions from here. Oh man, we’re going to do great. I know it’s a bit late so we’ll have to do some training in these last few days, but I think I’ll be able to use you in the first few rounds. I’ll stick to Dun in the latter rounds-”

“Bzzt, I don’t think that will be possible.”

“No, I really think with even a few days you could fight in at least the first round-” I tried to explain before Rotom interrupted again.

“Actually you won’t be able to use me because you won’t be able to register me with a Junior license, bzzt.” I put my hands in my face, utterly embarrassed at the idea that they were right. “But I appreciate it, bzzt. I’m- I’m going to become stronger, be the strongest Rotom in all of Paldea!” They announced with a shaky voice. Dunsparce rolled his eyes, but I could tell there was a fondness there - he wasn’t upset with Rotom now that they had revealed their feelings.

“Heck yeah you will! We’re gonna train you to the bone till you can crush anyone!” I cheered.

“Bzzt, I worry I have made a grave mistake,” they moaned while I laughed and Dunsparce made a huffing sound that I knew was his equivalent.

Alright, I’ve got my second Pokemon! Even if I can’t use Rotom in the tournament, this is awesome . It was days like this, filled with unexpected treasures and incredible discoveries that made me so glad to be reborn in this life. Reborn, right…

“Actually, there’s one last thing. Something I should tell you about myself before you join. Honestly something I should have told both of you long before.” I pulled my knees in closer and Dun tilted his large head at me. “I’m not- not from this world. Or maybe I just have memories from a previous life, it’s confusing.”

“What do you mean, bzzt?”

“You remember how I suddenly changed, that day that I told you Rotom could be strong and started getting really into battling?” They ‘nodded’ by hovering up and down. “On that day I suddenly found myself reborn in this life. Or maybe just I had memories of my old life, I still have fuzzy memories of my childhood here before, so perhaps I was always Nemona? But before that I was- well it doesn’t matter. One day I suddenly realized I was in a strange new world.”

Before I could go on, Dun slithered over and bumped me in the side with his head. ‘You matter, you’re important,’ was the message I got, and I gave him a watery smile, scratching the top of his head. “Thanks. I was…” I told them my name.

“Bzzt, that’s a nice name. Should we call you that?”

“It was. But I’m Nemona now. Oh! What about you Rotom? If you're on my team, do you want a name?”

They were silent for a long moment. “I wouldn’t be opposed to a name, bzzt. It has to be the right name, though.”

“So, ‘Sparky’ isn’t going to cut it?” They gave me a very flat look in response and I laughed. “Alright, alright, I’ll work on it. If you guys still want to be on a team with me. I know I shouldn’t have hid this from you two, for so long but… it’s hard.”

“Dun?”

“My parents? What could I tell them? Sorry, I’m not really your daughter? Or I am, but I remember being raised by an entirely different family? No, I just- I can’t tell them. Maybe it’s cowardly, but even if they accepted me, I don’t think I could deal with the way they would look at me after. It’s easier with you guys; you’ve mostly only known me as I am now.”

“Do you know how this happened, bzzt?”

“No clue. I mean, realistically, Arceus probably had some of their thousand hands in this-”

“Bzzt!” Rotom gave a surprised buzz. Name-dropping god might have been a bit much .

“Uh, I didn’t get any divine messages from them or anything but, well in my past life there were a lot of stories. Games, media, merchandise, etcetera. That’s how I ‘come up’ with a lot of my ideas. Just trying to remember great ideas - or ideas that I felt had a lot of squandered potential - and bring them to life here.” Rotom gave a wide ‘O’ face, everything clicking into place.

Not sure if they truly believed me before this, but I think they do now . “One story I never told and never will to anyone else, was the story of one of the largest franchises in my first life. That of Pokemon.”

Rotom made a small gasping noise while Dun narrowed his eyes in concentration, trying to puzzle it out. “There were different versions, games and television shows were the biggest but each part of the franchise portrayed a world with fantastical creatures with incredible abilities, working side-by-side with humans. It was an incredible fantasy… until I found myself living in it.”

“A world without Pokemon? That sounds as crazy as a world without humans, bzzt. No offense, Young Miss.” Rotom tacked on to the end.

“Hey, none of that now. You’re on my team now, so just call me Nemona. And there’s a couple of games that covered worlds without humans and just Pokemon, though I never played them much.” Hope that Mystery Dungeon stuff never becomes relevant to me . “Which is the other reason why I didn’t tell anyone. They’ll think I’m crazy, or if they do believe me, they might want to use the knowledge I have on this world for their own ends.”

Most of my knowledge of Legendaries and the like is out of date, or maybe never accurate to this world, and a lot of it I can’t say for sure yet. But some of it is definitely, dangerously accurate .

“Bzzt, that’s a lot-”

“Dun un.”

“I was getting to that, bzzt!” Rotom angrily buzzed at my starter, who huffed smugly back. “It makes sense why you didn’t tell us.”

“It’s still not right! Other people I might keep it secret from, but you’re my team . My closest friends. That was just the explanation, not an excuse. I shouldn’t have kept this from either of you.”

“Arce, ar?” Dun said, wiggling his body oddly and glancing down.

“What are you- oh. Do I know how strong you will be? That’s- I’ve got a guess. See, when I said I knew about this world, I knew about… the original Nemona’s team. She was a champion, probably the strongest champion in Paldea, and she did have a Dunsparce on her team. I can’t tell if you’re the same Dunsparce she would have picked up without my, or my memories, whatever the influence was. But it doesn’t matter. That day on the beach, I wasn’t thinking about that life or what could have been. No matter who you are, I stand by that promise to make you the strongest.”

“Dun spar, dunsparce.” He said happily before crawling into my lap.

“Huh? Sorry, I didn’t quite get that one.”

“Bzzt, I believe he was saying that it doesn’t matter who you are either, he stands by his promise to be your Pokemon too.” The sly smirk Rotom gave me told me that they felt the same way.

“You guys…” The tears dripped down my face, but they were happy and I let them fall freely, hugging Rotom and Dun close. This is truly an incredible world I live in, to have such wonderful friends. I’m so glad to be here .

Chapter 16: Chapter 14

Chapter Text

The day of the big tournament finally came, and with it an onset of sudden nerves. Little thoughts, that I wouldn’t do well, that they’d call me a fool, that I’d get Dun hurt, etc. lingered in my mind. Nothing that could stay for long though, or fight against my excitement for this day.

I know, realistically I’m not likely to win the whole thing, but I really hope I do well . Both for the good feeling of doing well, and also for showing off to prove myself to Tulip. Learning about Aura was hardly the most important thing in this world when Pokemon could manipulate it so much better than people, but it still seemed really cool.

Plus, making a good impression on a future gym leader and teacher wouldn’t be bad I thought as I finished up my breakfast. I just had a bowl of cereal today, something light before we headed out to Mesagoza.

Leah was standing behind me as usual, but this time dressed in casual clothes rather than her maid outfit. Her white sundress had a floral design to it with a matching sunhat, the outfit brought together by a dark blue jacket she wore overtop the dress. I liked it, but it was weird, like seeing your teacher at the grocery store and remembering they had a life outside of the professional setting you usually saw them in.

My sister had a dark skirt and a pink blouse, a combination she had tried to sell me on previously which I had refused vehemently. I had a white T-shirt with red stripes and pale blue cargo pants. Unassuming, but you didn’t need a cape or something extravagant like that to be a champion. I’ve still got a long way to go on that road, but this is a big step down that path .

Dunsparce was finishing up his meal on the ground beside me (a mix of pate and Kalosian toast that he loved) when my parents entered the dining room, one after another. They were both dressed in golden business suits, rather than their more casual, still gold, and ridiculously expensive ‘regular person apparel’.

That clue meant I wasn’t surprised when they started tripping over each other with excuses.

“So sorry dear, an emergency at work-”

“Sudden recall of a new phone model-”

“Wild Pokemon were missed on the site, now the workers are in danger-”

“Somehow we only have five workers at the factory right now? I need to-”

“Hopefully it won’t take too long-”

“I’ll try to be back for your later matches-”

“It’s fine,” I said with a smile and if there was any bitterness in it, I wiped it away in the blink of an eye. They aren’t my par- not my first parents. Shouldn’t hold them to the standards of my first ones. My mom and dad were always there for me, but I hardly had the life of luxury I have here, where I can get anything I want just by asking for it. That’s just the trade-off in life (lives?), right?

Leah stepped up “I’ll keep a close eye on the Young Miss and Young Master while you’re out, and record any of the matches you miss to watch later.” Billy and O’Nare thanked her profusely, then each of them gave me and my sister a hug and a kiss on the head, before running out the door.

Things were awkward as we finished getting ready after that. Not because I was upset, but I think because Leah and Cyan were worried that I was, and didn’t know what to say about it. Eventually, as we went outside to the Flying Taxi Leah had arranged to pick us up, my sister asked me “Are you excited for your first tournament?”

No duh, I am. Excited, nervous, happy, so much more . I didn’t say that though, wanting to keep the snark to a minimum (and fearing my nerves might make me sound worse than I was). She was proudly carrying her Popplio Egg which had arrived during my training time in an incubator with straps to let her carry the egg like a (very secure) backpack. The incubator was filled with water, to help better simulate the aquatic environment a Popplio would be born in. Still feels weird that she was just able to order that, but I guess that’s how things are in this world. Plus, the rancher said the Primarina mother was very specific in wanting her egg to go to someone ‘absolutely loaded’, and my family does fit that bill .

“Yeah! I’m not sure how tough it’ll be, but we’ve trained hard and will give it our all!” I had reviewed the past five years of this tournament since it was a big enough event to be televised and well-discussed. Unfortunately, it being open only to the newest trainers meant it was very hard to measure. A few years back, the tournament was swept by some Alolan girl who didn’t have any Badges but had completed the full set of island trials. Z-Moves are crazy strong, I’m amazed that the barriers held against most of them (though I think they reinforced them midway through that tourney). I’d like to go to Alola someday, and try my hand at the trials. Plus Alola has some great Pokemon .

If I would go, it’d be sometime in the far future - that tournament had been the last straw and led to Paldea equating the island trial to gym badges earned, much like many other regions had as trade and travel with the island nation grew more common. Some Alolans complained about that, feeling that the Island trials weren’t the same as Gym battles, so treating trainers who passed them as having the same experience disadvantaged them on foreign soil. This was true, admittedly; the island trials were about forging a connection with the land around you, and any battle experience was incidental… However, it was also true that most trial goers gained a good deal of battle experience and a Z-Ring and Z-Crystals, so they had plenty of advantages beyond some newbies with a first-stage starter.

As we stepped into the Flying Taxi, the driver asked “Where to today, ladies?”

“Please take us to Professor Turo’s house, then to Mesagoza.” Leah said. The trip took a while since Turo (and more importantly, Arven) didn’t live nearby in the Lighthouse where the Player met them in the games. At least not yet. I wonder if I’ve rippled that away?

I hoped I hadn’t, but it wouldn’t be a big deal if they didn’t move closer; I could easily fly over whenever and had gotten Arven a Rotom phone for his birthday last month. Still not super thrilled about the idea of gifting people living, thinking creatures, but at least with my father’s position, I was able to give Arven a tour of the company and let him meet all the Rotom’s. He found the one that clicked with him most and really wanted to be his phone, so I think that’s all good .

The flight passed by fairly quickly, with Leah and Cyan asking me about my strategies for the day ahead. I told them a couple of the tricks we’d practiced and the like, but couldn’t say much more about my ‘strategies’ than that. “Tournaments are a lot trickier than Gym battles. You don’t know what Pokemon all the other competitors are coming in with and there isn’t much of anything to study. So I’ll have to adapt somewhat based on what my opponents can bring out.” There was a flip side to this of course - Gym Leaders had very strong teams, all their Pokemon kept to the highest standards, and each of them a master of their Typing, and thus able to counter much of the common (and at higher levels, even the uncommon) tricks used against them.

My biggest concern is a Ghost Type with Levitate, like Ghastly, Misdreavous, or even a Rotom (though Rotom is a lot less of a concern because it’ll lose the Ghost Typing when it possesses an appliance). Earthquake and Normal Type Moves won’t work on them and the only other Move we’ve mastered, Poison Tail, will be not very effective. Dunsparce can use Bite, as I learned from some of my matches with Arven after he copied Maschiff, but we didn’t focus on practicing that during our big training stint. Might have been a mistake, but you can’t do everything. The fundamentals we’ve improved are probably more important anyway. Hopefully his current abilities will be enough to give him solid coverage for this level of tournament .

A finger poked my cheek, disrupting my thoughts. “Oww,” I complained, more from surprise than any real pain.

“Don’t fall asleep before the tournament,” Cyan chided in response, causing me to bristle.

“I wasn’t falling asleep, I was thinking-”

“Children.” Despite how lightly she said the word, her tone of voice was firm. “No fighting.” A ‘she started it’ welled up on the tip of my tongue, but I shoved it down.

That’d just be immature. Besides, it doesn’t matter. Focus on the battles ahead . “Yes ma’am,” I said my sister begrudgingly followed suit.

When we touched down in front of Arven’s house, I was mildly surprised to not see him waiting for us. He’s usually so eager to come out and play . The house in question was a fairly ordinary brick house on the outskirts of Medali. If I didn’t know it was the Professor’s house, I never would have guessed from how normal it looked, but I was well aware of how past the red tile roof and white and beige bricks were all manner of half-finished devices and paperwork stacked to the ceiling from all the work Turo brought home with him.

Going up to the red wooden door, I knocked. I wasn’t tall enough to see through the glass cut into the top of the door but could hear the sounds of conversation before Turo of all people opened the door.

“What are you doing here, Young Miss Glitterati?” He asked cooly, looking down at me, Arven standing behind him, slowly putting the pieces together.

“I have the big tournament today,” I said, more to Arven than to him. The boy’s eyes darted back and forth between me and his father.

Arven spoke up. “Oh right, I forgot about that.” He probably got too excited over his dad being back in the house with him. I shouldn’t intrude on their time together .

“It’s fine. You’re busy right now, we’ll hang out later.” I tried to say before being interrupted by Cyan, who had apparently followed me.

“What? No, it’s not fine! C’mon, this is your big day sis, you’ve been training hard for ages for this!!” I almost face-palmed at that. Damn, I really appreciate the show of support sis, but this is not the time for it. Arven making close bonds with his dad could be important for the sake of the world. And even if not, at the very least this is some of the precious time he’ll get with his dad before he gets way too engrossed in Area Zero . I couldn’t say that out loud, however, and before I could think of something reasonable to deflect away, Turo asked me a question.

“You’re participating in a tournament today? Will you be using the Tera Orb I sent to you?”

“Uh, I wasn’t planning on it. The Junior Tournament rules state that I can’t use battle items-” I began before he interrupted me.

“Tera Orbs have recently been ruled as ‘Enhancements’, and would not fall under the limits for battle items.” That would make sense. For most ‘Enhancements’ at least part if not all of the items are held by the trainer, and they involve dramatic shifts to battles when activated. Z-Moves, Mega Evolution, Dynamax, and now Terastalization all fit under that description. Battle items are held by the Pokemon and give much more minor passive boosts, though those are still significant in a close fight . “I would be most interested in seeing you use it in a tournament setting,” he continued, and I could practically hear Arven’s heart breaking behind him. Despite it being worded almost like a request, the man was already walking past me and Cyan, towards the Flying Taxi.

“Uh, sure, I can do that. C’mon on Arven, it’ll be a big multi family outing.” The boy did seem to perk up a bit at that, eagerly following after his dad.

We got aboard and tried to pay for Turo and Arven to join us in our taxi, but Turo insisted on paying himself. Hmm, he begged pretty hard for our parent’s money before, but that was before he made it big. I can see him not wanting to be more in our debt, or anyone’s debt. He feels like a proud man . That was extrapolation on my part though; he was pretty difficult to get a read on. Nonetheless, I tried to pry a bit with some casual conversation during the flight.

“I didn’t know they had made an official announcement about the classification of the Terra Orbs yet. I’ve been busy training the past month, working really hard to get Dunsparce ready for this tournament.”

He raised an eyebrow “The announcement was made a few minutes before you arrived.” It was that recent?! “I thought you might be an associate or reporter come to ask me questions about it.” It was subtle, but there was a slight hint of frustration in his tone.

“Not a fan of the press?” I pressed.

“I have no problem with the news; reporting groundbreaking facts to the wider public is a noble endeavor. My issue comes from when they sully their ‘reporting’ with a fixation on asking about ‘feelings’, printing ephemeral fluff pieces instead of hard facts.”

Awkward… It seemed that most of the other passengers felt the same way, no one talking for a moment until Leah spoke up. “Well, hopefully they’ll be able to report on Young Miss Nemona’s excellent battling skills today.” I blushed at the praise.

“I’m really not that great yet.” Real professionals do a lot more than me. Hidden commands, or variations on their spoken commands, planning out full team strategies to face other teams, how to deal with switches mid-battle, etc. All leagues above where I’m at . Despite that, I wasn’t truly disappointed with myself, just having a realistic measure of how much further I’d have to go.

“‘Yet’. You speak as if you will become great with time?” Turo asked, and even Arven jumped in at that.

“She will! She’s really good at battling, probably the best! Besides you, I mean.” Ah, he still has that fatherly worship. Still has the belief that Turo can do no wrong. I really don’t want to break that innocence, but I’m pretty sure I’ll have to someday. Otherwise, he might blame himself for all of Turo’s screw-ups .

“You misunderstand; I’m not doubting her capabilities, but a scientist needs to come into any experiment with an open mind. Even as they present their hypothesis forward, they must be aware that the experiment may turn out differently than expected. So it is for the best that one reduces any biases they may have.” The other kids just looked at him confused and even Leah gave him a second glance (and a pitying one at Arven, which the young boy missed, focused on his father).

Unknowingly, he was hitting on an issue I was quite worried about. Everyone might talk me up now, but that’s just because I’ve got an adult’s mind in a kid’s body. The real Nemona, for all that people made fun of how obsessed she was with battling, truly was incredible. A very strong champion, and at quite a young age given she didn’t have the advantages I do. I worry sometimes that even with that, I won’t match up to her, won’t be able to make it as far as she did, will screw up the ‘plot’ of the games. But…

“I guess the only way we’ll find out is by seeing.” I muttered, gripping my Pokeball tightly. Despite my words, I had faith. Even if I can’t match up yet, I believe in my Pokemon. They’ll do great .

The rest of the ride was fairly quiet, with Arven trying to get his father’s attention, telling him stuff that he and Maschiff had done while he was out. He didn’t seem too engaged but was nodding along. I was deep in thought, thinking about my strategies and how I’d approach things.

You would think that with just one Pokemon the strategies wouldn’t get too complex, and while I’m sure they paled in comparison to full 6 v. 6 team battles, there was a lot to consider. Potions healed up tons and I was well stocked, but some hits would take time and dedicated resources like Pokemon Centers to fix up. On the other hand, I had to keep in mind Dun’s energy. He was going to be fighting in a lot of battles in a row, and not having the endurance to go on would be as bad or worse than being roughed up from a previous fight.

Me fretting over these minutiae was mostly just nerves, I could admit. Dunsparce was a naturally tanky species, and our recent training had given him plenty of endurance. We can do this .

Lost in thought as I was, I barely noticed as we landed down, really taking in Mesagoza for the first time.

The massive proportions of the mega city were even more pronounced within its borders. People and Pokemon milled all over the city. The streets were built with solid bricks, wide enough that some even rode their Cyclizars within the city itself, though there were strict speed regulations to avoid accidents.

Buildings rose up high all around, offering housing, shopping, and all manner of entertainment. Given the topography of the city, how it all sloped upwards till the peak where Uva Academy sat, the height of the buildings on the lower levels didn’t interfere with the view. And what a view it is. You can argue that the Pokeball at the top of the Academy is garish or not, but it sure is eye-catching. It’s rare to see a building, an institution that can survive that long in this world .

I tore my gaze away from that structure to the street I was stepping onto. Mosaic tiles made up many segments of the street in beautiful patterns. There were two towers at the gates beside us that in times past I imagined served as watch towers for danger, but now were used for ornamentation. Clotheslines hung all above the streets and between the buildings, decorated with colorful triangles that waved in the wind, and street merchants sold balloons and candy in stalls nearby. Is this for the tournament or something that’s just set up year-round here? I could see several fountains nearby as well, above the steps where we landed, and above them was the central plaza. The main battle court .

“Sorry I couldn’t get you closer,” the taxi man said and I blinked my eyes, bewildered. We’re already fairly close to the main battle field and people on the street are being forced to go around us. Is this just because we’re rich and have a Pokemon Professor with us?

“It’s fine, thank you,” came my distracted reply, still a little overwhelmed by the size of it all but regaining my bearings and stepping forward to the arena. Pushing through the crowd took a bit of work, especially as Leah understandably wanted us all to stick together (a particularly difficult challenge because Cyan kept on getting distracted by the stores and attractions nearby).

The press of people grew greater at the central plaza, many people gathered to spectate the tournament. The staff had set up stands for people to sit in, but many were watching from the ground, or for a few, in the air, on the backs of flying Pokemon. One of them was even flying on a Charizard! That’s quite a rare sight in Paldea .

Leah stepped back with the others to watch as I joined the line to the registration pavilion. There were a few adults in the line, but mostly the other competitors seemed to be teenagers. I was easily the youngest person there, and could already feel a few eyes looking at me questioningly.

“Miss, do you need some help being shown around?” One of the staff came up to me in line and asked. She was wearing a white shirt with red highlights, evocative of a Premier Ball, like the rest of the staff. Given her shockingly pink hair, I suspected that she was also a Nurse Joy who worked at one of the Pokemon Centers nearby.

“No, I’m just waiting to get my registration affirmed.” I had already registered online weeks ago, but this was another check they had to make sure that everyone who signed up would actually be here.

“Oh.” She said, seeming surprised before just nodding and leaving me be. The boy in front of me however heard me and was decidedly more critical.

“You’re competing? Go back home and play with your dollies, this is a serious tournament.” He scoffed, turning around to face me. He looked to be about 15 years old, proudly wearing the Uva Academy uniform with three Pokeballs on his belt. He had dark eyes and a sharp angular nose, his expression one of disdain as he looked down at me. His hair was black, short, and spikey.

“I know it’s serious, that’s why I trained hard. I might be young, but-”

“You’re just a little brat who is going to fail hard and get your Pokemon hurt.” That caused me to clench a fist in anger. It’s one thing to think I’m not ready, but to say I’d be hurting my Pokemon… That was a major insult in this world. “Don’t come crying to me when your Lechonk or whatever gets hurt,” he said, turning his back to me.

“Who are you to say that about me?” I asked, wondering where this jackass got off on saying things like that. He didn’t respond to me, but instead to the man at the front desk taking in our registrations.

“Freddrick Van Grough,” he enunciated, and the pieces clicked into place for me. The Van Grough family was a fairly wealthy one, with heavy market control over high-grade fertilizers and Berry Tree seeds. I think I saw his parents at the party my mother and father held . It would explain why he had such an over-inflated opinion of himself.

