“Cash, quit it,” Emilia grinned. She righted herself in the water and nudged Cashe playfully, “I thought we were having a nice, sincere conversation here.”
“I’m being serious,” Cashe said, “Pokemon aren’t real. They only exist as a product. They are imaginary.”
Emilia’s grin shrank by a few molars, “Come on, Cashe. Quit teasing, I already figured you out.”
Cashe looked at her, “I’m not teasing.”
“You said Red was hiding at Mt Silver back home,” Emilia frowned at him, her brow wrinkling, “What was he doing up there if not training pokemon?”
“Red doesn’t exist back home,” Cashe said, “Red, Blue, the whole pokemon world. It’s just a video game. Back home, Red goes to Mt Silver in the games. That’s where he hangs out. Mt Silver doesn’t exist in my world. Lots of things happen in the games that people don’t seem to know about here.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Emilia said, “You’re screwing with me, right? Please tell me you’re screwing with me.”
“To you it sounds crazy,” Cashe said, “Imagine how I feel.”
Emilia floated along the river with Cashe, a look of contemplation on her face. Minutes passed as she absorbed what he said. “If you hadn’t appeared out of thin air in front of my niece, I would say that you were insane.”
“I kind of feel that way,” Cashe said, “Sometimes I think I must be in a coma or something, dreaming up this entire reality.”
“People do appear like you did,” Emilia said, “It’s not unheard of at all. It’s really, really rare, but it does happen. They still come from places with pokemon though.”
“It’s not possible to travel from other worlds where I come from,” Cashe said, “Technology doesn’t exist that can do that, and there are no pokemon to fill the gap.”
“What’s it like? Living in a world without them?”
“It’s normal,” Cashe shrugged, “We obsess over other sports instead of pokemon.”
“Like baseball?” Emilia said, “Is that why you had all those baseball movies memorized?”
“Uh, yeah. Kind of,” Cashe said. He sank further into the water, letting everything but his head submerge in the warm liquid, “You’re taking this pretty well.”
“I mean it’s not that big of a deal, right? It doesn’t make a difference to me. It’s like you told me vampires were real where you come from.” She screwed up her face in a look of mild irritation, “Vampires aren’t real where you come from, right?”
Cashe smiled, “Not as far as I know. You’re not concerned about the philosophical complications of your world existing in a video game?”
“Our world already exists in video games. We make them all the time,” Emilia said, flicking her wet hair over her shoulder casually, “We’ve been making them for years. Just because yours is strangely accurate doesn’t mean anything to me. It probably just means that someone has some sort of weird connection to our world. I bet it’s a pokemon’s fault.”
“That’s…a very pragmatic way of looking at things,” Cashe said, returning to his small foam board and floating beside Emilia, “I guess I kind of felt like I was pulled into the world of a video game and I was revealing to you that some writer had made up your entire life.”
Emilia snorted, “That’s dumb. At that point you could just claim anything. It makes no difference. I’m me, I’m living my life. I’m going to win the True Rookie Tournament, become a champion, win a world tournament or two.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.” Emilia said.
"Je pense, donc je suis."
"What's that gibberish?"
“We cannot doubt our existence while we doubt. I think therefore I am." Cashe explained "It's probably a good attitude to have, considering.”
"That from your old world?"
"Yeah." He let himself float around the lazy river, Emilia floating beside him, occasionally bumping into him as they rounded the loop.
“Hey, Cashe?”
“Yeah?”
“You knew where Red was.”
“Yeah.”
“Nobody else knew where he was.”
“So?”
“You know secrets.” Emilia’s voice was eager.
Cashe looked over at her. She was grinning wide, a mischievous look in her eye. “No.”
“Please?”
“I don’t know if anything I know is actually real.”
“Red was. Come one, just one? Something small?”
“Fine.” Cashe scratched his chin, “Your dad lost to Red more than once. Every time they battled, probably.”
Emilia snorted and splashed him with water, “That’s not a real secret! We already knew that!”
“Your grandpa went on an adventure with Celebi. That’s a time traveling pokemon, by the way.”
“I know that, too! It’s a famous story!” Emilia pouted at him, crossing her arms, “You don’t know any secrets, do you?”
“Maybe not,” Cashe frowned. “What do you know about Legendary pokemon?”
“Some stuff,” Emilia said. She stepped closer to Cashe, almost pressing into him. She whispered, “Probably more than a lot of people. Most people only know about the big incidents, like with Team Aqua and Team Magma and Kyorge and Groudon.”
“Do you know about Mew?” Cashe whispered.
Emilia nodded.
“Mewtwo?”
