"Ahh, that was a great burrito," I sighed contentedly. We were finishing up breakfast after a very successful training session. Kippie officially learned Mud-Slap, as well as Supersonic and Work Up. She had also pushed Water Gun, Rock Throw, and Protect to a satisfying level. Now, her focus was on Hail and Blizzard, as well as Mud-Slap.
As I got up to throw away my trash, I felt something leak into my shoes. I took a step and-
*squelch*
A shiver ran up my spine as I felt a horrible wetness around my foot. I looked down to see both of my suede shoes completely soaked in water. Kippie was giggling to herself on the other side of the table, which told me exactly what happened.
"Kippie, no cookies for you until next week."
This immediately shut her up and got me a look of utter disbelief and shock. She tried to apologize and convince me not to punish her so. However, while I accepted the apology, I stood firm with my decision. Ain't no way I'm letting this escalate if getting my shoes and socks wet was a good first prank for her.
After that fiasco, I changed my outfit and ordered some water-resistant suede shoes. I needed to buy more water-resistant or repellent clothes if I wanted to avoid something like that in the future. I decided to go with boots instead of sneakers since I was going to Araceli's lab for an interview with the lab manager.
The interview itself wasn't bad. I always managed to get on the good side of every interviewer I had in my old world, a trend that seemed to continue here. The real problem would come from the little test they conducted. In order for me to participate in the study, one of the Pokémon they were caring for had to pick me.
And let me tell you, they were all shitting on me. It was like a substitute teacher walking into a middle school class. Several Mareep tried to shock me as soon as they got near, not expecting me to be able to withstand their attacks with no problem. A few Wooper doused my head with water, and one Sandile that cuddled up closely before snatching my phone and running away.
As soon as that happened all three of my Pokémon came out on their own and surrounded the Sandile, who shat himself at the power emanating from Nautilus. I told him calm down before taking my phone back and telling the Sandile to stop with his pranks, else he would mess with the wrong Pokémon or person in the future.
I might have said that a little loudly to send a message to the rest. From that point on, it was a sad hour of being ignored by all the others. It didn't bother me though. If a Pokémon was unwilling to go with me on its own volition, me forcing it would probably be detrimental to the trust I would want to build with it.
Just as the interviewer, Pam, and Araceli were walking up to me to say that my time was up, the door to a closet to my right shook. From there, a floating sword inside a brown hilt came up to me. Its lone blue gem on the hilt, Honedge's eye, was staring at me intently. As it got close, the long blue cloth attached to its light gray hilt came up to touch my arm.
Araceli cried out in warning, probably assuming that it was going to drain my life. Before she could get to me, the cloth wrapped itself around my arm and Honedge was right in front of my face.
"Hone."
Its deep, metallic voice sounded out slowly. After a few more seconds of intense eye staring, Honedge released my arm and wrapped itself around my shoulders, content with hanging at my side.
"Tha-that's incredible!" Araceli exclaimed. "I thought Honedge was going to absorb your life. It has tried to do so with all of us and every other applicant."
"Good thing it always hides after a threat from your Monferno," Pam added.
"Huh, I guess I got lucky," I said as Honedge leaned into the pat I gave to the base of its hilt. To think a Honedge would choose me and that I had the chance of having Aegislash on my time. Oh man, I am going to dominate.
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"Well, it's good that Honedge chose you because your time was basically up," Pam continued as we walked towards the entrance of the lab. Pam, the lab manager and my interviewer, had secured one of the larger rooms to house most of the Pokémon. I said room, but it was more like a small apartment.
"Yeah, really good. What's the process now that it's happened?" I asked her.
Pam took a few seconds to gather the information before answering.
"Well, we're going to take several measurements over the next week to get a baseline for Honedge now that it's somewhat bonded to you. After that week, you'll get to pick up Honedge and take it with you. From there, we just need to run some tests on Honedge once a week, some that can be done easily since you have the Transfer app. If you can get Honedge to Terastallize at any point, we'll ask both of you to come in and do it while we conduct more tests. After that, we'll need you to make a report of what you did to give us a clue, as well as some important experiences, and then you're done. You keep Honedge and don't have to send it over again."
"Huh," I said. "Doesn't sound too bad."
"Not at all. Plus, we'll compensate you with a monthly payment of 5,000$," Araceli cut in with a smile. "I'm sure that's going to be important for you."
"Well, I won't say no to extra income," I chuckled out. I took out a Pokéball and tapped Honedge's pommel. One shake later, and Honedge was officially registered as my Pokémon. Araceli took his Pokéball and both lab workers bid me good-bye.