After the boy received his name tag and left with a smirk, I stepped up to get my registration sorted out. “Your name, miss?”

“Nemona Glitterati,” I said as I passed over my ID. I didn’t want to raise any special attention to myself but had to say my name, so I waited to see any reaction from him. He just raised an eyebrow at that but didn’t say a word, checking it with the system.

Behind me, a girl spoke up “Don’t worry about what Freddrick said, he’s a jerk.” Turning around, I saw a young girl, 12-14 wearing a purple sundress.

I’m really not ‘worried’ about the blowhard. Which might be me judging him too early, but hey, he did the same to me . What I said though was: “Ah, thanks. I’m Nemona.”

“Tracy,” she said, holding out a hand to shake. “Yeah, don’t worry about what he said. It doesn’t matter how well you do, and the staff won’t let anyone get injured.” I couldn’t help but frown as I took my hand back. She’s nicer about it, but she’s underestimating me too. And she only spoke up against Freddrick after he left .

I was spared from having to interact with her further by the registration man clearing his throat. “Yes, I see you here. Go to battle court #4 for your first match.”

“Not here?”

“No, this arena is reserved for the top 8 contestants.” I nodded. That makes sense, even with the entry fee of 5000 Pokedollars (expensive for a lot of beginner trainers), they still have a lot of slots filled up, even with a hard cap of 512 contestants . Looking around I could see a lot of the people waiting around that looked like trainers themselves. Probably people on the waitlist hoping to get in if slots opened up from trainers that couldn’t make it .

Tracy cleared her throat and I realized I was holding up the line. Stepping out I rushed out to Leah and the others. “It looks like my first battles aren’t going to be here but at arena #4.”

“Where’s that?” Arven asked, and I opened my mouth… before closing it again. “Wha- I can’t believe it! You don’t know where to go?” He laughed at my plight.

“Shut up,” I muttered before sighing. “I’m sorry, I forgot in my excitement. I’ll have to go back and ask someone.”

“No need, bzzt.” Rotom floated up, a map of the city already loaded on the screen and then they stretched out to tablet size to give me a better view. It always feels so weird that they can just do that, but I suppose it’s not really that much weirder than, say, them being able to conjure up a swarm of lethal leaves when possessing a lawn mower .

“Thanks,” I said as I looked at the map and saw the park where the fourth arena was. Wow, they have a lot of parks, arenas, and poke centers within the city. Guess they need them though, for events like this, and everyday convenience in a city this big . “Alright, we need to go that way,” I told the group, pointing in the direction we needed to go. “It’s pretty far, so we need to move fast to get there in time.” Before I could take the first step, Turo spoke up.

“I don’t believe we need to leave. They’re setting up viewing screens here so we can observe your battle with ease.” Leah frowned, clearly not happy with this idea, but seemingly unwilling to speak up against him. Is it because he’s a Pokemon Professor? I knew they were a big deal, but I never realized that they would have this much sway. But then again, Paldea is a bastion of knowledge; a Pokemon Professor is akin to how many regions would treat a Champion. I’ve just never seen him that way, because in my eyes, he’s a Professor second, and a potential enemy first .

Turo frowned down at me, and I was shocked at getting the man to show real emotion, however minutely. Whatever expression I had must have been something else to get that. What he was going to say was lost to the wind, however. Looking up, I saw the Charizard I had seen before landing down beside us. On his back was a young man with shockingly white hair and a co*cksure grin. He had a heavy brown jacket with yellow lining and blue goggles over his eyes, useful gear for someone who flew around a lot.

“My partner couldn’t help overhear you. I could help take you there,” he offered. I was immediately put on edge. A kind offer, but I’m still a child, and any offer like that gets my ‘stranger danger’ senses tingling .

“Professor Friede, I hadn’t expected to see you here. Congratulations on becoming a Pokemon Professor, by the way,” Turo comments, causing me to blink in surprise. Another Pokemon Professor?! And who is this ‘Friede’ guy? I’ve never heard of him before .

Friede took off his goggles to get a better look at us, frowning slightly when he saw Turo. “Hardly that great an accomplishment compared to you. Your Terra Orbs are anything anyone can talk about in the Academy.” Pieces click together in my mind. Well, that might explain why he’s down here, watching a beginner tournament .

Leah is the one who breaks the tense silence, using his sudden entrance to grab my hand and ask: “Could you fly me there to the arena as well, Mister Professor?”

He turned away from his standoff with the other Professor to look questioningly at his Charizard, who gave a small roar in response. “Looks like he says yes.” He gave her a wink too, which caused the maid to blush heavily. Leah noooo. You can do better than this guy- ok he’s a Pokemon Professor, young, and objectively good looking I suppose, so maybe he is as good as it gets, but don’t flirt in front of me!

With his guidance, we climb on to the Charizard first, him hoping on after us. I marveled at the feel of his scales beneath my hands. They were tough, but not overly rough with heat radiating off of them. It was incredible, and the kind of thing you just couldn’t get from the games or shows.

Charizard turned his head to glance over at me and I realized I was being a bit obvious. “Ah, sorry mister Charizard, I was just admiring your scales. They seem really strong.”

He let out a happy roar in response, breathing out a small Flamethrower in the air as we flew. No one was nearby us, but several flying Pokemon made sure to give us an extra large berth at that. Looking down on the city from this close, I could really appreciate how big and beautiful it was.

“You like Charizard, do you?” Friede asked, and I blushed a bit, though likely not for the reasons he was thinking. I know it’s kinda ‘basic’, but yeah, Charizard is my favorite of the Gen 1 Starters. Venasaur never really got me, and Blastoise is cool and all, but Charizard is just awesome .

“Yeah, they’re pretty cool. I wouldn’t mind getting one on my team eventually.” Both Leah and Rotom by now knew that didn’t mean ‘go out and buy me a fully grown Charizard’, just ‘I might catch a Charmander if I see it and it’s compatible with me and my team.’ Charizard himself gave another roar of approval.

“Oh? Who do you have on your team now?”

“Just Dun. I only have the Junior License right now. One day though… I’m gonna be a Champion. Be the greatest, like no one ever was.”

“Impressive. It’s good to have a goal like that. Have you thought of what you’ll do after, though?” Friede asked.

“Probably be drowning in work from the responsibilities of being Champion,” I joked, which got a chuckle from Friede and an exasperated sigh from Leah. “I don’t know what comes after. I’m eager to see it though, the greatest battles that could take place. And hey, if it gets boring I might try to become a Professor, too.”

“Ha! Maybe I should have thought of that,” Friede said. “Perhaps if Professor work gets stale I’ll try my hand at becoming a Champion too.”

“Char! Zar zard!” His partner chimed in.

“What do you think? Think we could be Champions?” He asked me. I didn’t just blurt out a response, instead closing my eyes and trying to focus on the feeling Charizard emanated. It was hardly like a scouter telling you about someone’s power level, and Pokemon could hide it or it could be missed if you weren’t observant/familiar with the species, but there were some tells about how strong a Pokemon was.

Like the Leafeon atop the cliffs near my house, there was a sense of power that came from Charizard. More than just heat, or the strength of his wings flapping (though both were counted to that measure too), he was strong. Maybe not Champion level yet, but he hadn’t slacked in his training either. The potential was there, with absolute dedication. There was something more to the power he had as well, some quality to it that just seemed to slip my grasp. I didn’t mention it since it didn’t seem bad, just different.

“Yes, he could definitely be part of a Champion team.”

“What, you don’t think we could take on the Elite Four by ourselves?” I openly scoffed at that.

“Of course not! You need a whole team of incredible fighters to be a Champion. They have to be well-rounded, able to support and balance each other out.” Both the adults behind me were quiet at my sudden impassioned outburst, but before anyone could say anything else, we had arrived at the arena.

It was in the center of a park, much greenery in this section of the city. Parts of the park were shaded from the tall buildings and streets that wound upwards beside it, giving it a minor sense of seclusion. There were benches nearby, but most of the other contestants and the audience had to stand to watch the battles.

Jumping off Charizard (and eliciting a shocked cry from Leah), I ran over to the nearest official. “Hello, I’m Nemona, I have a match here. I hope I’m not too late.”

“No, a couple of people are running late, so we’re postponing the matches for half an hour. This event never runs on time anyways,” he complained and I stumbled. So all that rushing around was for nothing?

Marching back to Friede and Leah I said “So apparently the event isn’t starting yet. Sorry for rushing over.”

“No worries. I think I’ll stick around to watch; gotta see what future Miss Champion can do.” The Professor said, and I nodded my head resolutely. This is the time to show everyone what I can do. I don’t think that Dendra and Tulip are here, so they’re probably waiting at the Central Plaza. To really impress them, I have to get to the top eight, at least .

My first challenge to that came as match pairings were called and I saw a familiar name as my opening opponent. Tracy, a little out of breath from running over here confirmed it as she looked from her phone and around the crowd, locking eyes with me. Here we go .

Chapter 17: Chapter 15

Chapter Text

Despite my eagerness (and my nerves, wanting to get it over with fast), my match with Tracy was not up first. The first match was between two young teenagers, each one with a Fuecoco.

“Looks like we’ve got a mirror match to start,” the announcer began (I hadn’t heard her name, too focused on Tracy). She had a clear, booming voice that carried through the entire park. There was a Farigiraf who had been chewing grass beside her that stopped at the sound of her voice, raising his head and making a near perfectly translucent barrier over the field.

“Frasier, Rossica, are you ready to battle?” The announcer asked, to which both teens gave a loud ‘Yes!’ in response. “Then let the tournament…” She paused, looking at her Rotom hovering at her side, likely letting her coordinate with the other fields. “Begin!” She shouted suddenly. I watched the match carefully. I don’t know if they’ll make it up to the fourth round where I would face them, but I should keep an eye out anyways, just in case they’re a serious threat .

Both of the trainers scrambled, caught off guard by the sudden announcement. “Eh, ah, Ember!” Rossica called out. Hmm, it has same-type-attack-bonus, but the other Fuecoco will resist it. Perhaps her Fuecoco is heavily focused on special attacks?

“Not so fast! Fuecoco, counter it with your own Ember!” Fraiser said, grinning. The two small fireballs their adorable little crocodile-like guys spat out met in the center of the field, canceling each other out.

“Ember!” They both cried out again, and once again the flames clashed equally.

“I don’t get what they’re doing,” I muttered out loud.

Friede crouched down to talk to me on a more even level, a fact that made me irrationally upset for a moment. I can’t wait till I’m tall. Nemona was pretty tall from what I remember in the games, I think only that one wrestler girl was taller . “Oh? What’s got you confused? Professor Friede knows everything, after all.”

“I very much doubt that,” I said dryly. “No offense, it’s just… the world is a big place, full of mysteries no one’s ever seen or have been lost to time. But anyways, this fight,” I gestured at where the trainers were both calling out for the same attack again and again. “They aren’t changing anything up. Are they both endurance specialists and hoping the other one will tire out first?”

He just let out a small chuckle at my confusion. “Nah, they just don’t know enough about battling yet.” I just tilted my head. How… how do people not know this?! I mean, I’m not expecting kids to be geniuses but… Looking at the battlefield, I saw the two Fuecocos both panting heavily.

“Let’s finish this, Ember!” Rossica called out.

“Yeah, go Fuecoco!” Fraiser pointed his finger out at their foe.

The two once again met in the center without either side winning, but that was clearly the end of their stamina, both of them wobbling. Rossica’s Fuecoco fell, defeated, but Frasier's Fuecoco just barely hung on, standing shakily.

“The winner, Frasier!” He let out a cheer, running towards his Fuecoco and hoisting him up high. The Fuecoco gave a tired cheer of his own. It looks like it did come down to a stamina contest in the end. Not that I think either trainer was cognizant of how this would end .

“I’d be embarrassed with a match like that,” Friede scoffed. In many ways, I agreed with him. But looking out at the field and seeing Rossica rush up to her partner, hug them tight, and whisper her own words of encouragement and praise...

“They both have a ways to go, but everyone has to start somewhere. This was a good match.”

“Everyone might start ‘somewhere’, bzzt, but you started a lot further than them.” Rotom stated loftily.

Urk. I get that you’re trying to show me off for a Pokemon Professor Rotom, but I don’t need the scrutiny surrounding my past and sudden behavior changes. The Pokemon world is filled with mysteries, but I suspect even the people here would be skeptical of ‘I remembered my past life.’ Plus, I just didn’t want to. At least not with this Friede guy I didn’t know.

“I mean, even for me, I didn’t know everything instantly. I had to study a lot .” I got the feeling that my childish voice and appearance made me stress how much it sounded endearingly adorable, rather than agonizing, given the type of smile Leah gave me. It really is a bunch of work! “And even now, I’d hardly say I know everything about Pokemon or battling.”

“Well, keep on training hard and you’ll get there,” Friede said. I shook my head.

“Nah. There’s way too much to learn. So many ways I can grow. I could spend a hundred lifetimes and not get close to knowing it all . ‘The only thing I know is that I know nothing.’” It was a quote from a man others called wise in my past life. I’d only just scratched the surface of this world in my time here, but I knew that saying to be oh-so-true here too.

Friede’s face became serious for a moment, straightening up and frowning down at me. “Is that so?” The question wasn’t really for me, I could tell. Just something he was pondering to himself. Not knowing his situation, I just turned back to the battles going on the field.

The other battles tended to be a bit more interesting, with some back-and-forth going on. The plays were still decently low level, as would be expected, but trainers would call out dodges and switch up their Moves to try and break stalemates/get out of bad spots. It was impossible to tell for sure, but I’d bet that most of the more advanced commands came from Trainers who had earned their first badge.

Most of the Pokemon are either regional Starters or are a bit rarer than the ‘common’ ones . A Dhelmise swung horizontally through the air, sweeping into a Sprigattito and hitting it so hard into the psychic barrier that I winced. The small feline Pokemon didn’t seem critically injured and her trainer immediately rushed her off to the Pokemon Center.

“Atticus wins! What an impressive showing!” The announcer exclaimed. The young boy smirked, recalling his Dhelmise and waving to the crowd. He had dark blue hair, tinged with yellow at the ends. That’s probably the weirdest thing I find about the anime hair here. The fact that individual parts like just the ends of someone’s hair can be a different color ‘naturally’ . I reached up at one of my own two green locks of hair. Not that I can say anything or I’d be the one looking weird .

In about the middle of the round, my match was called up. I took my place on one end of the battlefield while Tracy took hers at the other. “Hey, uh, don’t worry Nemona, they’ve got really good healers here. Just try to have fun.” Resisting the urge to frown was difficult. I could appreciate encouragement, but she was just looking down on me.

Both of us drew and held up our Pokeballs waiting for the signal from the referee. There were several specific rules for battling like this. Technically you could ask for them in casual battles, but they tended to be ignored or forgotten there, but were strictly enforced in big tournaments like this. One of them was that trainers had to have the Pokeballs held out before releasing their Pokemon to prevent a trainer ‘accidentally’ lagging behind their opponent in releasing their Pokemon to see what the opponent sent out and then picking out there.

You could have your Pokemon released already, but you had to make it clear that you were going to start with it if that was the case. The move was colloquially called the ‘Ketchum Clause’, and was seen as a bold tactic in high-level play. Either a cunning strategy that caught your opponent off guard and caused them to second guess themselves… or more likely, an arrogant strategy that backfired as the opponent out-maneuvered your lead. Of course, plenty of people here are leading openly, but it’s not really about them being strategic or arrogant here, too low level for that .

The referee gave us the signal and we both released our Pokemon. Dunsparce landed on the field with a small roar, eyes fixed ahead at his opponent. Which was a small odd engine-looking thing.

The top of its body was made of steel and looked very much like a motor vehicle engine with something that looked like a tailpipe out the back. It had yellow eyes on its sides and the bottom half seemed rocky with four stone-like wheels.

A few people ‘ooh’d’ at her Pokemon, something that seemed to upset Dun. I guess it’s because her Pokemon is relatively rare compared to a more ‘common’ Dunsparce . “Don’t worry Dun, you’re the strongest out there and we’ll make everyone see that.”

“Dun dun!”

“Trainers, are you ready?” The referee asked, and we both nodded. “Begin!” He shouted and we both launched into giving commands.

“Alright Varoom, let’s make it quick!” The Varoom’s wheels spun as it raced ahead and I distantly noticed that it was a good deal slower than Dun. Odd, Dun’s weakest area is his speed . I didn’t have too much time to focus on that however as I had already given my command and was watching it take effect as well.

“Earthquake!” Dunsparce immediately slammed his body into the arena, sending cracks branching out a few feet in various directions from where he landed and making the entire arena shake. More than just the arena, actually; I could feel my feet shifting and saw the spectators in the park gasping and trying to keep their balance.

Varoom had it the worst, each bump of the ground beneath it hitting hard into its body. Its path became uncontrolled as it was jostled around, spinning out around Dun, and crashing into the barrier at my end of the arena.

I drew a breath ready to give another command- then stopped as I saw that the Varoom was lying on its side, not moving. A shocked silence descended over the field before the announcer stammered out “Wh-what an upset! A surprising victory for Nemona Glitterati!”

Cheers erupted out of the audience and a grin started to break through on my face. We did it! We won our first match! I hadn’t expected it to be that easy, but that’s double Type weakness for you .

My good mood was interrupted relatively quickly by Tracy running forward, tears in her eyes. “Varoom! Varooooom!” She dived down to cradle her fallen Pokemon. Worry filled me for a moment that her Pokemon might have been seriously injured, but I saw that its weird metal mouth extrusion thing seemed to be wheezing and it was just knocked out.

Still, not wanting to be rude I offered “Do you need a hand getting to the Pokemon Center?” Rather than look relieved, she whipped around to glare at me.

“I don’t need help from a cheater like you!” The sheer venom in her voice made me take a step back, aghast.

“What- but I didn’t-” TM Moves are totally legal, I checked!

“How else could you have beat Varoom with only one attack?” Rather than wait for an answer she grabbed up her fallen Pokemon and marched off.

I was still a little distracted by all of that so Dunsparce had to slither over and nudge my leg so I would make way for the next battlers (though they had to wait too for some of the staff to fix up the field from the damage we made).

“You did great!” Leah cried out, sweeping me into a big hug. “Oh, I’m so proud of you.” I couldn’t help but smile at her joy, but something must have shown in my eyes as she put me down. “What’s wrong sweetie?”

“Nothing. I mean, I’m really happy we won! Just… I wish she didn’t have to be so upset about that. And we didn’t cheat!” I pouted. I had never liked being accused of dishonesty or unfairness in my prior life and I didn’t like it here either. “Learning Moves from Technical Machines isn’t cheating.”

Friede just chuckled, a tinge of bitterness in his voice. “That’s just how it is, kid. People don’t think you can do anything, that it must all be a trick until you outright prove them wrong. Then they turn around and start sucking up to you.” Ouch. But I suppose this guy must have been hailed as a prodigy - a true genius, not a fake like me - from the start. Must be rough for a kid growing up like that .

Leah glared at Professor Friede for a moment, causing him to take a step back. “Don’t worry about any of that, young Miss. I’m sure that other competitors will act with a bit more dignity in the future.”

“Thanks.” I wasn’t truly convinced by her words, but just knowing that she was in my corner was nice. Besides, this is it. I took my first step as a trainer, and it was a success. That’s what I’m going to focus on .

Chapter 18: Chapter 16

Chapter Text

It was somewhat easier to relax waiting for my next round now that I had a win under my belt. Hmm, should I wear a belt when I become Champion? Like a wrestler - no wait, Leon has that, and he’s kinda tacky .

My next match was against a teenager with a Houndour, which ended fairly quickly thanks to Earthquake again. The Move didn’t damage the arena or extend past it this time, but that was due to the Farigiraf extending its barrier to permeate the battlefield itself (something that the referee had scolded her about, and the Farigiraf had rolled her eyes as if to say ‘how was I supposed to expect that?’ before fixing it for all future matches).

The match after was a kid about my age with a Maril, his knees shaking as he approached me. His few stuttered commands were easily countered, and the Maril was taken out with a well-timed Body Slam (didn’t even need Poison Jab). Am I really that scary? I hadn’t thought so, but Dunsparce was stronger than most others. A few others were starting to get increased attention and even some bets were placed on the ones who looked like they were real contenders.

Paldea had some surprisingly strict gambling restriction laws. In this case, any official bets were capped at no greater than the entrance fee to participate. I thought that was another reason why the entrance fee was so high for such a comparatively low-level tournament; it let the gamblers bet a bit more while keeping the numbers down low enough that they could run the whole thing in a day. There were other loopholes as well, like being able to bet on one competitor per each round.

We were reaching into the afternoon as round three was finishing up, though the fact was that each round took less long than the previous ones due to having fewer people. Despite that, I was certain we’d be well into the evening by the finals.

Spectators were taking note of me, but I still wasn’t the favorite to win yet. Likely, it was due to my age, or perhaps Dunsparce not being as striking in appearance as some others. Currently, it was a toss-up between Atticus and his Dhelmise and Katherine, an older foreign girl with a formidable-looking Golisopod, both of whom were just about to fight.

“Who do you think will win?” Friede casually asked as we watched the match. We’d chatted a bit in between my bouts, and I think he was surprised to find someone as knowledgeable as myself given how young I looked.

“Atticus. The Golisopod isn’t battle-hardened enough yet.” The Golisopod was a giant pale blue bug with thick armor plating covering its body. Pokemon evolution would clear up scars and injuries like that, and tellingly, Katherine’s Pokemon bore no battle wounds.

“Oh? But doesn’t it take a lot of work to evolve a Whimpod into a Golisopod?” Leah asked and I blinked with surprise. She blushed and added, “Ever since you’ve become so interested in Pokemon young Miss, I’ve been researching them too.” I smiled. It’s sweet of her to put such care and attention towards my interests .

“It does, and I’m not saying they’re not strong but-” Friede cut me off.

“He still has the instincts of a Whimpod, to run and flee whenever hurt, warring with his newfound strength and power. That can be trained out, but it takes time and the Golisopod has to get used to the pain it can take in battle.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at his interruption and nodded. “Yeah, that.” So far, he hasn’t been hurt enough for it to be an issue, but Dhelmise is in a different league than everyone else they’ve faced thus far. Bug/Water vs. Ghost/Grass doesn’t favor either side Type-wise either. If switches were allowed it wouldn’t be bad, but as is…

“Use First Impression!” Katherine called out, and her Golsiopod scuttled up, moving both fast and in a way that was hard to track. The Bug Type gave out a roar and raised its large foreclaws, causing the Dhelmise to flinch back, opening itself up to some swift strikes from its four smaller claws.

“Hit it back with Grassy Glide,” Atticus called out cooly and Dhelmise did just that. Laying down a sheet of seaweed, it slid across the field and into the Golisopod.

They exchanged blows like that a few more times, but Golisopod had nothing as powerful as his First Impression to follow it up with, and eventually after taking a powerful Payback, the big bug ran back to Katherine, cowering.

“Wait no, get back in there! Golly, please!” She begged, to no avail. He just shook his head and tried to shrink down further as Dhelmise menaced closer. “I- I surrender!” She called out, returning her Pokemon.