“My uncle battled it.”
“Gary did? Really?”
“When Giovanni was still pretending to be a gym leader.”
“What about Ho-oh and Lugia?”
Emilia but her lip, looking up and away as she thought, “Ho-oh is a Johto legend, I think.”
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“It’s real, and I know how to find it.” Cashe whispered.
Emilia grinned, “You know, I’m about to have access to a Master Ball.”
“Forget it, you need a few special items,” Cashe said, grinning back.
“Tell me.”
***
Cashe whispered the secrets of the pokemon world to Emilia for another hour or two as they floated around the lazy river. Emilia knew a surprising amount about some of these pokemon already. A few, like Kubfu and Urshifu, were common knowledge and appeared with trainers once every twenty or so years. Others, like Zygarde, Heatran, and Zarude, Emilia had never heard of at all, to the point that she accused Cashe of making things up. It was fun, discussing secret pokemon like a pair of preteens discussing crushes, and the time flew by until Lindon joined them, exhausted from whatever he had been doing up to that point. He seemed content with the trip though, happily joining Cashe and Emilia as they floated in circles around the river.
From there, the area began to fill up as people trickled in and the day’s battles ended. They left soon after, picking up their things and heading out to the trainer cafeteria for dinner. There were actually more people present than there had been the previous day, as trainers figured out that no one actually cared if they ate there after being eliminated from the tournament. The area was more of a place to get away from non-trainers, who might pose some annoyances for the popular trainers.
Cashe, Emilia, and Lindon were joined by Marcus and Lisa. Lindon was initially standoffish with them, which was strange given his enthusiastic disposition, until Cashe realized that he and Emilia had not explained the situation to him regarding their previous ‘concerns’ around poisoning strategies. Lindon was back to his usual self after that, interrogating Marcus about his day’s battle and his upcoming match.
“I’m matched up against someone named Cornel. Any idea who that is?” Marcus said in response to Lindon’s questions.
“No,” Cashe shook his head, “I’ve only been paying attention to my opponents.”
“Who do you have, then?” Marcus said.
“Someone called Tobb,” Cashe said, looking around the room trying to spot anyone from the top eight. It was impossible with the extra people however.
“Never heard of him either,” Marcus said., “It’s too hard to keep up when you have your own battles to worry about.”
“I know who that is,” Lindon said, “He’s got a Chansey and a Poliwhirl.”
“Not a bad matchup for you, Cashe, kind of lucked out there,” Lisa said.
“Two second stage evolutions,” Cashe frowned, “That sounds like trouble.”
“Chansey aren’t dangerous fighters,” Marcus said, “They are a bit like your Bulbasaur, actually. They last forever in combat and slowly wear down their opponents. Mankey should be able to take care of her no problem.”
“Tobb is in the top eight,” Emilia said to Cashe, “But you should be fine. If Chansey has Natural Cure for her ability, fighting with Bulbasaur becomes tricky, but otherwise you’re good.”
“Poliwhirl are fast, too,” Cashe said with a frown, “Even if I get the good type matchups, it might be difficult to do much damage to Poliwhirl without the sun. What’s the forecast for the battle?”
“Sunny,” Lisa said, checking her phone, “But that can change.”
Cashe drummed his fingers on the table as he considered the matchup, “I’ll have to come up with something, then. Who did you get, Emilia?”
“Someone called Erick. I saw him battle once. He’s got a Pidove and an Onix.”
“What?” Lisa frowned, “How did he get to top eight with a Pidove and an Onix and I am stuck in the top sixteen with a regional starter and an Eevee?”
“His Pidove is tricky. It knows Taunt, Swagger, Quick Attack, and Detect.” Emilia said, “And Erick is a good trainer. He makes good decisions in battle and knows how to leverage his strengths against his opponents' weaknesses really well.”
“So you think he’ll give you trouble?” Marcus said.
“Of course not,” Emilia scoffed, “He’s got a Pidove and an Onix. Even if Onix is huge and his Pidove is clever, I’ll take them both out with just Omanyte.”
“Really?” Lindon said, his eyes lighting up.
“Hey, no insider trading,” Cashe said, “Or betting. Whatever.”
“Why not?” Lindon complained.
“He’s doing the betting tournament?” Lisa asked.
“He is the betting tournament,” Emilia said, “The kid’s got a huge lead over everyone else.”
“Really?” Lisa said, “How well did you do betting on me?”
“Really well,” Lindon said happily. Lisa smirked until he continued, “I made a whole bunch betting that you would lose against Apollo. So thanks for losing!”
“So happy I could help,” Lisa said in a flat voice.