I walked back to my room with a wide grin on my face. I got myself a fucking Honedge. One of my favorite Kalos Pokémon. I'm gonna be doing some major damage with him on the team. I wonder if I could use Aegislash as my own sword and shield equips. That's a thought for later. At the moment, I need to focus on myself.
I've fallen into a sort of lull with my training. I've maxed out the human machines at the PokéCenter training room and the sparring I do with Nautilus and Tetsu isn't really training much other than my reaction time, defenses, and stamina. I've yet to catch a Fighting-type to regularly train my actual combat skills, though I'm hoping that Kippie's evolution into Marshtomp would provide a decent sparring partner.
Nautilus, while capable of fighting like this, was more of a knife combat specialist since he mostly uses Night Slash, Slash, and Psycho Cut. Kippie seemed to hover closer to a long-distance fighter at the moment, but it was definitely too early to tell.
We continued training and earning money for the next week, all of us getting excited at the new team member we were going to welcome. I walked over to Hotel Coumarine, Kippie and Nautilus outside of their Pokéballs. As we were walking, a blonde woman in a bright blue dress and a beige coat walked over to Tetsu.
She inspected her, taking her time to look all over and shushing me when trying to ask what she was doing.
"Your Ferrothorn is absolutely lovely! She just radiates happiness and love. You've done a wonderful job caring for her. Here," she beamed and handed over an egg-shaped object. "You deserve a Lucky Egg. It can be used to increase how fast a Pokémon learns or masters a move."
As quickly as she appeared, she left the hotel. I swear, the Pokémon world is so weird. You have so many people that just give you useful shit out of nowhere. Not that I want to really complain. A way to boost move training? For free? Say less.
I took the elevator to the lab's floor and walked in to find Araceli and Pam waiting for me. Pam handed over Honedge's ball. After a quick reminder of the deal, and Araceli telling me to give her a call at some point for another battle, I left. I decided to go out towards the beach to spend the rest of the day.
I hadn't looked at Honedge's status and decided to do so now.
Honedge (Female): The Sword Pokémon
The blue gem on the hilt is said to be the true body of Honedge and houses the spirit of the warrior that once held the sword it rests on. Grabbing the hilt without being found worthy will end with Honedge draining a person's life energy.
Abilities: No Guard, Defiant, *Levitate* (When not touching ground)
Moves: Shadow Sneak (trained), Tackle, Fury Cutter (trained), Autotomize (trained), Protect (trained), False Swipe, Aerial Ace (trained), Slash (trained), Night Slash, Shadow Claw (trained), Iron Defense (trained), Flash Cannon, Brick Break (trained), Wide Guard (Egg Move, trained), Block (Egg Move, trained)
Condition: Calm, Attentive, Hungry
Why are all of my Pokémon hungry when I first add them to the team? That's besides the point. Honedge is loaded with moves. Brick Break, Shadow Claw, Autotomize, Wide Guard, Aerial Ace… I am very certain she had a Trainer before. Whether or not it ended well is another question. One that needs answering now.
After a quick interrogation, I mean… No, it was an interrogation. Ain't no way I'm letting this little plot hole slide. Honedge indeed had a Trainer before me. However, she and the rest of her team were charred alive by a colony of wild Magcargo. Honedge had escaped death because it used Shadow Sneak to attack the colony from behind.
She lived in the wilds of Terminus Cave for about a year before being caught by a Lab Assistant. Another Pokémon with trauma. It's like I'm a magnet for them. We comforted the poor sword, with Kippie sharing her own life story before the team. After several minutes of sitting in a circle like AA, I told everyone that it was a beach day.
Kippie was especially excited, though that was lessened after I warned her against pulling any pranks on me or Honedge. Honedge seemed confused about what we were doing but soon energetically joined the rest in the water. I noticed she was chasing a lot of different Pokémon and floating next to them before moving to the next.
Hmm, the PokéDex app did say she was hungry, but she didn't want anything from me. I wonder if she had a different diet or…
Ah shit, she was absorbing the life energy of the Pokémon. Well, as long as she didn't do it to us or anyone that was important, I didn't mind. Though, I'll have to warn her about going overboard. I don't want her going around eating a Pokémon and finding out its parents are the local emperors and we just killed their first-born young prince.
After a fun day at the beach, I made a nice dinner of Veluza filets and a caprese salad. Something light and fresh so we can load up on snacks while watching a Unova Elite 4 challenge that was being broadcasted live. It was a good run.
The challenger was able to get past the first three easily with slow burning tactics like poison and weather damage. Caitlin proved to be a hard counter though, with Musharna's Synchronize ability and Hypnosis/Dream Eater combo, Reuniclus' Magic Guard, and a damn Metagross. Once that came out, it was like a janitor taking out the garbage.
We enjoyed the fights and soon drifted off to sleep.