“The winner, Atticus! Folks, this kid is on a winning streak! Can nothing stop his climb to the top?” The announcer said as the crowd cheered him on. The preteen basked in the praise before smugly walking off.

“Looks like your prediction was right. Are you worried about him?” Friede inquired. It was understandable since he was my next opponent, but I had relaxed a lot more since the beginning of the event.

“Nah, I’ll win.” Besides, this last round told me everything I needed to win. It’s easy to get worried when everyone is unknown, but I’ve got a handle on how he fights .

“Kinda arrogant,” Friede responded, causing me to scowl.

“Takes one to know one! You assume you know everything!” Leah sighed off to the side as we started arguing.

“I do. Or near enough. I know everything there is to know about Pokemon.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah. Ask me anything.” He challenged, crossing his arms. He’s one of the few people who doesn’t look down on me due to my age. I shouldn’t screw that up. But… I kinda want to wipe that smug smile off his face. Whatever, it’s probably fine. If he gets distraught over being proven wrong I wouldn’t want to know him anyways. He might be a Pokemon Professor, but I have Isekai cheats!

I thought about it for a moment, trying to think of something that would both stump him and be provable. It was a difficult exercise in these more modern times with plenty of technology and open borders of the world. Knowledge was eagerly exchanged between the League Nations, and even beyond. Something like ‘How was the mythical Pokemon Magerana created?’ might not work because it's something no one knows about and something like ‘What types can Charizard Mega Evolve into?’ would be too well known .

“Well?” He asked impatiently.

“Alright. Dual Typing can cover a lot of weaknesses in either Type, especially when immunities overlap with what would be the other Type's weakness. What is the only Pokemon that has 3 Type immunities and only one Type weakness?” As he opened his mouth I quickly realized my mistake and added “And two resistances!” Almost forgot about Spiritomb there. It’s a cool Pokemon and very tanky for a Ghost Type, but given what I know it would be so hard to control. Of course, the one I’m thinking of would likely be worse .

“That’s- uh hmm. Three immunities has to be part Ghost Type at least…” He pondered it for a moment before shaking his head. “That’s a nice try, but Dhelmise has more weaknesses and resistances than that. In fact-” I held my arms up in an ‘X’ cutting him off.

“It’s not a Ghost Steel Type, I know. Dhelmise is not the Pokemon I’m talking about.”

“Really?” Leah asked. “But it looks so- I mean, it’s an anchor.”

“True, and it’s reflected in its Steelwork Ability, but it's a Grass Ghost Type.” Seeing Friede was still stumped, I told him the answer. “I was talking about a Hisuian Zoroark.”

“A wha- Zoroark is a Dark Type. Sure, they can cast illusions to pretend to be other typings, but that doesn’t count.”

“The modern day Zoroark, yes. But in Ancient Hisui, the Survey Corps discovered a regional variant.” Or more likely, the settlers created a Regional Variant, through hate and mistreatment . “Hisuian Zoroark is the only recorded Ghost Normal Type. It’s arguably the strongest Dual Type combination out there.” Friede didn’t look convinced so I added: “You can check out Laventon’s notes.”

“Where did you get the chance to read an ancient Professor’s notes?” Friede asked, bewildered. To be fair, I get why he is treated that way. There wasn’t really the designation of a ‘Pokemon’ Professor before Samuel Oak and the Global League made them a thing, both culturally and officially. However, Laventon is often cited as the precursor to that system and it’s widely believed he’d be one if the League had been in place when he was alive .

I was spared from answering that question by Leah chiming in. “The Young Miss is a member of the Glitterati family and they have been quite supportive of her goal of becoming a Champion ranked trainer. However,” she added with a steely gaze at me. “I didn’t realize that she had obtained that particular rare research material.”

“I mean, I haven’t ever laid eyes on his work personally, but I’ve seen images of it through a screen. There’s a lot of stuff online.” Very true, especially online in my first world where I played through Legends Arceus .

Rotom had a question of their own to ask as well. “Bzzt, Is a Hisuian Zoroark actually the strongest Pokemon out there?”

“No. Ghost and Normal pair well together, but Steel and Bug have more resistances which might be worth even the double weakness to Fire. And Type combination isn’t everything, you know? You could get Electric and Water in Wash form, which might not seem as strong on paper, but then you add in your Ability Levitate and you have even more resistances and only one weakness. Then there’s each species' strengths and deficiencies, the Moves they can learn…”

My rant was interrupted by a chuckle from Friede. “I think if you became a Pokemon Professor you’d specialize in battling.” I blushed at the joke. Technically, ‘battling’ is the domain of Trainers, so it’s not something Professor’s would ‘specialize’ in. Too broad a field as well, with how battling is such a major facet of Pokemon's lives. Kukui came close with his in-depth study of Moves and practical application with his team though, and I can’t deny battling is something I’ve been fixated on. But the history of this world is interesting as well. Not sure what I’ll study after I become a Champion .

Deflecting, I asked, “What do you specialize in?” There wasn’t a requirement to specialize in any particular field for a Pokemon Professor. Indeed, most of the tests for achieving the title instead required an incredibly broad field of knowledge. Still, most Professors would make a name for themselves in a field they felt a certain affinity to.

“I don’t know,” he admitted and I could see his mask of arrogance crack for a moment, revealing a young man, unsure of his life. He was told he was a genius his whole life, and just as he made his biggest achievement, everyone’s attention was grabbed by someone more successful in the field. Turo’s Terastalization Orbs took the world by storm and now he’s just kinda… adrift .

“Well, no rush. There’s a lot to study in the world. I-” I cast a glance at Leah before continuing. “Honestly, achieving Champion level is only a means to an end. Sure, I want to be in the big tournaments, fans cheering my name, yada yada. But what I truly desire is strength. The strength to travel anywhere and everywhere I want, to uncover every hidden secret across the world. To just… see it all.” I lacked the words, to fully describe exactly how amazing I found this world to be. I couldn’t tell if I was put here for a purpose or not. If there was one thing I could decide for myself, it was that I absolutely loved it here, and wanted to enjoy every bit of it I could.

Friede had a strange expression on his face, one I couldn’t decipher, but I thought there might be a sense of wonder there. Before he could say anything, the announcer called out “Nemona Gliteratti and Atticus Ordale, take your places on the field.”

“Alright, gotta go,” I said, quickly turning and racing off to my next challenge. Not sure how much I got through to him, but hopefully that’s one Professor who’s convinced to look a bit more into the wonder of the world. I’ve just gotta convince the other one to look into it a bit less .

Chapter 19: Interlude III - Cyan

Chapter Text

“Go Nemona! Woo!” I cheered loudly as her Dunsparce smacked around a Marill, sending the blue ball-shaped Pokemon bouncing around the arena.

My cheers were mostly lost amidst the other cheers (and a few curses) of other matches at the same time. I think I hear a few more people cheering for Nemona now, though . It was still faint, but as she won more often, more people in the crowds here started saying her name.

“Awesome! Go kick someone else’s butt!” Arven cheered, and not for the first time today I wondered if she hadn’t lightly traumatized the young boy. Oh well. I’m more surprised by how otherwise normal her friend/relationship with him is .

My little sister was adorable, bright, and incredibly weird. I was allowed to use Rock Throw - I freely accepted that I was weird too. Other kids my age (and especially hers) weren’t as driven as we were. We were born for greatness, and that meant putting in the work to achieve those results.

A memory, possibly my first one, flashed into my mind. It was of Mommy smiling as she saw a drawing I’d scribbled out, praising me for my work before she had to head off to her important job. A smile touched my lips at the memory, but it changed to a frown as I thought about it more.

I get that they’re busy with their important jobs, or trips to relax from those jobs, but did they have to miss this? I’d never been upset at them missing my recitals or the like, but it felt different when it was Nemona they couldn’t see.

How funny, a year ago I would have been mad at how much attention they were paying to my sister . Back then I thought she was just showing off, spouting useless trivia while I did ‘real’ work. When we made that comic together I realized that she wanted me to succeed and be noticed by Mommy and Daddy too. And as we started hanging out more, I realized just how hard Nemona works.

Which makes them missing this suck even more . I let out a small sigh and shifted the incubator on my back around. She doesn’t think it was bad for us to wait here, right? No way, she’s been winning all these early fights, and I’d get so tired if I had to run all over to that other field and back .

“What’s wrong? Are you tired?” Arven asked in response to my sigh, and I blinked. Didn’t realize he would notice that .

“No, I’m fine. And I’m not tired. We’ve got these good seats and will be right near the action when Nims wins and the quarterfinals start.”

“That might not be correct,” Turo said suddenly. “Not the seats comment, these foldable bleachers have actually proven much more comfortable than I anticipated. Nemona however, is unlikely to win this round.”

“What!?” I shrieked. How can he say that?

“While I’m no metallurgist, I think the flexibility of these bleachers comes from an alloy designed to mimic the inherent traits of Melmetal-”

“Daaaad,” Arven whined out before I could explode. “We don’t care about that sciency stuff, why do you think Nemona is going to lose?” He frowned, the otherwise hard-to-read Professor looking like he had been personally insulted.

Quickly shaking it off he said, only a bit colder: “While she might stand a chance if Atticus uses his Staravia, he’ll likely choose his Dhelmise, recognizing it as the better choice versus Nemona’s Dunsparce. Though even then, she’d still be disadvantaged from the Staravia’s greater maneuverability and speed.”

“But Dun is so strong , he’s beat Maschiff so many times.” The dog Pokemon in question at his feet gave a small whimper, remembering their matches.

Turo gave his son a small smile. “Be that as it may, Dun faces many disadvantages against Dhelmise in particular. As a Normal Type, his strongest Moves won’t work against Dhelmise because of its Ghost Typing. The other Move he has utilized the most thus far is Earthquake, which is not very effective due to the Grass Typing. That dual combination, plus the sheer physical strength and variety of Moves Dhelmise has, I can't see any other outcome than Nemona’s defeat.”

Has he actually been watching these matches? I thought he was just fiddling around on his tablet and recording the fights on his phone, but it looks like he was paying attention. Don’t get why he’s so focused on the tech instead of cheering, though . His son was starting to look worried, his belief in Nemona’s overwhelming strength warring with his belief in his father always being right.

It probably doesn’t help that a lot of that terminology is going over Arven’s head . I knew because a few months ago it would have gone over mine. It was only with the tutoring Nemona had given me to get my trainer’s license. Which is why I know that she’s still going to win. She knows all of this stuff and looks way too confident not to have some crazy plan ready for this .

“Don’t worry Arven. Like you said, she’s really strong and has been training super hard for this tournament. Think about all the training you’ve done with her, then times it by ten and she’s worked at least that hard.” The young boy gaped and shivered at the very idea of someone working that hard. “Nims is gonna win this whole thing, no problem.” I glanced over at the Professor, challenging him to deny my words.

He shrugged. “There are unpredictable elements in any experiment.” It was a non-answer to hedge bets, but he didn’t seem to think it was likely, nodding to himself as he glanced at his tablet.

I don’t get what’s going on with those two . I had overheard Nemona talking to him at the party where she became best friends with Arven. Everyone else was willing to wave off her words as just ‘things kids say,’ but I knew better. She was deliberately trying to upset him. But why?

“Why don’t you show me some of what Maschiff has learned after the tournament?” Turo asked his son, causing Arven’s face to light up like a Lanturn.

“Really?” The boy asked and the Professor nodded his head, a goofy smile of his own on his face. Unguarded, in a way Nemona couldn’t be.

Oh sure, my little sister could talk endlessly about any topic that interested her. She was way more open than the stoic Professor generally. It’s a miracle his son didn’t inherit that from him. But as much as Nemona is generally more engaged and considerate than him, there’s a gap I see with her. A space between her that no one can seem to close. Not me, not Leah, not even Mommy or Daddy .

Before I could get more frustrated with Nemona and her weirdness, I got distracted as I saw her battle about to start on the screen. She and her opponent had been called up for their round and were releasing their Pokemon.

“Let’s get this, Dun!” The yellow-winged snake gave a roar for the crowds, one that a few of the audience there returned with their own cheering.

Across her stood a tanned young man with long blue hair, accented with yellow tips. His t-shirt cut a slight v-frame on his torso and honestly looked quite cute. Sorry pretty boy, I’d be rooting for you if it wasn’t my sis you were facing, but as is, you’re going down!

“Go, Dhelmise!” The seaweed-encrusted anchor-and-wheel drifted onto the battlefield, glaring balefully from one of the eyes on its wheel at the smaller Pokemon. I hope Dun will be alright. I know what I said and how much Nims trained him, but looking at it live… that anchor looks scary .

“Contestants ready?” The referee asked, and they both nodded. “Begin!” The older child, Atticus, took the lead, shouting the first command.

“Rapid Spin!” Before the Dhelmise could even begin to whirl around, Nemona gave a counter command.

“Earthquake!” Dunsparce slammed into the ground, causing it to shift and bounce up and down. Dhelmise lowered itself, moving perpendicular to the ground as the anchor began to spin around the wheel. Before it could build up speed, some of the earth rose and hit it, disrupting its movements.

“Gah!” The boy cried out at his Pokemon taking a hit. Despite his exclamation, it didn’t look like the Dhelmise was all that injured. But maybe I’m just not seeing something they are . Nemona had a sharp grin at the exchange. Atticus wasn’t done yet, giving another command. “Alright, go for Rapid Spin again, but go high above the ground.”

Nemona called out for an Earthquake again, clapping her hands together as she did so. She didn’t give any more commands as the Dhelmise hurtled in, but, when it tried to cut in diagonally at Dunsparce he jumped well over the ghostly sea wreckage, the movement of the ground helping push him up.

“That Dunsparce is impressive,” Turo commented as we watched him try to lash out with a Poison Jab at the Dhelmise under my sister’s commands. The anchor was lightly grazed before managing to back away, even with the Dunsparce chasing after it, gliding through the air by furiously beating his wings.

“Told you~” I sing-songed, enjoying watching Dun’s assault on the bigger, very solid-looking anchor. It’s crazy how powerful a little guy like that can be. Nims would be the first to tell me that though - she can wax poetic about ‘the infinite potential within all Pokemon.' About how even an electric mouse could fight a god and win . The weight of the incubator on my back felt heavy, and I wondered if my Popplio could be that strong.

“That being said, my preliminary hypothesis holds.” Turo finished, and by the time I had parsed his words, Atticus had made a comeback.

“Frustration!” He shouted, and Dhelmise’s ghastly eye narrowed, the anchor body swinging out from the wheel briefly to catch Dunsparce by the hook. Slamming into the little snake hard, it sent Dun flying across the arena and crashing into the barrier at the edge. He flopped on the ground, giving a pained cry and we could see a nasty red mark where the anchor had hit.

Atticus flashed a brilliant smile as the tables turned. “Ha! You’re no match for my Pokemon.”

My sibling remained undaunted. “As if! Dun would never give up so easily. C’mon, get up buddy. No matter how tough, you can do this!” Dunsparce rolled back onto his belly quickly before wincing and trembling.

“Oh no!” Arven cried out, biting his nails. I shook my head, knowing where this was going.

“Don’t worry, I know that wince,” Cyan said with a smirk. “That’s how he looks when Nemona stops our chefs from giving him a third dinner.” And he certainly doesn’t wince like that because he needs the extra meals .

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you! Alright, Frustration again!” The Dhelmise glided across the battlefield at the behest of his trainer, in a collision course with Dunsparce. At the last second, Nemona gave her command.

“Dodge!” Despite the bruising from before remaining, any signs of weakness in his movements disappeared as he rolled to the side, deftly evading the powerful attack and catching the other side off-guard with the sudden speed. “Poison Jab!”

Dun’s tail lashed out into the wheel of the ghost, causing it to recoil before moving in for another swing of its anchor. “Counter!” The call wasn’t for a Move, but instead for Dunsparce to start spinning his tail and then raise it to deflect the anchor before it could crash down on him, pushing it to the dirt beside. “Earthquake!” Again, the ground shook, dislodging the anchor.

“Go Nemona, wooo!” I cheered, hearing Arven and a few others cheering along. Most of the crowd here was focused on Nemona’s match, this one being the most exciting by far of the ones being broadcast to the central battlefield right now.

Turo wasn’t cheering at all, however, his face looked like it was carved out of marble as he impassively watched the match. Occasionally he’d glance down at his equipment, type in some new code, then go back to watching.

“Great job Atticus!” Cheers like that had me whipping back to the match, to see that something had happened. Some crunching sound that had likely been Dhelmise breaking one of Dun’s wings, the left one sticking out at an odd angle. The Dunsparce looked a bit roughed up in general, something that incited Atticus’ fans to shouts of joy.

“C’mon Nemona, you can do it!” I cried out as loud as I could as if my words could reach her from here. They didn’t, but Atticus gave a command I couldn’t hear and something unexpected happened. The Dhelmise shrouded itself in a dark purple energy that swung into, and harmlessly through, Dun.

“Huuuuuuh?! What happened?” Arven shouted, echoing out loud my internal confusion.

“Another Poison Jab!” Nemona called out, and with the time from his failed attack before letting her Pokemon recover enough to strike back. Dhelmise was wary of that now, and reeled back, but was still grazed by the magenta-tipped tail.

Clearing his throat, the Professor explained. “Dhelmise Ghost Typing protects it from Dunsparce’s Normal attack, but that protection goes both ways. As a Normal Type, Dun is immune to Ghost Type attacks.” Right, Nemona mentioned something about that when testing me on Types. I never got that, what regular people just ain't afraid of no ghosts? And why do they resist Bugs?

“Gyro Ball! Crush it!” The anchor spun fast as it rose up into the air, looking like a solid circle for a moment.

“D- Tank it and Bite!” Dunsparce clenched up but didn’t move, letting the Dhelmise slam into him. He gave a pained cry, before coating his teeth with a barely visible black aura and latching into the metal anchor. Dhelmise wailed but didn’t flee.

“Lock him down, then Mega Drain!” Seaweeds extended from the anchor to stop the snake from fleeing and then began to pulse with light green energy. “Haha! Now my Dhelmise will heal while your Dunsparce is drained to nothing!”

I was worried, it actually looked like this might be the end but Nemona was smiling on the screen, for some reason.

“It’s over. Dun, wiggle out your back half.” Dun was quite slippery (something I’d found out when he’d wiggle out of my grasp with ease in the early days), so despite being wrapped up, he was able to comply with the command, even though the pressure holding him down was on his neck now. “Poison Jab repeatedly! Aim for the seaweed!” Nemona cried out, a vicious look on her face.

His tail jabbed back and forth, striking into the dense clumps of seaweed multiple times. The energy being transferred between the Pokemon took on a magenta tint as it was absorbed into the ghost.

“Ack! Dhelmise, retreat!” Dhelmise broke off the seaweed and floated away. There was an odd sway to its hovering compared to before and it had one of its steering wheel eyes closed in pain. “What? What’s wrong?!” Atticus demanded wildly.

“Your Pokemon has just been Poisoned, that’s what’s wrong,” my little sister taunted back. It’s odd, in that it’s not odd. Nims has a certain presence to her, that makes you forget that she’s basically bullying someone almost twice her age . “His strength is being sapped away every moment.”

“Fine then, I’ll end this fast! Dhelmise-”

“Dun, dig down.” Nemona interrupted him, holding a hand out, pulling it back, and then splaying her fingers again. The land snake quickly spun his tail and started drilling through the ground.

“Grrr, fine, wait for it to return and take out all your anger on it!” Atticus commanded, and Dhelmise got ready, looking for anywhere it might pop up from. And looking. And looking…

“Hey, what gives? You can’t hide forever!” The boy pouted as his Dhelmise gave a pained cry, the poison taking its toll.

“That’s correct, I can hide for 30 seconds at most before I’d be disqualified,” Nemona explained, without giving any further comments. The look in her eyes made it clear she wasn’t going to either.

“You’re fighting dirty! Cheater!” Nemona frowned at the name-calling, clenching a tight fist, but didn’t engage with him beyond that. The crowd over on my end started doing the same, booing her.

“Hey, shut up! It’s in the rules, if he doesn’t have a counter, it’s on him!” I shouted at them, realizing after my outburst that I’d stood up at some point. Some of the crowd turned towards me, jeering- then Turo stepped in.

“The young lady is correct, it’s an entirely legitimate tactic. Let’s go back to watching the match in peace.” His tone and fancy Professor’s coat brooked no disagreement. Some of the adults looked guilty when they realized my age, a few still shot daggers at me with their eyes, but everyone quieted down to watch the match conclude.

“Fine, Dhelmise get ready for when-” At that moment (25 seconds into the count as shown by the referee), Dunsparce popped back up. The poisoned ghost had turned slightly to face its trainer before he had resurfaced and thus wasn’t prepared to crush him right away.

“Outmaneuver!” Nemona called out, and Dunsparce fled the enraged Dhelmise. Not just fleeing, however. Whenever the Dhelmise got too close, he’d spin his tail and get ready for another Poison Jab, forcing the larger Pokemon to back off and try to hit it from another angle, giving Dun more time to evade and keep his distance.

Losing his cool, Atticus grabbed big clumps of blue hair on either side of his head and yelled

“Screw it! Giga Impact!” Everyone, even the crowds watching here gave a shocked gasp at that as pale green energy emanated in a semi-sphere in front of its body. I don’t know what’s so bad, but if they’re all worried for Dun…

Nemona was panicking as well, for the first time in this tournament. Throwing her arms to the side as if to add force to the motion she screamed “BARREL ROLL!!” Dunsparce obeyed without hesitation, launching itself into a tumble that took it a third of the way across the arena.

Dhelmise rocketed forward with great speed, but little accuracy, missing by a fair margin as it drove itself into the ground, tearing up large chunks of dirt before it hit the barrier and broke through that too.

Some of the in-person spectators dove to the sides, but it didn’t get near any of them. The friction from the ground and the barrier bled off enough speed that it only went a few feet past it before collapsing to the ground, defeated.

All was silent for a moment before the referee called the fight, and the crowd erupted into cheers. Even the people booing her name a moment earlier were cheering her on now. Everyone loves a winner .

Sometimes adults didn’t realize just how much I heard, and how much of that I understood. So many times there would be some man calling Daddy a ‘Driftloom headed fool’, or disparaging Mommy’s bold style of dress, out of their earshot. Such comments quickly changed with the recent success of the Tera Orbs and their companies.

Or maybe they were just won over by my little sister and her last-minute victory . I didn’t care too much, just happy that Nemona grabbed victory and would be moving on to the quarter-finals.

Cheering alongside us, I saw Turo clapping politely as well. He also muttered something to himself, but I couldn’t hear it over the din.

“What was that?” I shouted.

“Ah, your hypothesis was proven correct, well done.” He stated loudly over the crowd, without seeming to strain.

I blinked, surprised at how cordial he was. “I thought you hated Nemona.” Now it was his turn to look surprised.

“Why would you think that? Did she say something?”

“No, but- ah never mind. I guess you guys are over the party stuff, huh?” I scratched the back of my head, a nervous habit I was starting to pick up from my little sister.