“Just think of it as him betting for a friend instead of against you,” Marcus said, patting her arm, “He’s not going to bet against his friend even if the odds were way against him.”
“No, I would,” Lindon said.
“Hey!”
“I would still cheer for you,” Lindon said to Cashe, “But I want to win something at this tournament. I shouldn’t have to lose my points because you lose a match.”
“Little brat,” Cashe grumbled, “Would you bet against Emilia?”
“Don’t answer that!” Emilia said, covering Lindon’s mouth with her hand, “Of course he wouldn’t bet against me. He knows I am going to win the entire thing.”
Cashe squinted in suspicion at the pair as Lindon nodded vigorously, his mouth still covered by Emilia’s hand. Across the table, Lisa and Marcus laughed.
“I don’t get no respect,” Cashe sighed.
***
Daryl rolled out of bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. It was too early in the morning to be up. He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the light pouring in from the window. It spilled over the room he shared with Connie. There were two beds, both too small for his frame, a tiny coffee table with a couple of chairs around it - also too small for him - and Connie.
She stood in front of the window, legs apart, hands on hips, staring out into the rising morning sun, basking in the sunrise. She was wearing one of his shirts and not much else, the oversized garment looking more like a dress on her than a shirt. She insisted they were ‘better than pajamas’ for the warm Alolan nights. Connie was like this every morning, up with the sun and disturbing his nice quiet sleep. They were supposed to be exploiting their work for a vacation. How was he supposed to be on vacation if he was up at six every morning?
“Good morning!” Connie said, all smiles. How she was so happy this early, Daryl had no idea. He grumbled something in response, making his way around the corner of the room and into the small bathroom. Everything in this damn room was too small for him. Whatever, he was used to it. He made it work.
He was in the middle of a cramped shower when the bathroom door cracked open, “Daryl?”
“Yeah?”
“You aren’t listening to the news in there, are you?”
“No?”
Connie kicked the door open and waltzed in dropping her pokegear on the bathroom countertop.
“Hey!”
“What?”
“You’re letting the cold air in,” Daryl complained.
Connie rolled her eyes and shut the door, turning up the radio on the pokegear as she did.
“-miracle or disaster,” the broadcaster was saying, “the enormous tree appeared in the middle of Akala Island sometime last night, towering over all other life. The Poke Rangers say there is no cause for concern for any civilians, but those who are currently taking part in the Gym Circuits must be on guard for displaced pokemon. The tree, which is estimated to be at least five hundred feet in height, is not only tall, but wide, spreading over an enormous area of the jungle area.”
“A tree?” Daryl said.
“Shhh! Just listen.”
“-berries of every kind covering the branches,” the report continued, “and while that may be miraculous, especially for the pokemon in the area, do not be fooled. This is not a miracle for the average trainer looking for a quick supply of rare berries. Poke Rangers warn that the influx of available food may result in mass migration across the island, and even from adjacent islands, as the scent of the berries is carried by the wind. The entire jungle should be considered dangerous territory until the Poke Rangers are able to filter the more powerful pokemon away from travel routes. All trainers traveling in the region are advised to use utmost caution. If you are currently on the route, find open ground and stay where you are. Poke Rangers are working to extract any trainers from the area as we speak.”
“A magical berry tree appeared on Akala?” Daryl frowned, wrapping a towel around his waist and stepping out of the shower.
“Overnight,” Connie confirmed, “Big enough to displace a ton of pokemon and draw in a lot more.”
“Any idea what could cause it?” Daryl said, using a second towel to dry his hair.
“A pokemon.” Connie smiled.
Daryl snorted, “Which pokemon?”
Connie tapped her chin looking up as if she didn’t know, “I’ll give you three-.”
“It was Jirachi,” Daryl said.
“Aww, you’re no fun!” Connie pouted.
“What’s Jirachi doing here?” Daryl said, “It was in Kanto last we checked. I thought it was responding to the meteorite that crashed there.”
“That was just my guess,” Connie said, “I couldn’t confirm it because the expedition is treating it as hush-hush. But it could have visited the meteorite, got what it needed, and left before the expedition even arrived. There are reliable accounts of Jirachi using Teleport, after all. Even if it can’t, it can definitely fly.”
“And then it decided to come to Alola? Why? Did it want a vacation?”
“No idea. All I can tell you is that ours is officially over. I bet you we have a new project by the end of the day.”
“No bet.” Even if they weren’t assigned a new project with high priority, Daryl’s vacation was over. This was exactly the kind of thing that made him want to become a scientist in the first place. He wasn't going to miss out.
*****