“That. Yes, I’m entirely over it. More than that, in fact, I’m grateful. Her introduction helped me create my greatest project to date, a Sproink board to further marvels of science. To say nothing of the data she just gave me…”

“Woohoo! That was awesome Nemona! She was all like ‘nuh-uh’ and then ‘bang’ ‘pow’! And then, then she was all ‘I’m so cool, dodge dodge’!” Arven recapped the fight (and inaccurately at that) we had just seen, blissfully ignorant or inured to just how creepy his father sounded.

Weird, maybe that’s why Nemona dislikes him so much? Oh! “Tulip and Dendra are here!” I exclaimed as I saw the elegant model and her friend on the other end of the crowd. Waving to them, I rushed over. I wonder if Tulip will have any more tips for me? Today is going great!

Chapter 20: Chapter 17

Chapter Text

The first thing I did after the referee called the match was race over to Dun, drawing a Super Potion from my pocket. I sprayed his bruised body and he gave a small hissing sound as the scrapes were stung before sighing in relief. Already I could see the wounds starting to close up, the bruising fading. His dislocated wing even snapped back into place.

The technology in this world is incredible . I knew that partially it had to do with the innate recovery ability Pokemon had as well as natural agents like Berries having potent healing properties, but there were a lot of astounding healthcare advancements they had here as well.

After seeing my Pokemon was taken care of, I turned to my opponent. The Dhelmise was being recalled to his Pokeball but the older boy didn’t look worried.

I gave Dun a moment to give a victory cheer for the fans before returning him to his ball. He’s become a real attention hog, huh? Well, I suppose it’s not bad for him to have his own priorities to strive for in our march to the top. I’ll make him the most famous Dunsparce in the world if that’s what it takes!

Walking over to my opponent I offered my hand to shake. While they weren’t the biggest sticklers on propriety here given some of the kids’ ages, it was the proper thing to do. Atticus walked up to me, sighing. “Can’t believe I lost to a kid like you.”

A frown appeared on my face as I went to withdraw my hand. He saw it however and leapt ahead, shaking it. “I’m sorry, I got caught up there, it was a good match. You did well.” Not disparaging me or Dun? And an actual compliment? Alright!

Smiling, I shook it back and the crowd cheered at the show of good sportsmanship between us two kids. “Thanks. You pushed me hard too, that Dhelmise is a real powerhouse.”

“You want it?” He said as we stopped shaking hands, and I blinked as if he’d suddenly spoken French. Or rather Kalosian , a small part of my mind added. The rest of it was trying to understand what he was saying.

“I wha- no- I couldn’t even, I’m a junior trainer, I can’t have more- why?” I stammered.

“Ah, a shame. Oh well, I’ll find someone else who wants them.” Then he turned around and began to walk off.

“Why?” I asked, loud enough to make it clear to him that I still wanted to know. It wasn’t quite loud enough to reach the crowd over their cheers though. He half turned back and said:

“I make it a point not to use someone who’s lost. Later.” Then he just kept on walking away.

Clenching my fists, I resisted the urge to scream, marching back to Leah and Friede. “You did wonderfully!” She said, and I tried to smile at that, not wanting to trouble her with my dark thoughts. She’s right; objectively, that was an incredible battle .

“Thank you.” I glanced up at the board and saw that there were still plenty of matches before the next round would begin. “I’ve gotta go, I’ll be back soon.” I turned to leave, but before I could take a step Leah’s hand squeezed tightly on my shoulder.

“Where are you running off to?”

“I was going to go to a Pokemart and see if they had a Throat Spray. Dun’s voice sounded a bit off when he was chanting his name at the end there.” Even spraying some of the potion in his mouth hadn’t helped fix him. Because of my strategy that had his throat pressed under a Dhelmise. I think it was the right choice in that fight, but still. It sucked to have to tell Dun to get hurt . Logically, it was the right choice, but emotionally… well I could see why many trainers never made it very far in their journeys.

“Don’t go running off by yourself, we’ll go together.” She glanced over at Friede, unwilling to ask him directly, but clearly hoping he’d offer to give us a ride.

He gave the kind of long-suffering sigh only a teenager could before offering to help us. “I can give a ride to the Delibird Presents, they might have a shipment of Throat Spray.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“It’s no problem. This has been much more interesting than the paperwork I’ve got back at my lab.”

As we hopped onto his Charizard for another flight I asked “What are you writing papers on?”

“Hmm? Just boring busy work, double checking other scientific papers for inaccuracies.”

“That’s not- ok it might be boring,” I admitted. “But it’s essential work! Too rarely do those sorts of things get peer-reviewed and retested properly, which can lead to all sorts of incorrect information entering the public domain. They also get used in basing other studies wrongly, wasting more time, spreading biases-” I cut myself off as I heard Leah and Friede chuckling behind me and realized I was ranting again.

“You sure you don’t want to be an academic after all?” Friede teased. Turning, I stuck my tongue out at him.

“Nope, you can handle all that stuff. Besides, you saw how me and Dun battled, do you think we’re fit for a desk job?” Maybe I’m showing off, but I feel we’ve earned it. That battle was tough! I was so worried I’d freeze up or call out the wrong command, but I think I did alright, and Dunsparce did great . For the first time today, I was feeling confident about not just ‘doing well’, but winning this whole thing.

“Ha, I suppose you’re right,” Friede said as Charizard started to land. It had only been a short flight over. “Those Throat Sprays are pretty expensive, you might be better off just going to a Center for treatment after the tournament.”

Leah smiled serenely as she stepped off. “That’s kind, but the Young Miss has no concerns on the monetary front.” Friede scratched the back of his head awkwardly, likely having forgotten for a second that Leah wasn’t a relative of mine, but someone hired by my family. In fairness, since we went on this outing she isn’t in her regular maid uniform so she just looks like an average older sister or cousin cheering on a family member .

“Yeah, it’ll be fine. I’m not going to hesitate over spending a bit extra to keep my Pokemon in tip-top shape. Not like some people,” I muttered, but Leah’s sharp glance indicated that she heard me. “I hope your paperwork goes well and that you get the chance to do what you actually want to do soon.”

“What I want to do…” he pondered. “I've heard some rumors about the next project your friend Professor Turo has been trying to organize. Maybe I’ll go join him. Would be interesting to explore-”

“You don’t want to go on his next mission.” There wasn’t a trace of my previous joviality in my voice. I knew that I was a child, my appearance and high pitch could make it hard for adults to take me seriously but I needed him to listen to me now. “He’s going down a path that leads only to ruin.”

He gulped audibly, giving me an odd look before shaking his head. “I’ll keep that in mind. I’m going to get some chow for Charizard, could use a stock up.” Then he and Charizard flew off not very far away, just to the regular Pokemart up the winding street.

“What was that all-” Leah began.

“We better get Dun his medicine before my next match starts.” I cut off Leah’s words before she could question me on the subject, walking into the store. If she pressed me on the matter I’m not sure I could fake child-like ignorance and shake it off, I’d probably give in to proper manners and tell her something. Whatever I’d tell her would just lead her to ask more questions and I really don’t want to break down about my past life right now .

Delibird Presents was a very colorfully decorated store, blue and red prominently painting the walls and ceiling with white trim and flooring to match the store’s mascot. Rows of shelves covered the floor, knick-knacks, gadgets, and toys were stacked on them. In between aisles, there were often large cubes holding all manner of miscellaneous gear piled within. On the back was a glass case lining the entire wall with all manner of powerful, pricey battle items, evolutionary stones, and rarities for collectors.

Trash and treasure are all bundled up in one place. There wasn’t really any place I can recall like this in my home, especially not in a smaller store like this one . Shaking myself out of my musings, I went to the front desk right away. It would be easy to lose myself here for hours if I had the time; there was a time and place for everything, but not now.

The sales attendant was a sandy-haired, bespectacled young man in a blue uniform with a small Delibird name tag pin with the name ‘Dave’ on it. “Hello little lady, what can I do for you today?”

“My Dunsparce got his neck crushed a little by a Dhelmise, do you have any Throat Sprays in stock that can help him?”

He blinked, a little surprised at the request. “Uhh, yes, we’ve got something that can help. Are you hoping to use sound-based attacks in battle soon?” He asked as he stepped around the desk and walked to the glass case.

“No, just something so his neck won’t hurt and he can cheer out his name when he wins.” Not many people know about Dunsparce learning powerful sound Moves. He might be a student at the academy, working here part-time .

He smiled at that and took out the keys to the case. Looking closer I could see a dusky tint to the glass. Probably some Dark Type-infused glass, to stop Ghost or Psychics from stealing the expensive stuff. I wonder how they ‘infuse’ objects with Type Energy anyway?

“That’s good to hear. In that case, you probably just want the Throat Spray Lite - it should handle any issues he has in regular speech and any lingering pain.”

“Sounds good, thank you.”

Opening the case he pulled out the Throat Spray. In many ways, it looked much like a Potion. Regular Throat Spray had a neck brace and buttons so that a Pokemon could use it mid-fight for optimal effectiveness, but this one wasn’t a Battle Item so it was just a red bottle with a slightly different spray nozzle than a Potion.

“That’ll be 10,000 Pokedollars, ma’am.” I blanched a bit at the price. That’s over double what it costs to enter the tournament!

Before I could say anything, Leah stepped forward and said “We’ll transfer the money right away. Rotom?” Rotom flew out of my pocket, hovering in front of the cashier, who didn’t have his own Rotom Phone but a credit reader that apparently could receive money via Rotom transmission.

A glance at the screen as the transaction was done showed me that it wasn't my account they were using. "You have access to my parent's accounts?"

"Not exactly Nemona, bzzt. There's a limited fund I have permission to access on your behalf, and that fund was created by your parents."

"Wow, ok, thanks. Hmm, you know with how much you help me and the money, how does the name Pennyworth sound-"

"Bzzzzzt," Rotom buzzed in instant denial. I had told them about Batman, so it wasn't a case of them not getting the reference - in fact, I think it made the rejection stronger.

"Static? You'll put a shock to their systems!"

"Better, but still not clicking, Young Miss." Leah gave a small smile at the byplay between us, not saying a word.

With the spray in hand, we left, walking briskly up the street to where Friede had gone. Rotom was showing me some of the match streams beside me, so I knew we weren’t in any danger of arriving too late. It was a lovely day and I was doing well in the tournament, but I couldn’t help but feel discontent.

A fact that Leah noticed, asking “What’s the matter, Young Miss?” I can’t tell if she’s really good at reading people, or if I just have a terrible poker face .

“It was my last opponent, Atticus.”

“Did he say something mean to you?” Leah generally had a kind, soft face, but in the moment her eyes took on a killer steely glare.

“No, that’s kinda the worst part. He was perfectly nice to me, but wanted to toss aside his Pokemon just because he lost a match with them!” Being disrespectful to Pokemon was a huge hot-button topic for me, but there was more to it than that.

I nearly thought about turning down the Throat Spray when I saw the price. It was just for a moment, and being money-conscious isn’t a ‘bad’ thing, but… I’ve got tons of it. I shouldn’t be holding back on my Pokemon in any way. Atticus used plenty of Technical Machine Moves as well, and I'm sure I'll face others at the top that have their own advantages .

Leah smiled kindly down at me. “I can see that means a lot to you. I’m glad you care so much, it’s easy for some people to… take things for granted.”

I nodded, the words resonating with me. ‘Some people’ like rich people. And more than even them, really. It’s hard to truly appreciate a world as spectacular as this one without a frame of reference of a world without Pokemon .

She continued. “Keep a hold of that, it’s good to care for others. But you can’t let their actions drag you down. Just do the best that you can do.”

I puffed my cheeks. Annoying to be talked to like I’m just a child, even if I am one right now. Even more annoying, she’s entirely right . Sighing, I tried to let go of my frustration. “Yeah, you’re right. I don’t have to deal with him right now, so he shouldn’t get to live in my head rent-free.”

She chuckled. “You are your mother’s daughter.” I blinked, not understanding for a second before remembering where I was (why that wasn’t a common saying). Who I was (the parents I had lost and the ones I now had).

“Right. Now let’s make both my parents proud by winning this tournament!” That was just a saying from my first world, not meant to be a reference to O’Nare Reality .

“I’m sure they’re already proud.” That was true, though I could see how she might think that I’d need the encouragement if I was a six-year-old. My parents missing this probably doesn't help that . Truthfully while it was annoying, I knew how my Glitterati parents could be and could handle it a lot better than most children.

We waved down Friede who gave us a ride back on Charizard and we were at the arena with plenty of time. I made sure to thank the fire-breathing lizard for his aid. I might have made it running there and back, my stamina has improved tons over the past year with all the exercise I’ve been doing, but I would have been dead tired after .

Looking at the board I could see that there were only four trainers left here, but this was the last battle we’d have in this arena - the two winners would move on to the central arena for the quarterfinals there.

Letting Dunsparce out of his ball he gave a weak ‘Dun’ that turned into a cough partway through. “Hey buddy, got you something to help with that.” Pulling out the Throat Spray, I gave one shot down his throat.

“Spar? Sparce Un!” He gave a happy shout, wiggling his body adorably.” A girl watching nearby glared at us. Right, she’s our opponent for the next round . She was a teenager with long pink hair.

“Rosemary Mato vs. Nemona Glitterati!” From the way she stiffened up at the other name being called, I assumed that she was my next opponent. From what I could recall, she had a Bronzor with some impressive psychic capabilities. Could be a problem, but I don’t think it’s worse than that Dhelmise .

The crowd seemed to think so too; I could hear snippets of the bets being placed, and they were weighted far more heavily in my favor than they had been before. Leah’s been making quite a bit off of each win, good for her .

Rosemary had her arms crossed, standing on the other end of the field, chin jutted out while she looked down on me. She was trying a little hard, but I could tell she was nervous and trying to hide it. “Trainers, ready?” The referee called out, and the roar of the crowd died down to a light buzz of murmurs. We both nodded, I motioned for Dun to move forward, and she released her Bronzor. The Pokemon was a blue metal disk with two eyes near the middle and some bumps on the sides. It floated a few feet above the starting ring.

“Begin!”

“Body Slam!” I yelled, and Dun charged ahead. The space between them was too great, and she had the chance to give a command of her own.

“Confusion!” A pinky-purple energy surrounded Dun, holding him in the air and eliciting pain.

Damn it, they’ll just telekinetically bash him around until he faints . I’d seen Rosemary do that in her previous matches. “Break out of it!” I snapped, just saying something while I wracked my mind for an answer.

To my surprise, he did just that, thrashing around mid-air to break through the energy field holding him. Impressive. I hadn’t thought he’d get a lot of leverage from there. Must have underestimated his flight again or maybe just his strength in general- no! Focus! “Continue your attack!” I yelled out and he flew into Bronzor, knocking it back a bit through the air… but doing little else.

The battle continued that way for a minute, the Bronzor hurting Dun with Confusion for a moment before he’d break free and Body Slam at the Bronzor. Despite its range advantage, it drifted even slower through the air than my Dunsparce, but its Steel body meant his Normal Type attacks weren’t very effective either.

All of a sudden, Dunsparce stopped listening to me, and after breaking free from an attack, started ramming his head into the barriers. While I was pleased to see the attacks were strong enough to force the Farigiraf managing them startle and have to focus on maintaining them, I generally wasn’t pleased with the situation. Eyes are glazed over, he must be Confused . “Snap out of it!” I shouted. It might not be super helpful, especially if he isn’t hearing me correctly, but I have to try something .

Thankfully, that proved to be enough, and his vision focused, taking in reality as it was again.

“Body Slam!” He hit the Bronzor again, it and its trainer not expecting Dun to break free so soon. It didn’t do nearly enough to take our opponent out, however, and Rosemary called for Bronzor to retreat, setting up the same pattern we had been in before.

I can’t use Poison Jab because it's a Steel Type, and Levitate keeps Earthquake away. Should I Terrastalize? I won’t be able to recharge my Terra Orb before I get to the quarterfinals. We might even win this through attrition anyway without it, though if Dunsparce gets confused again- wait, it’s levitating, but it might not be Levitating!

“Spin your tail and hit the ground with all your might, Mud Slap!” I yelled, testing my theory. Halting his advance, Dunsparce started rotating his tail like a drill before hitting the ground at an angle and sending mud spraying through the air.

A few globs of dirt smacked into Bronzorm hitting it in the eye and causing it to wince. Now’s my chance! “Body Slam them into the ground!”

Dunsparce leaped up, twisting and landing like he was a wrestler about to elbow-drop someone.

He had no elbows, or arms, but the weight of his body was still a formidable force to hit his foe with, driving the Bronzor into the ground.

“Confusion!” Rosemary countered, seeing that his Body Slam had shaken loose the dirt in Bronzor’s eyes. Another difference between the games and real life. Debuffs, arena traps, and the like won’t last forever and can be cleared off by other Moves, depending on how they work .

The energy field surrounded Dunsparce as he landed, trying to hold him in place. Worse, I could see his eyes growing glassy.

I ignored it as I gave my command, knowing time was of the essence if I wanted my strategy to work. “Finish it off, Earthquake!” Dun reared up and smashed the ground with a heavy thud, shaking the arena. Bronzor tried to free itself and did manage to leave the ground before the quake hit, but the shifting earth rose to smack the metal disk around, sending it tumbling through the air where it dropped down, and fainted.

“The winner, Nemona Glitterati!” The announcer cried out as the ref gave the signal, and the crowd cheered. I recalled Dun instantly, before releasing him again.

When I released him, he was a little confused by the sudden change back and forth, but no longer Confused. The Pokeball reset his Aura to clear that condition and now he could bask in his well-deserved praise. To be fair, I’m doing a little basking too .

Leah came up to me, patting my shoulder. “Well done Young Miss. You’ve made it to the quarterfinals.”

“Congrats, that was quick thinking there,” Friede added.

“Thanks! I was so worried because Bronzors can know Levitate, but then I realized it might have that ability mastered yet, so I tested it out with Mud Slap and-” I stopped myself as I realized I was rambling. “Thank you, for supporting me.” Hearing the crowd chanting my name is nice, but knowing Leah is in my corner helps when I second-guess myself .

“Of course. Shall we?” She asked, gesturing to the path out.

I waved Dunsparce over and he slithered up, going back into the Pokeball. “Yeah.” I’ve done alright so far, but here comes the big test, if I can make it in these last three rounds. Victory, fame, and even a potential shot at Aura lessons await .

Chapter 21: Chapter 18

Chapter Text

When we got to the central battle court, the atmosphere was different. People were tired from cheering throughout the rest of the day, but there was a buzz of excitement as we neared the last few rounds. The crowd was also larger than before, spilling out down the stairs and streets that led to the arena. Some of these people are just interested in the conclusion of this tournament, so they weren’t watching before .

The path cleared up as we walked through, people pointing at me as I passed, whispering. Part of me wanted to listen in and hear what they were saying about me, but I knew it wasn’t important and would just be distracting.

The crowd gathered around the rainbow mosaic arena, all standing outside the large ring that encircled the battlefield. The ring itself was made of colorful tiles, each one with the color and symbol representing one of the 18 Types. I saw Cyan, Arven, and Turo standing near the Steel tile. No sign of O’Nare or Billy, figures .

I ran over to my friend and sister, suppressing a shiver from a cold breeze that passed. “Did you guys see all my matches?”

“Yes! You were amazing, sis!”

“Dunsparce is so strong! So, uh, you surely don’t need to train against Maschiff anymore, right?”

“Haha, thank you. And no way you guys are getting out of training that easily,” I told Arven, the young boy wilting.

The Professor loomed over our little huddle. “You’ve done well. You surpassed my expectations for you.”

“... Thanks?” The sad thing is, I think this is him trying to be supportive .

With the ‘pleasantries’ out of the way, he began grilling me. “I noticed you didn’t use the Tera Orb. Why?”

“Uhh, well Dun’s Terra Type is Normal, so it wouldn’t have been helpful against Dhelmise, and I gauged that I wouldn’t need it against the Bronzor. The rest weren’t really much of a challenge,” I admitted. That sounds harsh, but it is true . “There aren’t any recharge centers nearby and I wouldn’t want to give away my trump card so early on.” I’m looking to impress Tulip, after all. Using it this early would have been a huge misplay, can’t believe I almost did that .

“Huh? But I thought Terastalization made Pokemon super strong, wouldn't that have helped against Dhelmise at least?” Cyan asked. Arven looked confused as well, and Turo at least was curious as to my answer.

Clearing my throat I began a mini-lecture on the subject. “Terastalization isn't like Gigantamax or Mega Evolution, it doesn't make a Pokemon inherently stronger, it just gives them an additional Type, replacing their old ones.”

“But aren't wild Terastalized Pokemon super strong?” Arven interrupted.

“That has nothing to do with them being Terastalized. Though it is commonly co-related to strength in the wild; perhaps the relationship flows the other way? Power drawing in the natural Terastalization?” I muttered part of that mostly to myself, but from the sympathetic smile Friede had, I knew they had heard me too.

“Anyways! Terastalization doesn't make a Pokemon inherently stronger, and Dun’s Tera Type would be just as ineffectual against Dhelmise’s ghostly immunity.

“That's a shame, sounds like Tera Orbs won't be that helpful,” Friede said with a sly look at Turo.

The older Professor didn't change his facial expression, but from how he roughly grabbed and adjusted the lapels of his lab coat, I knew he was ruffled by Friede’s jab.

If it were just the two of them I'd let them verbally duke it out, but… Arven’s little face looked so worried, I couldn't help myself. Taking a deep breath, I said:

“Actually, it's possibly more impactful for competitive battling than any of the other Power Up methods. While it might not make the Pokemon stronger, their Moves are greatly impacted. Terastalization replaces your base Type or Types with whatever your Pokemon's Tera Type is. But those base Types can still enhance the Moves your Pokemon uses. So an Ice Tera Haxorus could use Ice Fangs as well as any Ice Type while Terastalized, but could also use Outrage as strong as any Dragon Type. By stacking up Types, like Dun’s Normal base Type with his Normal Tera type, his Normal Moves can become much stronger than they would be before.”

“Okay, so it can still be strong,” The young man said, waving off Turo. “But that doesn’t explain why you feel they're more impactful than a well-timed Z-Move or a powerful Gigantamax,” Friede pressed.

“That's because of how they can change things up defensively. Offense is very strong but pretty straightforward. With Pokemon that have different Tera Types, or even just matching one-half of their dual base Types, their Weaknesses, Immunities, and Resistances all change drastically. It flips entire battle strategies on their heads! And that's to say nothing about Abilities interacting weirdly with new Typings; Mismagius’ Levitation isn't a big deal regularly but on a Tera Electric Pokemon?” I shivered. Iono is definitely a wake-up call boss in the games .

Turo was distracted for a moment, greeting his fellow professor when Cyan said “Hey, Tulip is already here! I was just talking to her.” She pointed out at the crowd.

Turning to follow her finger, I spotted Dendra and Tulip standing on the other side of the battlefield, a more incongruous pair you couldn’t find. Dendra was dressed in a martial arts gi while Tulip was wearing a dress that looked like it could (and maybe actually had), just come off a runway with a Vivillion hairclip adorning her head. The former caught my gaze and started yelling loudly, waving at us. Tulip looked embarrassed at her friend’s enthusiasm but gave me a calm wave as well.

“I’m gonna go talk to Tulip and Dendra now,” I told the others, and without waiting for them to respond, walked off, my sister following close behind. As I crossed the arena, I noticed a few people staring and pointing at me.

“That was awesome! You’ve got some real fighting spirit, little lady!” Dendra exclaimed, ignoring or not noticing the newfound attention we were getting.

“You guys saw my previous matches?” I asked.

“We only arrived recently, but they’ve been replaying some highlights and you’ve shown up often,” Tulip adds. She had a small frown on her face like she was sorry about that, but I got her being busy. I’m asking her to offer a lot, without having shown how good I am yet .

“Osu! Nemona was awesome! She was all like wow, pow, waacham!” Tulip and I shared a look, and I understood how she could be embarrassed and endeared to her friend all at once. Dendra didn’t stop there though, actually having some insight into my matches. “I never knew a Dunsparce could learn Moves like those!”

“Dunsparce have a really wide range of Moves they can learn, a lot of people don’t realize. That, and we trained really hard to master those Technical Machine Moves.”

“Why would you need to do that? Doesn’t the machine give your Pokemon all the information they need?” Cyan asked. Tulip looked curious as well, waiting for my response. There’s no way a future gym leader doesn’t know this, right? This might be a test then, to see how much I know. Of course, I could be overthinking it too . She was too composed for me to read anything, so I figured I’d just explain my reasoning anyway.

“The Technical Machine teaches them the basics of how to perform the Move, yes. The Type energy they need to channel and how much but-” I shook my head, having trouble explaining it in those terms until a glance at Dendra’s gi gave me an idea.

“Ok, see, it’s like throwing a punch.” I demonstrated, throwing a quick jab in the air, using my mixed martial arts knowledge from my first life. “If you just show someone untrained that punch, they might try to copy it and get it all wrong.”

Again I threw out a jab, but this time I purposefully did it wrong. No pivot of my feet or lean of my shoulder for extra reach, wrist held not straight, elbow bent, and thumb in my fist. It was so improper that Dendra twitched painfully at the sight. “Ah, sorry about that. Uh, so the Technical Machine walks them through all the steps they need to do the Move right.” I demonstrated, using my other hand to push and adjust all the parts into place. Dendra let out a sigh of relief.

“Just like a punch though, you need to practice a Move thousands of times to make it muscle memory. So it comes out sharp! Clean! Powerful! And Fast! Every time.” With each yell, I threw another punch in the air.

The two of them were silent, Dendra’s face was unreadable and Tulip’s was contemplative. I hope that impressed her a bit. Obviously, I plan on winning this too, but showing my knowledge here will help with convincing her as well .

Dendra spoke up first, turning to her friend, and then in a dead serious voice said: “We need to adopt her.”

“Wha- Dendra, no!”

“Dendra YES!” She countered, a maniacal gleam in her eyes.

“Who’s this ‘we’ you’re talking about?” Tulip said, hands on her hips. “I’m not taking her in, and you shouldn’t either. You’re fifteen! Also, what about her parents and sister?”

The martial arts enthusiast completely ignored the latter points and focused on the first ones.

“So, you’re just gonna leave me to be a single teenage mother?!”

“What- I- gaaaaah!” The model cried out, embarrassment and frustration taking over as she clutched at her head, a light dusting of red covering her cheeks and for once it wasn’t well-applied makeup. Dendra had not been quiet, and people were whispering and snickering at the incident.

Personally, I couldn’t help but laugh at the comedy routine, it was hilarious! What caught my eye though was the way Tulip’s hair clip ornament flapped its wings repeatedly as she got flustered. There was no wind, and her body motions shouldn’t have been violent enough to cause that. Aura. That mystical power I want to learn .

Luckily, Arven, Turo, Friede, and Leah followed after me, foiling any attempted kidnapping Dendra was planning. “Greetings, I am Leah, charged with keeping Young Miss Nemona safe from harm. Who might you be?” The maid asked the older girls.

“Dendra, and this is Tulip. I gave Nemona the idea to compete here, but wow! Osu! Even I didn’t realize she’d be this good.” The enthusiastic girl replied while Cyan was busy pestering the elegant girl beside her.

“We met them at the fashion show Cyan and I went to,” I explained to Leah before a booming voice cut over all the chatter in the area.

“Welcome, friends and fans, to the final few fights on the eve of our 27th Junior Mesagozan Tournament!” All eyes turned to a middle-aged man in the center of the arena dressed in a striking red suit, microphone in hand. “I’m Larry Goldsworth, and I’ll be your announcer for this evening.” Evening it was indeed, with the sun just starting to set now. “Our contestants are all here, so without further ado, I’ll call them forward. Gary Rickroll, Nemona Glitterati, Frederick van Grough…” Hearing my name, I jumped. Why was I surprised at that, I knew this was coming. Argh, nerves. Just focus, we’re almost done .

I joined the others forming a line in the center of the arena, to give everyone a good look at us. Cameras were flashing and the crowd cheered us on. It was hard to focus on any one person out there, especially with Freddrick, sneering down at me. Clearly, he had remembered our previous encounter and still wasn’t impressed with me.

Admittedly, my stature was a bit less impressive than the others here, everyone else was a teenager. I held myself with pride regardless. If anyone wants to look down on me, then they’ll just get to see what I’m made of .

“... Let’s begin the first match of the quarter-finals, Iris Canin vs. Nemona Glitterati!” The others dispersed, and we took our places at either end of the arena. Iris had short pink hair, matching the bubblegum she was chewing, blowing out, and popping loudly. I was surprised at her name, but it’s not that uncommon. A lot of kids get named after champions. There are tons of Lances and Alders out there, a ridiculous amount of Cynthias… She looks like she’s projecting confidence, and she is but, she’s slightly nervous underneath too. The bubblegum popping is just a bit forced .

“Alright kid, give me all ya got!” She yelled out, as much for the crowd as it was for me. I just nodded, no great pre-battle banter coming to mind and I didn’t want to embarrass myself by trying something off the cuff.

On the signal from the referee, we both raised our Pokeballs, ready to battle. The referee for these matches was a League Official. She was a tall woman with deep blue eyes and long black hair with a few golden streaks in it. Her Espartha was creating a powerful barrier around the multicolor arena. She looks familiar, but I can’t quite place her…

On the command to release, we both did so and I snapped my focus back to the battle. Dun flapped his little wings eagerly, eyeing his opponent, a Floragato. It was a green bipedal cat-like

Pokemon, with a pink spinning disk in one of its hands. A lot of people had starters here, many of them being students of Uva Academy, but none of the previous contestants I had seen had evolved them.

“Trainers ready?” The referee asked, lifting her hand in the air.

“Yes,” we called out in unison, and the noise from the crowd died down. Or maybe it didn’t, and I just ignored it, my focus solely focused in front of me.

She brought her hand down as if to chop through the tension between us. “Begin!”

“Floragato, Magical Leaf!” Iris yelled, and her feline-esque Pokemon waved his yo-yo thing around, a vine acting like a string to wind it out into the air and from it, conjure up a plethora of leaves all around. Dunsparce was charging ahead, and I encouraged him.

“There’s no dodging, just plow through, Body Slam!”

“What?!” Iris was surprised by my tactic, and while several leaves hit and cut into Dun, it was less than would have hit him if he’d tried to dodge in the center of the maelstrom. Floragato was sent tumbling through the air from the impact.

After the leaves cleared I saw a few minor cuts on Dun, but nothing deep, while our opponent was shakily getting back on his feet. “Slam it again!”

Dunsparce raced after the injured Floragato but even hurt, the cat was much faster, dodging around Dun’s pursuit.

“Hone Claws, get ready!” Iris called out, her bubble gum blowing forgotten about as she was pushed back. Floragato began waving his claws around, dark energy sharpening them, even as he weaved around the Body Slams aimed his way.

Damn, can’t let them set up! “Glare!” With a killer stare, Floragato froze up mid-way through his Move, early tripping over his own feet. Cat-like grace was enough to avoid falling, but not to avoid Dun’s follow-up Body Slam.

This time, Dun landed right beside Floragato, so I shouted “Poison Jab, now!!” His tail darted out fast, driving into Floragato’s side. The Grass Type gave a cry so pained that I winced a little, and from the way there was a slow purple tint spreading throughout his fur, I guessed that he had been Poisoned by the attack as well.

Floragato gave a quick Scratch and retreated away from Dun. I held up a hand, indicating for Dun to wait and see what Iris’ next move would be. Rather than call out any desperate, last-ditch attack, she drew her Pokeball and recalled her starter. “I forfeit.”

There were gasps from the crowd as they heard that and the referee called the match, but I understood where she was coming from. Floragato had been swaying on his feet from the Poison and hits, and his muscles were still clenching from the Paralysis. By that point, they didn’t really have a chance .

“There we have it folks, our first winner of the quarter-finals and the youngest competitor to ever make it to the Semi-Finals, Nemona Glitterati!” Larry called out and the crowd burst into cheers.

Walking up to the center of the arena, I waved to all of them alongside Dun (well, I waved, Dun just sort of bobbed his head around to the same effect). We stopped waving as Iris walked up to us, extending out a hand to shake.

I took it, and the crowd gave renewed cheers and applause for the good sportsmanship. “Hah. You did good, kid. Where did you learn to be that strong?”

“Just trained hard near my home,” I replied with a small shrug. It was technically true if leaving out relevant bits like my reincarnation which helped out a bit. Can’t even be sure that’s the only thing though. I feel like I can react faster in this world, and think better under pressure. Is that just part of living in this world, or part of being Nemona?

“Well, good luck kid, you’ll need it.” The warning sounded earnest, not petty, but I didn’t get what it referred to until I saw the next battle.

Freddrick van Grough was up against Helios Denver. Helios had short magenta hair and wore the Uva Academy uniform as well. His Pokemon was a large Lechonk, while Freddrick released…

“Oh my,” Leah said beside me, summing up my thoughts entirely as we saw the arrogant boy reveal a gigantic bird. Its wingspan was over five meters across, and those wings were covered with literally iron-sharp feathers. It towered over the Lechonk, glaring down with beady red eyes that made me want to fall on my knees, despite not even directing its attention towards me.

To still somehow stand up to the Corviknight, Helios and his Lechonk were very brave. And very stupid . The battle began, and Corviknight furiously pecked at the Lechonk, interrupting any attempt to tackle it. Then the bird picked it up in its claws and lifted the little pig Pokemon in the air, before hurling it to the ground.

The only order Freddrick gave out was at the end. “Hurricane.” Up high, the Corviknight flapped its wings hard, whipping up a heavy gust that turned into a terrifying storm. The winds lifted Lechonk off the ground and around through the air, spinning them several times until they were flung into the barrier and collapsed, defeated.

Luckily, the referee’s Espartha caught the fallen pig with its psychic powers and gently lowered it to the ground. Ah, right, Iris came from the same battlefield as him. And I have to face that in my next round. Oh boy .

Chapter 22: Chapter 19

Chapter Text

“Nemona, are you… ok?” Friede asked worriedly, waving a hand in front of my face. It was unnecessary, but I understood why; I’d been staring at Freddrick and the Pokeballs on his belt ever since the match ended with laser intensity. All the adults looked nervous, but Cyan and Arven were excited, watching the matches. No fear that I could fail. Wish I could say the same .

“I’m fine,” I bit out, running through plans in my head. Dammit, I have no good ways to fight a Corviknight. How did an entitled prick like that- oh, right, probably his family. Focus. Steel-Flying is a nightmare for Dun to deal with, it’ll resist any of his STAB Normal Moves, and outright ignore Poison Jab and Earthquake, two of his best non-Normal Moves! Not to mention, that bird just looks incredibly tough. To be expected from a fully evolved Pokemon, but still .

The tournament was a beginner’s tournament for a reason - it wasn’t expected that anyone would be showing up with a fully evolved Pokemon. Of course, they could hardly put in a rule that outright forbade it. Some Types and specific Pokemon lines evolved very fast or had no evolutions. Excluding a Pokemon from being on your team just because it belonged to your family before was also dismissed. They could be your beloved family friend, how could someone ask that you give them up or restrict them from going with you on every step of your journey?

By that same standard though, it was considered quite rude and more than a little cheap to show up to a tournament with a Pokemon that you hadn’t had a major hand in training. I suspect that was why the referee was giving Freddrick such a dressing down for his ‘reckless behavior’, not that the young man seemed to care.

That Lechonk won’t be permanently hurt, though that speaks more to the incredible health care tools available to Pokemon than Freddrick’s ‘restraint.’ Dunsparce is a lot tougher, but that also means that he’ll be more likely to push past his limits. Plus, the jerk definitely has it out for me, so he’ll be sure to go harder .

“You can drop out, you know. It’s not wrong to be afraid.” Leah’s gentle voice cut through my thoughts. I glanced down at my Pokeball, wondering if I should ask Dun if he wanted to battle before discarding the idea as foolish.

He would be offended if I’d even ask him. Dun is the type that would fight a Legendary to prove how strong he is… I might need to pull him out of danger someday. But not today . Today was his moment to shine, to show what months, nearly a year of training had done for him. As if sensing my feelings from within, the ball shook a bit, as if in anticipation.

“No, we’ll fight.” I gave her a determined nod and smiled at my friends (and sister) before catching Turo’s curious gaze.

Am I teaching him the wrong lesson here? To push on, despite great odds. Sure, sometimes you need to do that, but other times, the most determined thing you can do, is quit . I sighed. It wasn’t my job to keep an adult from making a terrible mistake; my job was to win this battle.

I lacked the focus to spare on analyzing the other battles, just making a plan for the next one.

Occasionally, I’d whisper a bit of my strategy to Dun in his ball. While it wasn’t great for carrying out a full conversation, this was just a slight adjustment to the plans we already had, so he’d be ready when the time came.

Soon enough, it was time, with the announcer calling up the first match of the semi-finals. “It’s Nemona Glitterati versus Freddrick van Grough! Two of our most surprising competitors. Can the young prodigy beat the experienced student?”

He hardly seems experienced, from what I’ve seen . Turning brightly to face my opponent at the other end of the arena I shouted “Let’s have a good match!”

“I doubt it,” he sneered back, actually earning a few boos from the crowd. “Oh, come off it!” He yelled back at them. “She’s got a Dunsparce. What’s it gonna do, bore me to defeat?” Shaking his head, he added “It’s a shame that this is what the once great Glitterati family has been reduced to. Was that really the best Pokemon your parents could get you?”

“I found Dun on my own, he’s my choice of starter.”

Frederick crossed his arms. “That’s even worse! What’s the point of having money if you can’t get the best?”

“Oh, don’t worry; I’m fighting with the best Pokemon in this tournament.” I smirked as I heard a few gasps and ‘oohs' from the crowd at my banter. It took Freddrick a moment longer to get my meaning there, and he dropped his arms, hands clenched in fists.

Before this could go any further a new referee stepped up and cleared his throat. “Trainers ready?”

I released Dunsparce in response and he did the same for Corviknight. The massive avian stared down at Dun, who met it with a fierce glare of his own. The fully evolved Pokemon gave an odd squawking sound like she was laughing at Dun.

“In that case, let the battle… begin!” As the last syllable left his mouth, Dun made his Move. Flooding his eyes with Normal energy, he turned his glare into a Glare, one that sent even the advanced Pokemon stumbling and twitching backward.

The moment that Move was complete I shouted “Belly flop!” Dun slammed the mosaic ground, causing it to rise in chunks and shake, slamming into Corviknight, still too Paralyzed to get off the ground. Usually, a Flying Type was immune to Ground-Type attacks because they could fly up and had a near instinctive sense to avoid even the more airborne Ground Moves.

Here, where she couldn’t flap her wings properly, the Move hit her hard. Freddrick rallied, crying

“Get off the ground!” It was a valiant attempt, as she struggled to flap her wings, the Corviknight trying to push past her muscles not working. To her credit, she managed to get a few feet off the ground… before Dun Body Slammed her down from above, the earth-shaking helping boost him up and distracting our opponents from his movement.

Corviknight shrieked and tried to knock Dun away with an awkward wing sweep as she fell, but Dun easily slipped around the Paralyzed and disoriented bird. “Earthquake!” I called out, Dun moving to shake the ground again.

“Get off the ground already!” Frederick shouted, and this time the metallic bird lifted itself, above the shifting ground. As the arena settled, I saw Corviknight was dirtied, but not much more than that. The attacks did so little to it? I knew Body Slam would be resisted, but I thought Earthquake might have- no, it looks like even if the attack connects, even with the Steel Typing, the Flying half makes the Move not very effective, maybe less .

In the background, I heard the crowd cheering me on, shocked gasps at how well I was doing/how poorly Freddrick was faring, but I was less optimistic about our odds. That surprise attack didn’t do nearly as well as I hoped, and now I have to see what his response will be .

Freddrick didn’t hesitate in calling out his next Move, and I had to fight to keep the smile off my face as I heard it. “Hurricane!” Rising higher till Corviknight floated almost twelve meters above the ground (the limit on how high one could fly above the ground when not facing another Flying Type in this tournament) she began whipping the wind around.

“Go to the center!” Dun dutifully moved into the center of the gathering storm, having plenty of time to reach the Eye with Corviknight’s movements slowed by the Paralysis. The winds were moving so harshly that I could barely see anything within them, but since Dun wasn’t crying out in pain or panic, I assumed it was fine.

“Gah, stop that! Iron Defense!” Freddrick called out and I bit back a curse. The winds died as the gleaming feathers grew brighter. I have to stop that!

“Dun, taunt,” I called out, covering a hand over my mouth. He read the signal easily and rolled over, Yawning and closing his eyes. “Man, didn’t realize you were going to be so boring,” I taunted. “We might as well take a nap.”

Whether from thinking we had used a different Move or from falling to my own taunt, the angry boy changed tracks. “Corvi, forget about that, Fury Attack!!”

The powerful Pokemon twitched as she let go of the energy she had been gathering to defend herself. From the sigh that escaped its beak, I knew that twitch wasn’t from being Paralyzed. This battle would have been so much harder if we were fighting that Pokemon without Freddrick .

For balance reasons, the games had Pokemon of too high a level traded to or caught by you refused to follow commands, but that didn’t work that way in real life. Here, Freddrick's family Corviknight was loyal to a fault and followed all the orders he gave out. And that fault, his ineptitude as a trainer, is the lever we’ll pull on to win this fight .

“Roll around and get away!” Dunsparce gave up pretending to be asleep and tried to get away, but this time with the aerial advantage, he only managed to dodge twice before Corviknight’s talons clawed into him twice.

“Yes! Now grab him!” The opposing trainer commanded.

“I-uh- Body Slam!” I stammered out. Dammit, did it not work? Dun is in a terrible spot here . I hadn’t seen a way out of it, however, so a last-second attack was all I could call out to get some damage in before he was inevitably grabbed.

Dun squirmed within Corviknight’s talons, but he couldn’t slither out of this tight grip. All he managed to do was make small lacerations on his own body, struggling against the sharp claws.

Freddrick laughed maniacally. “See how helpless you are? You should have forfeited while you had the chance.”

“Uh, I still could. It’s not like there’s any rule about when you give up.” I pointed out, and everyone, even much of the crowd, paused.

After a moment Freddrick, red in the face, said “Well? I’m waiting!”

“Oh, I’m not going to. Just like, you were wrong.” A beat passed and I caught the droop of Corviknight’s head and added “Thought you should know.”

He gave an inarticulate scream of rage. “You-you- you little brat! Destroy that worm.”

“I’ll have you know, he’s more a snake, and now is his time to strike!” I countered as the Yawn finally took full effect and the big bird landed with a clanging crash as she fell to the ground, asleep.

“What?!” The boy at the other end looked confused and worried. “How did you do that?”

Not wasting any energy on him, I spoke to Dun instead, my Pokemon slipping out of the now relaxed grip and ready for payback. “Body Slam, as many times as you can!” He threw himself at the sleeping bird, crashing into her several times. Dents started forming on her steely feathers, but she remained sound asleep through the onslaught.

It couldn’t last forever, though. Eventually, either Dun’s attacks or Freddrick’s increasingly desperate pleas got through to Corviknight, and she woke up with a start. Her wing slapped out, tossing Dunsparce across the arena. That was more due to the differences in mass between them than the damage it did, but I couldn’t deny that Dun was looking a little roughed up.

Ok, a lot roughed up , I admitted to myself as I took in his wounds. He had tiny cuts all over his body, a nasty-looking abrasion on his tail, and one of his eyes was swollen, probably bruised.

Dun gave as good as he got though, Corviknight’s metal wing feathers bent and broken in places, and a small crack on her beak. She was glaring down at us both with angry red eyes and I knew that even if Freddrick kept on underestimating us, his Pokemon wouldn’t be anymore. I gripped the ball in my pocket, ready but not willing to use it quite yet.

“Hurricane, blow them away!” Well, I guess even if he doesn’t underestimate us, he can still make poor choices . On the surface, it seemed like a solid play, especially since Corviknight had managed to shake off her Paralysis and could direct the stream of wind too fast for Dun to dodge if he tried to move into the center again.

“Ride it! Don’t fight against it, float like a leaf on the wind!” The heavy winds picked him up, but rather than let them send him spiraling out of control, he flew with them. Adjusting his trajectory with his own tiny wings, he rose through the air until he shot off near the top, propelled into a heavy Body Slam that snapped the Corviknight’s head back.

As Dunsparce and Corviknight landed back down, both of them were able to catch themselves before they hit the ground, though it was a close thing in Corviknight’s case. She snapped out of her daze at the last second, but from the way she was holding herself, it looked like that had put a serious crick in her neck.

“You shouldn’t use Moves your Pokemon aren’t suited to,” I told Freddrick.

“Huh?”

“Corviknight had no mastery of Hurricane. What did you do, just teach it to her from a TM and never practice it?” I teased him again. Probably true, but that raven is no joke. She was already adapting the Move and if she kept on pelting us from above, we’d lose. Dunsparce doesn’t know any ranged Moves that can hit a flying target and he won’t be able to close. If it was someone else I might let them tire themselves out with repeated powerful Moves, but that Corviknight just has too much experience and strength to lose that way .

“Wing Attack, then dive in and Fury Attack!” Dual wing beats sent a burst of air too quick to dodge, knocking Dun into the corner beside me. As Corviknight advanced on him, I gave out commands of my own.

“Parry the claws, then Body Slam!” Dodging would have been useless, so Dun turned around and spun his tail drill, knocking into the claws that came his way. Turned around, he couldn’t see the attacks, instead following the motions of my free hand as I directed him on how to block every talon that reached down to rend him.

After a quarter minute of attempts that Dun expertly blocked, Corviknight backed off for a moment, which gave Dun the chance to turn around and fulfill the second part of my command. Spinning back around, he jumped up at the low-flying bird, and with his wingbeats, pushed ahead to hit Corviknight.

The impact resounded throughout the arena, leaving a small dent in the solid metal armor plating in front of her chest. The pain was not enough to stop her from grabbing Dun in her claws as he fell, however.

“Yes! Rip him to shreds! Drill Peck until he’s dead- defeated.” Freddrick quickly corrected, seeing the referee suddenly turn to glare at him. The man still gave him a warning, but it was clear he wasn’t going to be disqualified for that slip of the tongue, so I focused on the battle. Dun was struggling under the assault, waving his tail around wildly to deflect against her beak and other claws, but without leverage, many strikes were getting through and he was starting to bleed profusely from the pecks.

“Bite the feet! Force her to let you go!” The dark energy gathered around his jaws was faint, but stronger than it usually was. Desperation from the pain helping him align more with the Type energy of the attack, he bit down hard, and Corviknight let him go. Not wasting the opportunity, I pulled the ball-shaped object out of my pocket and pressed the button.

The Tera Orb shook violently with the power contained within and I gripped it with my other hand. Spinning around once, I gathered the momentum needed and tossed it out, over Dun, where it exploded in a burst of light, right as the last sliver of sunlight faded beyond the horizon.

The light was accompanied by the usual crystallization surrounding Dunsparce, causing his foe to stumble back, squawking in surprise. The crystals shattered and revealed Dun covered in a prismatic sheen and a large clear gem resting above his head like an oversized hat.

“Why, I can’t believe it! Folks, we are witnessing Terastalization firsthand!” The announcer called out, and the crowd was going wild. Frederick was seizing with rage or disbelief. Either way, he wasn’t ready to stop us.

“Body Slam, show that oversized crow your true power!” I told Dun. He complied with gusto, leaping forward with newfound energy, hitting Corviknight hard enough now to send her stumbling back. Again and again, he attacked and she was on the back foot. She tried to grab him again, but this time Dun’s attacks were strong enough to break through, and she let him go after he snapped one of her talons with his gem-covered head.

“Just- just attack!” The van Grough boy screeched eventually and she did just that. Corviknight was flying off the ground, holding one of her claws gingerly, but she didn’t let that stop her. Furiously, she’d Wing Attack, Peck, and (with her good leg) claw at Dunsparce. With Terastalization adding on to his power though, he was giving as good as he got, despite the Type resistance.

After a minute of brutal attacks on each side, they broke off, one last Wing Attack whipping up the winds and making space between them. The two of them were breathing heavily, panting as they glared at each other. Dunsparce’s bulbous body was swollen, more so than usual. One of his eyes was so puffed up that I was pretty sure he physically couldn’t use Glare till it healed. He was bleeding all over from the numerous peck and claw attacks having ripped through his scales. Nowhere critical was injured, but I didn’t like how it looked.

On the other side, flying high above, was Corviknight. Dents all over her armor, feathers torn and bent, matching one of her talons, which she held gingerly even while flying. The damage she took was more bludgeoning than cutting, but there were still a few trickles of blood dripping down from her feathers. Despite it all, the determination and confidence she held from the beginning of our fight hadn’t left her steely gaze.

It’s much more… real than the bruise effects they showed in the anime . I couldn’t help the giggles that escaped my mouth at the absurd thought. Something that my opponent took offense to.

“You think this is funny, huh? Do you think you could possibly win? NO! I refuse, I’m the greatest, it’s my name that will rise to the top! The van Grough’s are in no one’s shadow!” I blinked at his unhinged rant. Dude has issues . “That’s it, Corvi, Sky Attack!”

“It looks like this will be the end, everyone! How can Nemona hope to survive…” The announcer rapidly commented, my focus was on the battle in front of me.

In the darkness of the night, the usually dark-steeled bird became a glowing beacon, rapidly surrounded by a harsh light. Something about the radiance forced my gaze away, down to the other source of light. Dun was covered in wounds, staring up at the bird turning to a descent position. Am I just getting him needlessly hurt by continuing this? He’s fought well, no one could judge him poorly for this. I still have a second left, I could recall him-

My thoughts cut off as I saw his gaze, his one good eye firmly facing upwards. This is his moment. Everything he’s been training for, almost a year now we’ve been together, to prove that promise I made to him on the beach true. I can’t take that away from him now .

“Hit her with everything you got!” I shouted as Corviknight dived down. Dun leaped up to meet her, but something changed midway through his jump. Rather than losing momentum, it increased, a star-like energy surrounding him and propelling him forward at greater speeds.

“It’s so bright! I can’t make out who won!” Larry cried out, most of the fans averting their eyes. I didn’t, but still couldn’t make out what exactly happened, just seeing them pass a moment after.

Dun kept on rising for a few seconds, like a comet falling in reverse while Corviknight crashed through the ground, her landing kicking up mosaic tiles into the barrier. Gravity soon took hold of my Pokemon too, and he crashed down as well, landing with a heavy thud.

Silence filled the arena, everyone staring with bated breath at the two unmoving Pokemon.

“Unbelievable! It appears that both Pokemon are unable to battle! It’s a ti-”

“Un.” The sound was faint, but enough to be heard by Larry and the referee before he could swing the flag in the center to call the match. “Un. Arce,” Dun said, slightly clearer as he shakily rolled over. Then, trembling, he planted his tail into the ground, raising his body to stand on it, as tall as he could. Taking a deep breath, he announced to all of Mesagoza “DUUUUUUUUUUUNNN!!!!”

He started to fall over but before he could hit the ground I was already there, running and sliding to catch him. “You did it! You did it!” I shouted, hugging him close and then holding him up for the crowd to see. They roared in response, cheering and hollering, my friends and sister jumping up and down. I could barely even make out the referee calling the match in my favor.

“Sparce.” He replied tiredly, leaning into my arms, a content smile on his face. I started pulling out potions with one hand while still holding onto him. They stopped the worst of the bleeding, though I would still have plenty of his blood staining my clothes, and didn’t care one bit. There was technically another match we had to win to win the tournament, but I couldn’t worry about that right now.

“You did great, Dun. Just like I said, you’re gonna be the best.”

Chapter 23: Chapter 20

Chapter Text

Freddrick stomped off well before I could even offer a handshake, muttering about how this was unfair. I barely noticed, cheering a few more times before returning to my cohort. “That was truly spectacular, Young Miss,” Leah greeted me. “I’m sure your parents will be thrilled to see you in action.” She said, putting away her phone before excusing herself to go off and collect her winnings.

“Excellently done, a wonderful use of Terastalization.” Professor Turo congratulated me as well. He put his own Rotom Phone away. Was he recording the match as well? I wonder why . Turo seemed quite pleased, and I wasn’t going to question it. His fellow Professor was a bit more critical, though.

“You pushed Dun pretty hard, will he be alright?” It was true, he looked pretty rough even after the healing items I had used on him.

Holding him up to look him in the eyes, I asked him “How’s it going? You did great so far, if you don’t-” he was starting to squirm in disagreement. “No really, you beat the strongest Pokemon here.” Dun quickly glanced over at Tulip’s compact mirror at her side. “Besides yourself, of course,” I rolled my eyes. “We can bow out here and it wouldn’t be bad at all.”

He thought about it momentarily before shaking his head, still keen to go on. “Dun, Dunsparce!” Friede ruefully shook his head at that before nodding in understanding. He might have been surprised that we went that far, but could accept Dunsparce’s desires and my efforts to achieve them.

“Alright then, just one round left,” I said, glancing over at the arena where the other semi-finalists were getting ready. They had a Pawmi and a Clodsire. The Pawmi could be a problem, but the Trainers seem equally skilled, so the Clodsire will probably win due to Type advantage, and we have ways of dealing with a Clodsire .

“Yeah, we got this. Rest up buddy, you’ll need your strength for what’s coming.” Returning him to the ball, he could rest slightly easier in there, though the Potions had already had a huge effect. I don’t think it’s going to be that hard - no one else in the tournament was anywhere near as strong as that Corviknight. Still, good to keep him hyped and in the zone.

“Heck yeah, you got this! That was so cool. I never saw the point of battling before, but I might want your help in teaching Popplio a few Moves when she hatches” Cyan admitted.

“Sure thing sis.” Inwardly I was already thinking about the kinds of Moves that Popplio could learn. They gain the Fairy Typing once they evolve, but they can probably learn a bunch of those Moves as well early on, good to get them used to it. Plus, they probably have access to most voice-based Moves, beyond Boomburst .

“That was incredible, Terastalization is amazing! I want to try it too, Dad!” I gaped at Arven’s words. Did he not give a Tera Orb to his own son?!

He blinked. “I didn’t realize you were interested in battling, my son.”

“Well, I mean Nemona will probably push me into it anyways. And it looks really cool!” At that, Turo smiled.

“I’d love nothing more than to teach you all about Terastalization.” Arven cheered, pulling out a Tera Orb from his pocket and releasing Maschiff, excitedly telling him the news. Ah, maybe I jumped the gun in assuming the worst there. Arven already has a Tera Orb but just didn’t feel confident using it on his own .

Watching the tender moment, I wondered if I was wrong about other things. If there was still a way to pull Turo away from his ruinous experiments. My thoughts of the future were dragged back to the present by Dendra and Tulip moving closer.

“Osuuuu! That was an epic, blood-pumping battle!” The martial artist girl cried out, punching the air excitedly. Even the fashionable girl beside her had lost some of her cool and was looking on at Dun and I with awe and worry.

“It’s not to my taste, but I was right; your beauty shines the most when you battle.” There was an odd shimmer in her eyes. She’s viewing my Aura, isn’t she?

I hadn’t won the tournament yet, but I couldn’t help but ask: “Soooo, what did you think?”

The fashionable teenager let out a heavy sigh and I felt some trepidation. “I’m really regretting making that deal.”

“So you’ll teach me? Awesome! Wait- why are you regretting this?”

Shaking her head, she clarified. “Because I fear - no I can tell - you’re going to want to learn everything, and truthfully I know little on the topic. I have a gift for it, but I only learned the basics before pursuing other goals.”

“Oh.” Right, that makes sense. While she’s had little displays of power, she’s no Sabrina . I didn’t think she could read my thoughts, but she might have felt something there, her eyes narrowing.

“Ah, I mean that’s fine. Anything you can teach me would be appreciated.”

“You’re welcome. It might take a while, but I’ll try to track down my old teacher and see what more I can learn.” I notice she’s not mentioning Aura directly. Maybe it has something to do with the Professor's being around?

Her friend offered her support as well. “Osu! And I’ll be happy to train you too! I might not know everything she does, but I’ve got some solid conditioning plans in mind for you and your Pokemon.”

“Thanks! I’ve- that sounds super cool.” I corrected myself before I could say something wrong. Right, ‘Nemona’ hasn’t had any martial arts training, while I have almost twenty years under my no longer-existent black belt. I might be able to tell Dendra I trained before, but Cyan would know I was 'lying' about that. Still, this is going to be awesome. Honestly, I’m almost as excited for the martial training as I am for the Aura stuff .

The semi-final match ended, with the Clodsire winning as I expected (It almost certainly had the Poison Point Ability given the way the Pawmo had been staggering after it had laid its fists on him, I’d be ready for that).

Then again, Clodsire’s trainer has familiar green hair and she’s wearing a button-up shirt… I think that might be Rika! I hadn’t expected to face a future Elite Four today, but in any case, I was pumped up. This is gonna be great!

Surprisingly, they didn’t call for the next match right away, most of the officials were busy somewhere else. It was getting later in the night, the full moon rising above us, but I didn’t care. I was riding a buzz like I got from a great D&D session and was sure that I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep for hours after.

My friend and sister were cheering me on, excitedly chatting about the matches. Turo and Friede debating the matches and their merits. Dendra and Tulip discussed some training plans and exchanged their phone numbers with me. Leah returned, smiling smugly as the bookies reluctantly handed over the money and barred her from making a bet on the final round.

Which is when it all came crashing down. “Attention everyone, we have an announcement to make,” Larry said in an oddly somber tone. What was even more attention-grabbing were all the different referees gathered beside him as well, including the head judge. This doesn’t feel like they’re just about to announce the start of the finals .

“We have deliberated and decided that Nemona Glitterati is disqualified from the 27th Junior Tournament.” Whispers spread through the crowd like wildfire.

“What do you think she did?”

“I knew there was something wrong with a girl that young making it this far.”

“Will the rest of the tournament go on?”

I could barely comprehend what was going on, my mind struggling to put it together. “Why?” My words came out as a broken whisper that Larry definitely couldn’t have heard. Nonetheless, he did elaborate.

“After much consideration, the judges have decided that Nemona’s use of the Tera Orb broke tournament rules, and therefore-”

“Wait a moment!” I shouted, finding my voice again, and stepping forward. All eyes turned back to me and I could feel their stares weighing me down. “I didn’t break the rules, there was nothing against Enhancement Effects being used here, only Battle Items, but Tera Orbs were ruled as an Enhancement Effect.”

“I- uhhh…” Larry looked at a loss, glancing between me and the head judge, who stepped up and grabbed Larry’s microphone. The head judge was a tall man with long white hair and a thin mustache.

“Some places may have ruled it as such.” There was a quick glance back to one of the other judges, the familiar-looking woman who oversaw my quarterfinal match. It was easily overlooked, but it was clear there was some dissent at the judge’s table. “Tera Orbs were not listed as such in our rules.” At the end of the day though, he had the final say.

He continued. “As such, your act of throwing it onto the field counts as interference by the Trainer, thus costing you the match. Given your age and inexperience as well as, ahem, difficulties in rule interpretations, we will not be placing this on your record. It has no bearing on your ability to compete in future Junior Tournaments. In light of the error in this breach not being called immediately, we will be giving both you and Miss Delcroft the reward prize fitting for third place.”

The Pawmo’s trainer perked up, seeming pleased with that. The rest of the audience generally nodded along as if this was reasonable. As if this was in any way shape or form right . I shook in place with barely constrained rage, but they didn’t notice, already moving on.

Larry took the microphone back from the dry head judge. “Thank you Mr. Rovali. This was a tricky situation, but don’t fret for what it means for the finals. Luckily, young Freddrick van Grough is ready and able to compete, despite the injuries Corviknight took.”

The smug boy stepped forward, snatching the microphone out of the announcer’s hands.

“Corviknight can’t be put down by some worm.” But she was ! Dun beat your Pokemon into the ground!! I wanted to scream.

“Thank you for that,” Larry said, taking the microphone back. His words were much less sincere this time, especially since the mic caught him muttering “What is with everyone grabbing my mic?” Then he cleared his throat. “Ahem, with that little issue out of the way, who’s ready for the finals?”

It took maybe a second longer than usual, but the audience was soon cheering again. Like nothing had ever happened. Like all of our sweat and tears up to this point didn’t matter. Like Dun, struggling to prove himself to the world meant nothing .

Amidst the din of chatter and cheers, I heard Freddrick’s voice, whispering to the head judge as they walked away from the center. “Thanks for helping me out Uncle, I owe you one.”

“Yes well, don’t try to make a habit out of it. Geeta was quite obstinate…” The older man whispered back.

Seeing red, my body started moving forward. Visions of me grabbing Freddrick and punching his smug, dumb face danced in my head. Taking him down and just wailing on him, fists and elbows until I broke his- “Nemona, stop!”

Tulip’s panicked words snapped me back to the moment and reminded me where I was. Halfway across the battle court, making a beeline for Freddrick. The crowd was whispering, wondering what I was doing. My friends looked confused, all except for Tulip, who looked worried for some reason. Then it clicked for me, remembering she could sense my emotions. Could See all the rage and anger I was feeling and likely guessed what I was about to do.

Like a glass of cold water splashed in my face, I brought myself back under control. My emotions were boiling under the surface but the shock was enough that I could wrestle them back under control. Turning, I started walking away before Freddrick taunted me. “Gonna run off and cry, little girl?”

Blinking, I realized tears were welling up in my eyes. The temptation was there to turn back around and lay into him. Verbally, physically, whatever. But it wouldn’t be right, it won’t help things . With great effort, I kept on walking, off the battlefield and through the crowd.

Picking up speed, I ran until I made my way off the main plaza. Behind me, I could hear the others calling for me but couldn’t bring myself to go back. Everything that happened was so embarrassing, and then I made an even bigger fool of myself, what would they think of me? So I ran. Of course, that’s the problem with running - there’s always an ending .

My ending was a bench on a side street nearby, as I was caught between having nowhere else to go but not ready to go back. There were few people here at this time of night, and those that did pass by either didn’t notice a small girl silently crying on a bench or didn’t make it their business.

A minute or two passed until a tall shadow loomed over me. Looking up (and up and up) I saw the referee from before looking down from me atop her Espathra. “You gave us quite a scare there.”

“Any other admonishments you want to throw my way?” I spat out bitterly. Some distant part of my mind recognized that was uncalled for. The rest was angry and sad. The fact that she paused at that didn’t help matters. “Oh wow, you really do.”

“I… would advise caution in your future matches. Personally, I felt you pushed your Dunsparce too close to the line.”

“What the hell do you know?” She raised an eyebrow at my vitriolic words. Wow, tell a referee she knows nothing about her job, great job me. I should try to shove in the other foot next . “It’s fine. I… I pushed him hard, but he’ll be fine. He needed this.” Or at least I thought he did .

She gave a tilt of her head, partially conceding the point. “Perhaps.” She got off her Pokemon and we were both quiet for a moment.

I was always bad with awkward silences and this one being interrupted by my sniffling didn’t help, so I broke first, asking her: “Why are you here? Don’t you have a tournament to preside over?”

“My fellows don’t seem to care for my opinions.” The bitter words slipped out of her mouth, seeming to surprise even her. “Apologies, I meant to say that I was sent to look out for you. We care about the well-being of every participant in our tournament. I’ve also been authorized to give you your reward for achieving third place.” Her Rotom Phone floated out and my Rotom did the same, a small buzz from each as the transfer was received.

“Yay,” I said, lifelessly. Rotom gave me a concerned look but decided not to say anything with the referee around and floated back into my pocket.

“You did quite well, you know.” She tried to encourage me. “Getting third place in your first tournament is quite an achievement, especially at your age. 50,000 League Points is nothing to sneeze at either-”

“I don’t care about that! It- It doesn’t matter how far we made it. If Dun had been taken out by that Sky Attack, if it had been a bit faster than him, though really it was already so fast, that Corviknight was sooo strong, but it didn’t and he wasn’t and he won and if it was fair he should be the winner still and- and-” I was babbling and breaking down. “And then Freddrick just goes up to his uncle, the head judge, and gets me kicked out-”

“Wait, what?”

“Freddrick, that jerk was thanking the judge after his speech.”

“I… didn’t hear that.” She admitted and I looked at her oddly. You were so much closer to him than me though! But… how did I hear that from so far away? I didn’t imagine it, did I? Before anything more could be said on that we both heard Leah exclaim as she saw us, running down the street towards us. “Ah, it appears your caretaker is here. I’ll leave you in her care, but I hope you aren’t disheartened by this experience. You have much potential.” I nodded fiercely, blinking out the last of the tears out of my eyes. This may have ended on a sour note, but I’m still going to be Champion someday. Nothing is going to stop that . She added, “Rest assured that I will be looking into this match. There were a few discrepancies that need to be investigated.”

“Good evening,” she said as a farewell to Leah and me, while the maid wrapped me up in a near bone-crushing hug.

“Oh you’re alright, thank goodness. Do you know how worried we were? What were you thinking, running off like that?! It’s going to be ok, you did fine…” She alternated between berating me and trying to console me. She’s as frazzled as I am .

“Can we go home?” I asked tiredly. I knew I’d be chewed out for running off (and rightfully so), but I couldn’t deal with that at the moment.

“... That’s fine, Young Miss. We’ll need to find the others first, they’re looking all over Mesagoza for you.” I whipped out Rotom and began sending out texts to all of them, letting Dendra, Tulip, and Arven know I was fine but heading home and telling Cyan where I was. “Oh, so now you can use your phone?”

“Bzzt, apologies ma’am,” Rotom offered. “It appears I was still in ‘Do not disturb’ mode and missed your prior calls.” Leah calmed down, accepting the excuse. I wasn’t sure that they were being truthful about missing the messages, but I understood that they were just trying to give me a minute to calm down, which had actually helped

Very quickly I saw a familiar Charizard flying over, Friede and Cyan on his back. They landed and Cyan jumped off, running over to hug me. Leah went up to the young Professor and thanked him. I picked myself off the bench to do the same, my sister holding onto my hand.

“Thank you, Friede. You helped me out a lot today and I deeply appreciate it. Sorry tha-” he cut me off raising his hand.

“It’s no problem, honest. It was good to get out of the lab, and I learned a lot today. You’re quite the insightful young girl.” I couldn’t resist a small dismissive huff at that. I’m really not . He wrote out his number and exchanged it with me. “If you ever need a hand or want to ask about anything Pokemon-related.”

“You might be the one needing my expertise,” I said, sticking my tongue out. My puffy red eyes probably took away from the friendly teasing and just made me look sad, but Friede laughed easily.

“I might just take you up on that. Have a good night.” Waving us goodbye, he flew off and we went and hailed a flying cab.

Leah told the cabbie to go fast, and they did, rocketing us home so fast I had to double check

we didn’t have a mega-Latios flying us (we did not). When we got there, the house was quiet, with most of the staff on sight sleeping for the night. Hamber greeted us, letting us know that my parents were still out and I just mutely nodded, marching up to my bedroom.

Here, Dunsparce popped out of his ball, wondering what was going on. “Dun dun, ar?”

“Hey there. Sorry, but it looks like we won’t be in the finals. We uh, got kicked out.”

“Unn! Arce dun?!”

“They said Terastalization was against the rules- I know, I know! We checked it should have been ok- but… Freddrick was able to get the judge to rule his way, so we’re out.”

“Dunspar! DUUUUN!” He squirmed around angrily, crashing about the room, and knocking over the chair to my desk. I winced but a part of me wanted to do the same. I think he’s more likely to hurt the room than himself, but I should still stop him .

Scooping him up into my arms his tail-drill whirred angrily, but I gave him a look of warning and he calmed down enough for me to climb into bed. There was still rage radiating off of him, but he made no other moves in my arms and I just lay there in my bed as I slowly drifted into unconsciousness.

Chapter 24: Chapter 21

Chapter Text

When I woke up, I could see through the dim light that my room was something of a disaster zone. There was the damage Dun had caused, but also the fact that I hadn't focused on keeping it tidy before the tournament. But that wasn't the first thing that caught my attention.

"Billy? O'Nare?" I asked as I saw them both on the bed, lying on either side of me and Dun.

"Dear?" O'Nare asked me blearily, looking tired and a little confused.

"Uh, Mom, Dad, what's going on?" I asked, sitting up. Dun made a sleepy croak and I moved him to my side. My parents, rumpled and wrinkled from sleeping here, were dressed in their usual work clothes. My clothes were pretty much the same, but at least mine wouldn't need ironing.

Billy answered me, shaking off his own sleepiness. "Ah, Nemona, dear, after we got back, we heard from the staff that you might be a little upset, so we came over here." So they decided to sleep here to cheer me up in the morning . Despite everything else, it brought a small smile to my face.

"What happened to you guys? You got back later than us." Considering that they had to leave in the early morning, this must have been a pretty big deal .

"O'Nare was in the midst of a delicate dispute with some Pokemon that were being displaced by a construction crew at one of her projects. It was quite a tense situation!" Billy announced, waving his arms to emphasize the supposed severity of the situation.

My Mother shook her head vehemently. "No, it was your father who showed true Glitterati skill in stopping the poachers' attack on the Rotom phone company!"

"What- I thought it was a recall? And what was the situation with the Pokemon living where the construction team was? Wouldn’t the rangers have cleared any wilderness construction ahead of time?”

“They had checked but hadn’t seen anyone living there, but who could have suspected that there was a small clan of Zoroark living there!” O’Nare still had bags under her eyes but animatedly threw herself into recounting the story about the mistake, how she’d had to fly out to deal with the situation personally.

The Zoroark clan had apparently demanded to speak to the ‘leader’ of the construction team… which the people there had decided was the President of the Reality conglomerate. Did they really feel that the Zoroark needed to talk to Mom, or did they just kick the problem up the chain?

O’Nare didn’t seem to hold any such doubts, acting as peppy as ever. “The Zoroark matriarch calmed down after I explained it was all a big misunderstanding. They even agreed to leave the area and move to another site so the team could continue their work.”

“Really? Just like that?”

“I had another development that got canceled part way through and was sitting without any buyers, quite a secluded location, perfect for the Dark Types. I offered it to them and they agreed!”

She was simplifying a fair bit, I imagined. There was probably much discussion over the matter, having to calm the riled Pokemon down, show them the site, and convince them to pack up and move all over there. “We’re now in the process of converting that location to a

Reserve, to ensure that no one else moves in on the pack. We also get to make use of a place we couldn’t and turn it into a tax write-off,” she finished

How charitable and pragmatic all at once . My father was just in awe of her, stars in his eyes as he gazed lovingly at his wife. “What wondrous business acumen! Turning what would be a terrible trial into an opportunity! You’re a shining star of the Glitterati family.” He leaned over me to give his wife a quick kiss.

“Oh, no more than you! How daring to face off against insidious thieves? How dashing to fight them off?!” She leaned over and returned the favor with a quick peck of her own. I don’t need to see this .

“Ahem, what happened at the Rotom Factory?” I pressed, hoping to get them back on track.

Billy cleared his throat, and I saw his eyes flit upwards as he began mentally putting it all together. “Well, we were told that there was an issue with one of our new mid-range phone models and needed an emergency recall. I came down to check on the matter when I noticed one of the boxes wasn’t in the right area. I tried to move it back only to hear someone call out ‘Ouch!’

Naturally, I apologized to the person inside for the rough handling. But then I realized that someone was inside there! People aren't supposed to be inside boxes! I asked them who they were and they said ‘I’m just a Rotom.’ But there was no ‘bzzt’!”

At that point, I couldn’t resist face-palming. Dun copied me, coiling around and slapping his face

with his tail. My father continued unabated.

“I tossed open the lid to reveal not a Rotom, but a man crouched inside! He stepped out, announcing himself as a poacher, describing his vile scheme of how they had faked the recall, using it to slip inside the factory. He capped it off by proclaiming that he and his compatriots were going to steal the Rotoms! I declared that I would stop him!”

“Wait, but you don’t have any Pokemon,” I pointed out.

“Yes!” He announced proudly, puffing his chest out. “This was a fact that the poacher noticed as well. He released his Krokorok and threatened me, and I boasted that I was so dangerous that I didn’t need any Pokemon to defeat him, quelling him into submission… until one of the other thieves came in to check in on what was taking him so long. She told him to get on with it and called my bluff.” After a moment of incredulous silence he added: “So I ran!”

He described how he ran in and around the facility, bumping into and evading a total of five would-be thieves. My mind started playing the Scooby Doo music as I imagined Billy running about.

I can’t believe how ridiculous my parents are . Holding back laughter I ended up still snorting at his antics, catching a quick glance shared between them out of the corners of my eyes. Their faces softened and I saw their over the top ‘shock’ and ‘awe’ at the events being recounted shift for a moment to smiles full of love and tenderness as they looked down at me. I guess they heard at least some of what happened to me .

“... eventually, they had me cornered, right outside the Rotom farm itself. All the poachers had powerful Ground Types chasing me, but I had a secret weapon.” O’Nare squealed in delight, clapping her hands together as the story reached the ‘dramatic’ finale. “I had grabbed some of the discontinued Wash Appliances and put them in my Sliph Co. bag. As they moved in on me, I-”

“Wait! Why are the Wash Appliances discontinued!?” I interrupted. Billy blinked, caught a bit off guard by that.

“Oh, well they tend to get water all over the place. Trainers just didn’t like that one as much I guess?” He offered. I refused to have any of it.

“It’s one of the best Rotom Forms! With Water/Electric Typing and Levitate Rotom only has one Weakness, four Resistances, and an Immunity! It’s only rivaled by Heat Rotom which has 2 weaknesses but a bevy of resistances…” I realized I had stood up on the bed at some point and was just ranting. “Sorry about that.” Sheepishly I moved back to let him speak. It must have shown, for he smiled at me in the way dad’s do.

“Not a problem, it’s wonderful to see you so enthusiastic. And I agree, it’s a remarkable form - when I opened the doors to the farm, I also tossed in the washing machines, which a few brave Rotoms possessed, and then washed the poachers clean out!”

“Good to hear. Did you find out why there were so few employees there to handle the recall?”

“Ah yes,” He held up a finger dramatically as he remembered that important detail of the story. “When the police came and apprehended them it was revealed that the ringleader of their group was an employee we were in the process of letting go. Adrion Blanchard, he hacked into our system before we were done, arranging the whole thing. He set it up so the recall notice would come through at the same time that he arranged for almost everyone else working there to be given forced time off. The police even found Sharpedo Jet Boats stashed nearby for a quick getaway so they could flee the country!”

“That’s… incredible.” Perhaps a bit silly in how it all turned out, but I mean it. They both did good things yesterday while I… Both of them hugging me pulled me out of my thoughts.

“We’re so sorry we couldn’t make it to your tournament, dear. We know how hard you’ve been training for it-” I cut my mother off.

“It’s fine.”

They shared a disbelieving glance before moving on, clearly opting to discuss ‘it’ (i.e. me) privately. “You must tell us all about it now, though. We want to hear how it all went, and umm…” He trailed off, obviously searching for the words to ask about why it ended so badly, but in a way that wouldn’t upset me.

“It went well-”

“Dun dun!” My starter countered angrily.

“You didn’t let me finish! It did go well, at first. All the way up until the end. We got disqualified because the referees-” I grumbled barely coherently about my disdain for them before regaining my composure. “They made a decision on Terastalization and said that I was disqualified for using it in the semi-finals, even though it hadn’t been outright stated in the rules.”

“What?”

“No!”

“This is terrible!”

“We should call these officials and explain that they need to undo this immediately.”

“I-” A part of me was tempted, a large part that wanted to burn Freddrick and everything he owned to the ground. But that’s not right, it won’t help anything . “No, don’t try to undo it or anything.”

“Are you sure honey?” O’Nare asked. “This sounds wrong. It-” Her voice broke for a moment. “It sounds like it hurt you.”

I gave her a small nod. “It sucked, yeah, but we can’t fix this. Please don’t try to ‘undo’ the ruling.” Even if they could get it reversed, no one is going to appreciate me getting the win like that, and the moment has already passed . Worryingly, they might well be able to force the officials to undo that; they had a lot of economic power in Paldea and together they might be able to cause the officials to undo this, or try some other forced rematch type situation.

I already got a firsthand account of how having friends in the right places can alter outcomes that should be set in stone . It wouldn’t make me a better trainer though, wouldn’t help me learn Aura, or even earn me any respect, ‘winning’ like that. Dun hit the bed a few times, lightly enough to not cause an Earthquake, but I could tell he wasn’t happy with this. Me neither, buddy .

Scratching his head to soothe him a little, I said “I thought I heard the head judge and my last opponent conspiring after the match. Freddrick called him ‘uncle’, but there’s no way his uncle could have been allowed to rule for him, right?”

“Freddrick…” My mother mused. “The Van Grough boy?”

“Yeah, I fought him. I told one of the other judges, maybe she’ll be able to find something out about that.” They shared a look, some unspoken communication passing between them and Billy said:

“We’ll look into it. That cannot stand.” There was a steel to his voice, matched in my mother’s gaze that reminded me that they led massive international companies, and what it might take to lead them, silly stories aside. “Our connections can find any sign of foul play and expose them.”

“Th-thank you,” I stammered out, wiping at my watery eyes. It might not fix everything, but getting Freddrick and the head judge to see justice would be nice, at least . “I might want to hear about those connections later, but for now,” I moved on, wanting to focus on brighter things.

“The battles were really good though. I think Leah has some videos of them if you want to see them.”

“Actually, she’s already transferred the files to me, bzzt,” Rotom announced, making their presence known as they floated over in front of us. Stretching out to tablet size, they loaded up the first video. “Bzzt, would you like to watch?”

“Oh yes! This will be fantastic, to see our daughter in her first official tournament battle.” O’Nare said, Billy heartily agreeing.

“It will be a spectacle for the ages!”

“My first match isn’t super impressive. Wait till we get to the later rounds.” With my implicit permission, Rotom began playing them and we settled in to watch. From the first Earthquake to Dun’s last ditch attack against Corviknight they were gasping and ‘oohing’ in awe.

I didn’t think I needed them. ‘Parents’. Not in this lifetime. I already had a perfectly good set, once upon a time. Why would I try to replace that? So I told myself it didn’t matter if these people were busy or weird. But sitting here with them, watching them cheer on past me… it’s nice .

***

By the next day, pretty much everyone in the house had seen my battles, my parents showing them off to all the staff.

Everyone seemed pretty impressed with my performance. It made me feel a little better about how things had gone. Hamber even raised an eyebrow! Maybe both eyebrows, hard to tell with his weird hair. Still, as much as I appreciate their support, I want to see how the world at large took it, too .

"Spar!"

"Later, you know what Nurse Joy said," I told Dunsparce, much to his frustration. We'd taken him to a Pokemon Center, and she'd healed him a bit and said he'd be fine, but that it would be best to rest for a few days before training.

Instead of training, I uploaded a video of our semi-final again. This time, it wasn't one that Leah had made, but one that a viewer had made and uploaded to a forum. The video was shakier and more blurry, probably shot with a less expensive camera, maybe just from a regular cell phone, not a Rotom one. There was no better footage, as the tournament officials didn't see fit to release the official footage of the game that disqualified me, which only seemed to attract more attention and speculation online.

Let's see what others have to say about me . This wasn't just me being vain; my family thought my fighting was amazing, but random people online might be more critical of my fighting. And boy, are they more critical. Of... everything .

First of all, instead of the battle forums, my search brought up the latest news article.

"Controversial end to the Junior Tournament!" was the headline of one of the larger Mesagozan newspapers. Reading through the article, the wording was careful not to be overtly offensive to the League staff, but it was quite critical of how the judges had handled the "Tera Orb" situation.

This was followed bya Poke (this world’s version of a Tweet) by the Official Paldean League account stating that International Tournaments would use Tera Orbs as Enhancement Items with all the rules and regulations those had and that all future internal tournaments would post any changes from those within those rulings well in advance going forwards.

From there it was onto the forums, and the results were mixed. The first and largest forum by far was Pokemon Trainers Online, and PTO had a lot to say about this decision. I skimmed over some of the more heated parts of the discussion in the early segments that were more reactionary.

@adriontompkins: ‘Why is this such a big deal? It was a good match, but the little girl clearly wouldn’t have won without the Tera Orb. And really? Bringing a Tera Orb to a Junior Tournament? Isn’t that like bringing a Mega Evolution out?’

@IceShredder: ‘Yeah, and so is bringing a freaking Corviknight to such a torney. Besides, that’s not the real problem, the problem is when the ruling happened. Maybe if they had called it right after the match, people would be less upset.’

@adriontompkins: #IceShredder ‘Point. That does feel pretty unfair too, but how are you supposed to judge a trainer for the Pokemon they bring in? I’ve got my Growlithe from my Ma, and yeah he battled a bit before but nothing serious. I’d hate to have been not allowed to battle with him just cause the League felt it was unfair’

@Fishergal233: ‘Does it make a difference? Like, the other semi-final match wouldn’t impact the result of the first so…? Sorry, I’m kinda new here, just saw this thread blowing up’

@FasterthanU: ‘Understatement of the century, I’ve never seen people get so riled up about a Junior level Tournament before. Making that ruling at all was wild. The sorta thing that would only happen if someone was cheating - and before any brings up that derail again, Nemona Glitterati was not cheating. She had every reason to believe that what she was doing was allowed.’

@DragoniteDeservesAMega: #FasterthanU ‘She had every right to believe it because she was correct. The head judge made a terrible call and backed it up with phony logic when called out on it.’

@kickman34: ‘Enhancements being allowed at all feels like an oversight. I’ve double checked, and nobody brought in Megas in the Junior Tourney history, and once the Alolan adjustments were made, they didn’t have to worry about Z-Moves anymore.’

@Havin’aKarablast: ‘To play Giratina’s advocate here, it is probably true that Teraztalization shouldn’t have been allowed. On the other ghostly hand, did the little girl deserve to be punished for the fact that the League didn’t get their sh*t together in time?’

@Fishergal233: ‘Ok, this is a lot. What are the issues here?’

@Wilkins19: ‘The issues are the corrupt league that let them get away with this blatant cheating!

*User has been warned, keep the discussion civil and productive*

@DripWithStyle: ‘Tone it down, buddy. EDIT: See the mods already got to that. While we all agree that this shouldn’t have happened, we can be clearer than that. I don’t think the entire League is evil, but I don’t know what the head judge was smoking to make that call. And after the second semi-final round too? That was egregious.’

@IceShredder: ‘Does it matter when the ruling was called? It was a bad call, but it wouldn’t have mattered before or after the other round in affecting the finals.’

@TaxiMan09: ‘I’ve been scratching my head trying to make sense of the ruling there. It just don’t seem to fit with what should be going on. Perhaps the head judge was just confused in regard to the latest change made for the international rules?’

@KrossKueen: ‘Nah, just the League acting up again. Read betwen the lines they dont like his ruling, but don’t want to come out against him so they just ‘clarify’ how things work now.’

@Historybuff48: #Fishergal233 ‘Anything and everything. To wit:

• Should people be allowed inherited Pokemon in tournaments? (Van Grough’s Corviknight belonged to his father originally. Lot of heated debate there)
• Should Enhancement Effects be allowed in low-level tournaments? (Honestly not sure how that one was ever allowed in the rules in the first place. There’s some off topic debate a few pages back about where the cut-off badge-wise should be)
• And the big one: The ruling on Nemona’s ‘loss’. Should the head judge have called a rematch? Should the call have been made sooner? Should they have not made the ruling at all? I.e. was it an illegal ruling?
• Finally, if there was something wrong, could it be changed now? (answer if not likely. People are upset enough about the change happening when it did)

@WaterK1ng: ‘Glitterati, they make the Rotom Phones. Do you think this loss will hurt their stock?’

@CuteHat3nnA: ‘Wut? Why would their daughter ‘losing’ hurt their stocks? If anything it should boost them - no such thing as bad publicity, right? Plus, she did really well for a little kid, the final ruling notwithstanding.’

@Hater4Lyfe: ‘I can’t believe the people weren’t rioting. Is there something in the water in Paldea?’

@PoisonFan7008: ‘I’ll say. If something like this happened in Kanto we’d spontaneously learn to copy Weezing and literally Explode on the spot.’

@GurdurrMyLoins: ‘I was there, and it wasn’t mind control. Paldeans are a bit more laid back than Kantoans anyways, lol. We were just a little shocked and tired. That tournament had been going on for over 8 hours. In summer. Paldean summers get freaking hot, let me tell ya.

But that doesn’t mean everyone was happy about it. Her Dunsparce looked a little derpy at the start but he grew on me. Like a Foongus. Watching that little guy push so hard to win and then get it taken away, man that sucked.

@Havin'aKarablast: 'Yeah, I think the crowd got yelled at by the professor guy for booing earlier? I wonder why he didn't say anything about it?

@DragoniteDeservesAMega: 'Oh yeah, we didn't riot, but there were a lot of angry fans left after we realized this wasn't a joke. Some people stormed out after Nimona left'.

@Paydayz: 'People were yelling at the table too! I got ripped off by them on my Corvi winnings'

@GurdurrMyLoins: 'Come off it, they transferred the bet on Freddrick's semi-final to the final, making it a null round bet. You probably got back what you 'lost' by betting on Freddrick in the final! This was a tough fight. Clodsire fought hard, but Steel/Flying is a tough match for a Ground/Poison. That Sky Attack of Corviknight sure is scary.’

@WaterK1ng: 'What happened to the people who bet on Nemona?

@Havin'aKarablast: 'I'm not sure, I think the betting table tried to get the winners to return the money they had won? Which didn't go over too well, but a lot of those bettors had already placed bets for the next round, which the table would keep if they didn't... There was a lot of arguing from that section of the court.

@IceShredder: 'This whole thing was a scam, Nemona got ROBbed'

@Wilkins19: 'This wasn’t just a scam, it was an injustice. We should storm the League and make them pay in blood for this travesty of justice!

*User has been banned. Do not support political violence over a kid's tournament*.

@CuteHat3nnA: 'I see what you mean about people going crazy...'

Quite a few comments supported Dun and I. Saying it was unfair, that we should have won, that we had a better shot, that the judges were to blame, etc. Even memes.

A picture of Dun curled up with the caption "Don't tread on me. Had me totally freaking out.ut. Guess some things will cross the universes even without my influence . There were other funny pictures, some with captions and some not, like Dun with his back turned to Corviknight, blocking her attacks. ‘Parry Thi- oh. You did.

’

It was nice to read those things, but there were other comments too…

‘What was she doing?’

‘I didn’t expect the Junior Tournament to be so violent… glad I wasn’t there in person.’

‘Someone should take her license away.’

‘The only reason why she ‘won’ was because her opponent must have been feeling sorry for her and didn’t want to kill her snake. Glad the judges fixed that and the best trainer became the true winner. #Freddrick van Gogogo!’

‘Dunsparce are dumb. Glitterati’s are loaded and there’s like thousands of Pokemon to choose from, why did she pick a Pokemon like that? Wtf lol.’

‘Wow, a Corviknight lost to a freaking Dunsparce? That’s sad.’

‘She must have been cheating. I see why she was kicked out now, no way she could beat a majestic Corviknight.’

Ok, I can probably discount the last comment from MurderOfChivalry73, but still . Those were the minority of the comments, I knew. Dozens of more supportive comments for any of those (and hundreds more just confused or undecided). Any anonymous asshole online could post whatever they wanted, and I was scanning thoroughly through multiple forums. Why can’t I help but fixate on these types of comments? They shouldn’t get to live in my head, plague my every waking moment .

At least people are ragging on Freddrick here too. Stupid, nepotistic, asshole, gonna beat your f*cking face in- I cut off that line of thought. Deep breaths, in and out .

“Arce?” Dun tilted his head to the side, wondering what I was doing.

“Ah, sorry, just trying to calm down,” I said, forcing a smile out. Can’t make him upset just because of what I’m dealing with . “Some of these comments rile me up. But! There’s some good stuff here. Like, that Move you did at the end? It’s called Last Resort, that’s one of the strongest Moves anyone can learn!”

“Dun dun! Unarce!”

“Yeah,- oh.” I stopped for a moment as I read another comment. I sighed and read it aloud to Dunsparce (he could read too, but not as fast as I could).

"It looks like the Dunsparce used Yawn here. Interestingly, Nemona seems to have taught him an invisible variation without the usual visible cloud enveloping the opponent. This clever move caught her opponent off guard and allowed Dunsparce to capitalize on the fact that the Corviknight was falling asleep'".

“That’s why Yawn wasn’t working properly! We only succeeded about half the time because we were missing part of the Move.” I groaned. “At least now we can fix that.”

“Isn’t it useful to have an invisible version to catch an opponent off guard, bzzt?” Rotom asked.

“I mean, yeah, it is. But in battles where the opponent can’t switch, more accuracy is useful. Plus, it can be useful on its own to try and ‘force’ a switch from your opponent when you have a bad matchup.” Some trainers would use their switch-up way too early to prevent their Pokemon from falling asleep. As Corviknight proved, sometimes a Pokemon can just outlast it .

After a minute I added “You are right though, it’s not bad to have more options. We were in a rough spot against Corviknight there because we hadn’t trained enough Moves to cover a Steel-Flying Type.”

“Dun. Spar!” Dun pouted.

“Hey, hey, it’s not your fault, it’s mine. I should have realized how useful things like Ancient Power would be and had you do some training in that.”

Dun shook his head, wiggling up and awkwardly trying to type on it till he found what he wanted. Turning around he pointed at it with his tail (more of a jab that Rotom thankfully backed out of the way of).

“Last Resort? I- no, we can’t practice that Move. It’s great that you know it, but that Move…”

Everything I’d read online about it was that trying to train it was practically torture. Maybe minus the practically . It wasn’t like a game where you could order your Pokemon to only remember Fake-Out and Last Resort, in this world Last Resort was a true last resort. You didn’t need to cycle through every Move your Pokemon knew, but they needed to be feeling desperate and have used a good deal of your energy before it was even possible. People are already telling me that was too much. If we’re forced into it, sure, I’ll use it. I don’t need to try and push Dun that hard on the regular, however .

My starter didn’t seem to feel the same way, though, pouting. “C’mon buddy, let’s go outside. Some fresh air will do us some good.” I scooped him up, but he wiggled out of my arms.

“Du.”

“Hey stop that. Look, I know you’re upset about what happened. Frederick is a dirty cheater, but we shouldn’t let that ruin-” I covered my ears as Dunsparce let out a sudden, shrill sound that had me clutching my ears. “Ahhh! Dun, stop!”

"I get it, you're upset," I said after he calmed down. "But there's nothing we can do, so there's no point moping here."

"Dun dun!" My Dunsparce countered.

“Bzzt, unfortunately, Nemona was the only one to hear their collusion, so we can’t report him to the authorities,” Rotom pointed out. Dun had a different idea, wiggling into the space behind my bed, jabbing his tail into thin air, then wiggling out and making odd chirping sounds.

“What are you- no. No! We are not finding Freddrick in a dark alley and attacking him! Why would he even be in a dark alley?!”

“Arce dun!”

“You’re right, that’s not the point, the point is we aren’t going to go after him.” No matter how tempting that sounds . “He’d beat us anyways. We got lucky last time and this time he’ll be ready for our tricks-”

“DUUUN!” My Pokemon shouted, slamming the ground and causing my room to shake.

“Dunsparce! What-?!” I fell to the ground, surprised by his sudden aggression. Awkwardly, I reached for his Pokeball and recalled him. “What was that?” I asked the empty air (technically Rotom was here too, but I didn’t expect them to have a better answer than I did).

Holding up the ball I said to the Pokemon inside “Just… cool off a bit, ok?” There was no response, but the fact that he wasn’t bursting out made me think he got the message.

***

The next few days didn’t go any better with Dun. He was feeling strong enough for light training, but that wasn’t what he was interested in.

“Dun, use Screech.” I pointed at a small pile of old glass I’d placed around the beach as practice targets. The winged land snake made no sound with his mouth, instead propelling himself at the glass. Since this was the third time he had attempted this and once again failed to manifest the star-shaped energy from a successful Last Resort that would push him ahead faster, I had plenty of time to recall him to his Pokeball before he would have smashed headfirst into them.

Releasing him a second later left neither of us impressed. “Dun, why are you so obsessed with that Move?”

“Dunsparce!” He was angry, tail thrashing into the ground and kicking up sand, but I couldn’t tell why exactly. This is an element from the show and games I didn’t see as much. That language barrier. I can tell he’s frustrated, but I’m missing the little details .

Switching tracks I turned to Rotom. “Hey Rotom, how about we start on your training.” I gave them a big thumbs up, as if that would somehow make the fake smile on my face more real. They hovered about, plasmic eyes shifting on their body as if looking for a way out (despite us being in the opne).

“Oh boy, bzzt.” They said, unenthusiastically. No, not unenthusiastic, just nervous. They still want to train, it’s just a big step .

“Don’t worry, we’ll start easy. Just some basic Thundershocks on the sand, to get a feel for your Electric energy. That’s the Type that will remain the same no matter which Form you are in, so it’s good to have a solid handle on that Type.”

“Bzzt, I’m not sure I can do that in my phone case.”

Nodding, I agreed with them, much to their disappointment. “Yeah, you will need to leave your case for this. Don’t worry I’ll hold on to it while you’re training and take good care of it.”

"Dun, un un. Arce." Dunsparce muttered dismissively at the scene. Then he slithered to the bottom of the stairs, jumped up, and headed back up the path to the house.

I waited until he was out of sight and punched a nearby tree in frustration. "Gahhh!"

"Young Miss, bzzt?" Rotom asked worriedly as he hovered close to me.

"Oww. I'm sorry, I'm just so angry. Freddrick is a dirty cheater and - I don't understand why he has to act like this." I shook my hand, throbbing with pain at my ill-advised moment of frustration. "Could you talk to him? Find out?"

"Bzzt, excuse me, but I find I understand him only as well as you do. Maybe less well. I didn't realize you were so upset about Freddrick," they commented.

"Well, of course I am. I hate Freddrick for what he did." For the past few days, I had been distracted by imagining increasingly unlikely situations in which I would find Freddrick. Sometimes I'd beat him in a Pokemon battle, other times I'd trick him into confessing something. Mostly, my fantasies were just about beating him up.

I sighed. “But lashing out doesn’t help anyone, least of all yourself.” I glanced at the cracks I’d left in the tree. Impressive, for a girl a few days off seven years old. But still pointless; my hand hurts, and hitting the tree didn’t help anything either .

“Bzzt, you might be looking at this too logically, Young Miss.” I gave them a look, which they accepted with a small bob of their body. “I know, I can fall victim to that way of thinking too, bzzt. Dun’s not thinking of the consequences of that, just being frustrated at not being strong enough.”

I shook my head, blinking. “What do you mean, not strong enough? Dun is incredibly strong.”

“Oh, he is, bzzt. For any other… quirks he may have, he’s quite strong. Bzzt right now, I think he doesn’t feel very strong. If he had been able to win without Terastalization, then Freddrick couldn’t have used that excuse to get you kicked out, right?”

“Oh.” The epiphany hit me so hard that I looked up to make sure an apple hadn’t fallen on my head to grant me this insight (it didn’t, not the least of which was because this wasn’t an apple tree). That was just some offhand comment I made because I was trying to deflect from my anger .

“He doesn’t realize I’m just as angry about it too because I’m trying to hide it. My reasoning for training him on different paths than Last Resort and what I said about him losing if we fought Corviknight again, and then abandoning training with him… argh.” I moaned as I put the pieces together. “He thinks I’m giving up. On fighting, on the promise I made to him! He thinks I think he’s weak and he wants to prove he’s strong!”

All because I suck at communicating. God, I’m so stupid. No! Enough self-recrimination, focus on the situation and how to actually fix it! I doubt that what I’ve thought of is the only reason why he’s acting this way, there’s probably something else here. Still, that’s the main thrust of his issues with me, and that’s what I need to address right now .

Dun not being strong was the furthest thing from my mind - Dun had been incredible in that tournament. Facing off a fully evolved Pokemon and winning despite having only resisted Moves? Insanely strong. His determination was amazing, and I wanted to see him shine to his fullest.

“Maybe not that much, but you should tell him that, bzzt,” Rotom advised.

“Yeah. Wait no, I should show him that.” A plan started forming in my head. Only a few days left, but I think I can do it .

***

Dun remained in his ball most of the time or moping around the house in the follow-up from our spat on the beach. I let him avoid me for that time as it let me work on my surprise. Which hit a few snags, admittedly. I hope he likes it .

With everything ready, I woke Dunsparce on the big day. Before he could slither out of my room I barred his path. “Hey Dun, we need to talk.”

“Un.” He turned his head slightly away from me, reluctant. Does he feel guilty about how he’s been behaving? Well, that is a good sign, he was being a bit rowdy. Still, I gotta acknowledge my part in missing his feelings in this mess too .

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding on my part, about why you’ve been so upset recently. I’ve been trying to keep down my rage at Freddrick and the tournament as much as possible, because…A lot of reasons. I get too angry, and let little annoyances take over my life, and he was more than just a little annoyance. Or, was he?”

“Uuuuun?” He said, confused.

“Freddrick Van Grough cheated and cost us our victory in the tournament. That, while frustrating, should not be a big thing. He’s a small, pathetic little pissant, and while I hope he gets his due... He’s so small that we shouldn’t be focusing on him, though I know that’s easier to say than do. What’s big, what truly matters, is you .”

“Dun?” He said hopefully, and more than a little confused. Then he added “Ar, arce, un.”

“You’re asking if this means just letting him go?” He wobbled his head before shaking it.

“Hmm… oh! You want to make sure this never happens again?” I hazarded, to which he eagerly nodded. Nice, I think I’m getting a better grasp on what he’s ‘saying’ .

“Well, we’re not going to be running blindly into a mess like that again, especially with such a new ruling. I’ll be looking into anything like that much more carefully, checking ahead of time with the officials to ensure that no one can pull the rug out from under us again.”

“That’s an interesting saying, bzzt,” Rotom commented.

“Huh, is that not a thing here? Weird. Wonder what took its place culturally.” Dun shifted on the ground, the sound reminding me of what I was doing. “Right! So I’ll also be using the contacts my parents gave me. A full-on legal team, on video call whenever we need them, in case some argument like this gets brought up again. I won’t run away, I’ll fight it properly.” That pressure of feeling like the crowd was staring me down was a lot. Hopefully, in the future, my preparations will ensure I won't ever be in this situation again. Honestly, I hope that nothing like this does ever crop up again, and my preparations aren't necessary .

I had some doubts I could avoid anything like this, given my meta-knowledge. I hadn’t been thinking about Penny or Team Star, but I would have probably just tried to be their friend but not realized what kind of pressure they faced from the authority of the old staff. They pointed out that they did nothing wrong, but Penny was still forced to leave. I’ve got options that could help her this time .

Options that I would be reluctant to use otherwise. My parents had somehow gotten me the personal number of the current Chairman of the Pokemon League. A nuclear option to be sure, if I used it in a match I’m certain there would be public outcry against me, no matter how reasonable or necessary the situation. But if I do need it, I have it .

“D-Dun. Dunspar?”

“Ah, that," I said feeling a bit awkward as he asked about a more recent issue, in what I had said about how he would lose against Corviknight if they fought again. "I was getting fixated on the wrong things there. Kinda like the referee who found me.” At least I hope so. She meant well and was willing to listen to me and investigate the matter. According to my parents, a League official is looking into it, so hopefully we’ll see results from their investigation .

“People can be bad at communicating, and I’m no exception there. I shouldn’t have been making the point of how technically without Terastalization you might be weaker than that one Corviknight. I should be talking about just how strong and incredible you are.”

“You want to show that you’re strong, and I know that. We went into that tournament, not to win, but to get stronger. Being Champion would be nice, but I just want the strength to go anywhere in this wonderful world, and by that metric? This tournament was a great success. None of that invalidates the promise I made you, though. I’ll aim for Champion, because I want to, and also to show the world the truth: One day, you will be the very, very strongest.” Walking over to my gigantic closet I opened it up, pulling out what I’d hidden there last night.

It was a large trophy in the shape of a tall bowl-like cup. The top of it reached up to my neck and there were two loopy handles on the sides. At the base, I had metal plates with the words carved in ‘The strongest Dunsparce in the world’. Hefting it up, I presented it to him. “As proof of what I said, and to celebrate everything we’ve done so far. I may not have been able to get you a trophy for the tournament, but you’ve more than earned this.”

Quickly, I placed the trophy down before Dunsparce rushed towards me doing a passable impression of a Tackle. Or a Dragon Rush, oof , I thought as he bowled me giving sharp, happy cries as he nuzzled into my arms.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t realize how you were feeling before.” My eyes were still a little watery, but I was so happy to have Dunsparce back in my arms, acting like his usual self. After a minute of hugging him, he squirmed to indicate he wanted to be let out, and when I did he wiggled right over to the trophy inspecting it from all around, getting a good look at it.

Gah, it feels so embarrassing. I know it’s my first work but it doesn’t look anywhere near as good as the trophy they handed out at the end of the tournament . Dun didn’t seem to agree with my evaluation, cooing over it all, eyes wide open as he took it all in. He could just be appreciative of the gesture, or maybe because I made it clear I recognized him. But, I guess in the end it doesn’t matter. So long as he’s happy, I’m happy .

As I wiped away my tears, I heard Rotom’s camera shutter go off in the background, taking pictures of this moment. “Thank you too, Rotom, for helping me realize what I needed to do.”

“Dun, un, sparce sparce.” Dunsparce said to Rotom as well, and the phone blushed for a moment, seeming both affronted yet proud. I question Rotom only understanding Dun as well as I do because they definitely got more of that exchange than I did .

“We’ll probably need a whole room for all the trophies you guys will win in the future, but for now I was thinking of putting this one in my bedroom, so you can see it often. Sound good?”

Dunsparce nodded eagerly and I carefully picked it up, placing it on the desk in my room. “Now, I’ve got another gift, and this one is for both of you. Let’s go down to the beach for me to unveil this though.”

“Un.”

“Bzzt, let’s go!”

“Just wait a moment you two!” I said, laughing at their impatience. All three of us likely would have zipped out of the room, however last time we did that I accidentally bowled over a butler, and Dunsparce knocked over a vase (not sure if that one was accidental or not because the thing was a pretty hideous shade of orange), and we all (even Rotom) got chewed out for it by Leah.

Once outside, however, there were no such limits and we raced down to the beach. “First!” I called out, as I reached an arbitrary rock in the sand. Dunsparce skidded past me a second later, but turned pretty sharply, using his tail to counterbalance and spin 180 degrees. His maneuverability is improving and in a straight line, he’s faster than me. The curved path down is probably the only reason I was able to beat him .

“Alright, so the other present.” Fishing them out from my bag I pulled out a dozen Technical Machines. “Ta-da!”

Dunsparce looked eager, while Rotom was kind of confused. “Bzzt, didn’t you want to focus on fundamentals, and not use the machines?”

“That was the reason I gave, and it was true, but I’ve been thinking about it more.” All the strongest competitors, Atticus, and even Freddrick, used plenty of Technical Machine Moves. And I was using them too, with the ones left over after the Haxorus incident .

I scratched my chin, trying to think of how to explain this right. “I think I was shying away from using my family’s money to advance as a trainer, only using the TMs I already had. I wanted to make it more ‘on my own’. Which is honestly kind of silly - everyone has advantages they use to be a better trainer. I can’t hold back because I have some advantages other people don’t, even if I could wish that the world was a more even playing field. All I can do is my best by you two, so you rise up and become the best you can be.”

It might be selfish of me to think like this, but it’s true. I’m not holding back my knowledge or intellect from being reborn in this world, so I’m not going to hold back on using the money I’ve been given either. It’s not like other people beat themselves up over way bigger isekai cheats than I have . “That’s not to say it wasn’t right to focus on what Dun knew at the time. Your Moves were incredibly strong because we honed those few to perfection, which got us that win, no matter what anyone else says.”

“Dun!” He agreed with a determined look in his eyes.

“But there are also gaps in your training. I focused too much on just maneuverability and strong Physical Moves. Luckily, we don’t have the time crunch we had for the tournament. Now we can spend a good long time practicing these Moves and making all of them just as strong as the ones you had in the tournament. And the good news is, a lot of these Moves can be learned by both of you!” I flashed out two copies of Thunder, Hyper Voice, and Protect each. They probably don’t actually consider it ‘good news’, but I do; I can use their rivalry to help spur each other on .

They were already exchanging competitive glares with each other, so I considered that scheme a success. Just as Rivals help improve Trainers, a bit of that often helps Pokemon improve too .

“Of course, there’s also the Moves you can learn naturally, which we’ll keep on practicing.” Catching Dun’s gaze I scratched the back of my head. “I guess I didn’t explain my resistance to Last Resort all that well either. Let me try and sum it up.”

“Last Resort is a really powerful Move, and it gets that power from being a Move of desperation. Being frightened, exhausted, feeling doom crushing in around you, combined with a drive to fight through. You’ve got plenty of the latter, but it’s the former that worries me. To really train the Move, would mean getting better at using it, reaching the mental state to call upon it more often and faster. And feeling that bad constantly… It can twist your mind and I don’t want that for you, ever. So while I’d be open to trying to use it at the end of a tough training session once or twice and there might come another day when we need it, but I hope you can see why I don’t want your training to focus on that.”

Dun let out a large sigh but nodded his large head. “Don’t fret, proper tactics and using your Moves well can make up for sheer power. And well, I did say it was only ‘one of’ the strongest Moves, right?” I pulled out a final TM from my pocket.

“This right here is the strongest Move. Bar none.” Ok, technically, bar Z-Moves or V-Create or Prismatic Laser, but I’m not counting those . “It has its drawbacks, of being draining to use, but I think that will be a lot healthier of a drawback to tackle and try and train with. And it is even stronger than Last Resort.”

“I thought Hyper Beam was the strongest Move, bzzt,” Rotom commented, hovering over to look at the Giga Impact disc.

“Pshaw, Hyper Beam this and that, everyone’s always going on about that Move. Yes, it’s really strong too and has a similar drawback to its use, but Giga Impact is just as strong as it.

Dunsparce as a species tend to lean more towards Physical attacks anyways, so this will be the best for him.” Turning to him I added “You won’t need Hyper Beam anyways. After you evolve, you’ll be able to learn a really powerful special Move called Boomburst that only a few other Pokemon can learn. Boomburst is as strong as Last Resort, but none of the drawbacks of it, or even the other really strong Moves like Giga Impact or Hyper Beam.” Okay, blowing out all the windows in a large radius around you might be a ‘drawback’ in some situations, but it’s true that once he learns that Move it’ll be a lot easier to spam than the others .

“Dun?” He asked, wonder shining in his eyes. Ah well, that’s a fair ways off- oh, no, he’s not focused on Boomburst. The other thing I said .

“I don’t think your evolution is that far off. By my next birthday, I’m pretty sure you’ll be a Dundunsparce.” His eyes widened further, making me wonder if he was actually straining them. “If you want, there’s no rush to evolving, don’t even have to if you don’t want-”

“Du, dun, sparce!” I laughed at his enthusiastic response while idly wondering about Pokemon speech patterns. Do Pokemon often evolve with similar names because it’s easier for the vocal cords to adjust? Why do Pokemon only speak like that?

Over the horizon, I could see a flying taxi headed towards my house, and knew that meant Arven would be here soon. “All that is for tomorrow though. Today it’s time to celebrate. My birthday, and the day I met you. Thank you, Dun.”

***

We went up to meet Arven to play some card and tabletop games, cyan joining us soon after. We didn’t have any of the more niche board games I liked to play in my old life, but it was still plenty of fun to play Pokeopoly and Trainer Journey (like Life™).

“How’s it going our wonderful birthday girl?” O’Nare said, sweeping through the doorway, Billy following swiftly behind her.

“Mom, Dad!” I ran up to give them a big hug each. “You’re home early.” It was barely into the afternoon. I’d noticed they’d been working at getting back to a more regular (for them) schedule ever since they missed the tournament, but this was still pretty early. “It’s going great, I’m whooping Arven at Trainer Journey.”

“It’s not fair, she’s just too lucky!” Arven pouted, crossing his arms, his long obscuring most of his face as he slumped over.

“All skill,” I countered, showing my incredible maturity by resisting the urge to stick my tongue out at him. Though honestly, luck has played a decent role in it. I might have picked optimal paths when given the choice of where to go or how to hedge my bets, but I got pretty lucky spins on the wheel too. Rotom is probably planning this the best out of all of us but has abysmal luck .

“Why is Maschiff in the corner?” Billy reasonably asked.

“Cheating,” Arven, Cyan, and I deadpanned simultaneously. Cyan gave the hound the stink-eye, having been the one to catch him stealing notes out of the ‘bank’, a look the dog returned with a pained yowl at the injustice of it all. I see the evil smirk in your eyes though, I know what you’re up to!

Nonetheless, the Dark Type was let back into our next game which my parents joined in as well. Unsurprisingly since it was a variation of Cheat, Maschiff swept the floor with us all (though I at least got second place). It was a rather small ‘party’, but I honestly liked it that way; too many people would make me feel crowded and awkward like I’d say the wrong thing and someone I didn’t know as well would judge me. This is nice .

After the games was dinner where we had steaks and steamed vegetables with pan-fried potatoes. It’s not quite like how I made it in my old life, but this is definitely delicious . Our guest agreed too, though he was more focused on another aspect.

“I still can’t believe you guys get meat every night for dinner.” Arven said when my father had pointed out that this was ‘delicious even for standard fare’.

“Yeah, I guess we’re pretty lucky.” Another thing to be grateful for. Regular animals are a lot rarer here, so only the rich can afford to have meat in their meals often .

Noticing O’Nare opening her mouth I quickly continued, before her line of questioning might determine that a Professor’s son might count as a 'commoner.' “It looks like we’re almost done, so let’s get dessert, and then, the presents!”

I had presented a small but appropriate list this time well in advance to my family so that there would be no repeats of a surprise Haxorus this year.

I’d asked for Pan au Chocolates for my birthday rather than cake, and the chef had done a masterful job of them (my dislike of cake had carried over from my past life, but having a live-in kitchen staff meant they could easily accommodate my weird tastes). They were fluffy, and warm, with a delicious chocolate center.

After dinner, they brought out their gifts. “Here you go!” Arven said, rushing up eagerly, the first one to give me a gift. The gift looked lumpy, made of something soft. The paper that wrapped it was messily applied, and I felt a bit of saliva on the outside. Maschiff must have helped him, and I think his work is a little neater than Arven’s .

Opening it up I saw it was a holster, one that looked designed for a singular Pokeball. It could be worn around the waist and connected to a larger belt, or adjusted to be strapped to the thigh or arm. But why would I need a single extra Pokeball holder- oh!

“This is for my Tera Orb!” My face lit up as I realized the purpose of his gift.

“Yeah! I saw at the tournament you just had it in your pocket and thought you might need a better place to put it. Also, my dad included something as well.” He pointed in the pouch and I flipped it up to see a thin red rectangular device within.

“Is this… a Pokedex?!?”

“Yeah, he said it might be handy. You aren’t an official lab-sponsored trainer or anything like that, but he said you can put in any notes or obsavations you want. It has a buncha fun facts on it too!” I was wondering why he was being so nice here, given his aloofness at the tournament .

Arven motioned for me to pass it to him to demonstrate, which I did with a slight roll of my eyes he missed. Kids. Always wanting to try out someone else’s gifts . As he did so, I strapped the Pouch around my arm, placing the Tera Orb securely within.

“It says here that Alakazam have an IQ of over 5,000, wow! Did you know that?”

Stifling a giggle as he passed it back I said “I’d heard the rumor.”

“Aw man, you know everything Nemona. Looks like you won’t need that much.” I shook my head vigorously at his words.

“No way, this will still be incredibly handy.” The anecdotes in the Pokemon’s entries may be less verified, but there’s a bunch of information in here that will be super useful. Much more reliable than trying to sift through the forums and people making random claims online . “Your gift is great too, I really like it.”

He blushed, mumbling how it was ‘nothing’. While he was doing that, my sister pushed ahead with her gift. “Open it!” She demanded eagerly.

From the outside look of the package I could guess what it was, but I was still very pleased to open the wrapping paper and see it confirmed. “A guitar! I didn’t think you remembered.” I had mentioned wanting to get into music a few months ago but had been too busy to look into it afterward.

The guitar was wooden with a sleek body. There were six strings across the neck and a slot at the bottom to connect it to an amp if I wanted. With this, I might be able to bring back some of the songs I knew in my old world. I only half-remember a lot of them, but I’ll do my best .

Then came my parents' gifts. Neither of them had wrapped their gifts, making me wonder if they had tried to do so on their own but been unable to perform this mystic ‘commoner art.’ Given that Billy’s gift was in a bag and O’Nare’s was in a small case, I couldn’t tell what they were exactly. I didn’t tease them about it of course, because I knew they were trying very hard… and to save as blackmail for later. Not just parents that get to save up embarrassing stories from childhood!

Mom went first presenting the case to me, which I opened up to see a bunch of small bottles inside. “No way, is this…?” I asked for this only a couple of days ago, I'm so glad she got them!

“A year’s supply of nutrient supplements for Dunsparce! Iron, Carbos, Protein, and the like to make sure he grows big and strong.” Oh, they’ll do that and then some. These things can help bolster a training regime, and fetch a high price for it . She went on to explain that the rest of the year’s supply was being stored in the kitchen and would be mixed into Dun’s meals in the future.

Billy passed me the small black one strap backpack he had been holding, which upon closer inspection I saw was a Sliph Co. bag. “Oh this is great, it can hold so much stuff in it.”

“Indeed, and you might just find something already in there,” he said, practically vibrating in anticipation. And I thought I was supposed to be the excited one. And the kid . I still opened it eagerly, stretching the opening quite wide.

Within the extradimensional depths, the dark-purple swirl of the pocket dimension, I saw a familiar-looking machine. Pulling it out made for an odd sensation as I could easily heft it out of the bag, but when it started exiting, gravity began exerting itself on the small-ish red washing machine I pulled out. “A Rotom appliance!”

Rotom flew around it, still inside their phone. “This is quite something, bzzt! I can sense the potential of this device from here, the energy it holds. It looks so durable too, bzzt!”

“I- oh. That’s not the only one,” I said as I caught sight of something else in the bag. Pulling them out one after another I placed the different Rotom Appliances in front of me. Oven, Refrigerator, Fan, and Lawn Mower all joined the Washing Machine. “All the Rotom forms…”

“You mentioned how good Heat and Wash were, but I figured all of them would be good just to be safe-” He began before I cut him off by hugging him tightly. “Oof. Not just smart, our baby girl has gotten- so strong!” He wheezed before I let him go and hugged my mom too.

“Thank you guys so much! Dun and Rotom are going to be so strong with this! We’re going to win every battle and become the best champion there ever was!”