When Sada entered the lab at the Academy that evening, she found it unusually crowded. Turo and Jacq were both staring at the latter's computer with the identical frowns that she had by now learned to recognize meant "this dumb thing isn't working and I don't know why"; Raifort was busy reading another one of her enormous history books, occasionally pausing to annotate something in her notebook. In a corner of the room, almost hiding away, Clavell was grading papers.
Right as Sada sat down at her usual favourite spot, easily recognizable because it was covered in Tera shards, a magnifying glass to examine shards and other objects found in ruins, and the occasional tuft of fur from Kim, the Academy teacher chuckled.
« Kids have the wildest ideas sometimes, I swear... who is this... wait...» he said, eyebrows furrowing as his head suddenly snapped up, mouth open.
« Jacq! This report is from you?»
Jacq flinched, suddenly turning around, eyes wide as he straightened his glasses.
« ... I think so... w-why?»
Clavell sighed, removing his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose.
« I... When I asked people to investigate unusual evolution methods of the fauna in Paldea, this... is not what I had in mind... »
Turo looked up from the screen, turning an inquisitive look towards the younger researcher.
« ... What did you do?» he asked, quirking an eyebrow. Now interested herself, Sada leaned closer to the two. Jacq looked quite flustered by all the attention.
« So, umm... I thought to examine the methods by which Bramblin evolves, so I went to the Asado desert and caught one... » he started. Sada nodded to herself, that made sense. So why was Clavell so exasperated?
« And...?»
Jacq started to fiddle with a hole in his too big sweater, pulling at the seams. It made Sada winch a bit, watching the carefully woven thread unravel.
« And... I had it roll all the way down from the top of the Mesagoza staircase to measure exactly how many meters it had to travel before it did... » he said after a moment.
There was a long moment of silence, before Turo snorted, obviously trying to hide the smirk making its way on his face.
Sada didn't show his same restraint, and simply started laughing.
« You know, when I give my students essays like these, I expect them to use them as an opportunity to maybe train Pokémon they normally wouldn't, bond with them, spend time with them...» Clavell was saying.
« Well I suppose Jacq did spend time with it... Running all those stairs up and down must make for quite the bonding experience -» Raifort piped up, not even looking up from her book.
« Well it did evolve, so I guess I must have done something right!»
Clavell shook his head and went back to grading essays with a sigh, and Sada also turned back to her own work.
For once, she was not working on the Tera Crystals, but her and Turo had both started independent research of their own as projects for Clavell's class. Sada in particular had taken a lot of interest in studying why exactly the Pokémon of her time had changed so much or straight up disappeared. There were already theories of course: changes in climate had made the Pokémon different, not unlike what apparently happened to some Pokémon even in this time by being brought to different regions.
She actually had somewhat of a theory based on something she had read in a book -not the Scarlet Book, for once-, but she lacked a way to prove it.
« Did you make any progress with that idea of yours?» she raised her head when she heard Raifort's voice near her, as the woman slid in the seat next to her.
« Yes, actually... my basic idea is still the same: we know that some Pokémon had wildly different forms in the past: Magikarp, the one called Ste-"Mamoswine" found frozen in a glacier and so on... but all these Pokémon lost their forms and instead developed the ones we have today... I have an idea as to "why".» she said slowly, noticing both Jacq and Turo raise their heads at her words, interested.
She took a book she had borrowed from the library out of her bag, opening it up to a bookmark made of woven cord she had made. She pointed to the picture of an old mural.
« This mural was made thousands of years ago by an ancient civilization in Hoenn, and shows a battle between Groudon and Kyogre, the two "forces of nature"-»
« SHIT!»
She turned to look at Turo, surprised, when he suddenly jumped up from his seat, slamming a fist next to the laptop. He looked distraught, his eyes wide.
What had gotten into him...?
« October 2005... shit... it was Hoenn... well...it was too late anyway.» he took a deep breath and chuckled darkly to himself, sitting back down. He looked at everyone staring at him, and shook his head.
« Don't mind me, I just... remembered something. Nothing important...» he mumbled. Jacq said nothing, but he quietly slid the laptop closer to himself with a quiet "Okay..." while Clavell narrowed his eyes at him for a moment.
October 2005 was when they had first landed in Paldea in this time. Was there something else going on then? Well... it was months ago anyway, and during their last night in Lumiose City they had made peace with living in this era.
Sada threw him a questioning look, to which he replied with a tired smile, and went back to the book.
« All right... as I was saying... this mural shows them in a form that has been called "Primal Reversion", and it is much bigger and stronger than the form they are usually represented as-»
And that was exactly what also happened with a lot of Pokémon in her time and ever before that.
« So... we know that Groudon and Kyogre can influence the weather and shape the world, and they awaken from their sleep and fight every now and then... releasing a lot of "natural energy" when they do.» she hesitated, a bit unsure if she should go on. She still... wasn't really sure if what she was saying made sense. What if she was missing something obvious people in this time all knew? Her eyes landed on Clavell, who had been listening intently and gave her a reassuring nod, then on Turo. He was looking at her with wide eyes shining with pride.
That convinced her to keep talking, feeling a surge of warmth spread all over her chest. If Turo trusted her, then she couldn't be saying anything wrong, of course.
« Let's call this energy of them "primal energy"... what if... Pokémon have simply lost access to these older forms because there was a lot more "primal energy" in those times... and if they are exposed to this energy again in some way, they actually can unlock it again.»
« ... so you are saying that every Pokémon could potentially... "primal revert" to a more ancient form just like Kyogre and Groudon do?» Raifort asked, and Sada nodded, excited.
« Yes! And... I have a theory as to what could do it.»
«... other than awakening Groudon and Kyogre again and chucking a Magikarp near them to see if it grows stronger?» Jacq laughed, and Sada huffed in response, shaking her head.
« No! It's a lot simpler. I've asked other students of the Academy that have certain Pokémon to tell me as much info about them as they can. Where they caught them, how they got them, how they train them, if something unusual happened when they evolved... I asked mostly students that have Piloswine and Mamoswine. Not all Piloswine evolve into Mamoswine, and they did in all kinds of situations and different places.»
That had struck her as strange. She knew that the Pokémon she had called "Steady Glacier" were pretty much identical to the one they called Mamoswine here... but apparently people couldn't always get their Piloswine to grow up into Mamoswine, while in her time, all of them did. So she had looked into what all those that did evolve into Piloswine had in common.
« But those that do... they all have something they share.» she could feel everyone's eyes on her now, and straightened her back a bit.
« They all know the move "Ancient Power"»
There was a moment of silence, before Clavell gasped softly.
« So your idea is that those that learn "Ancient Power"...»
« Yes. They are getting access to a little bit of this "primal energy" and turn back to their ancient, more powerful form. I guess... I'm not sure if we should really call it an "evolution" at this point, but that is my theory. »
« But a lot more Pokémon can learn that move, and not all of them evolve - or "primal revert", I guess-» Raifort objected even as she looked extremely interested.
« I know... but maybe every Pokémon has some special conditions other than learning that move to potentially "primal revert"... learning Ancient Power is just the easiest way...» she said, now not quite sure.
« I think it makes a lot of sense.» she was surprised to hear Turo speak up. He was rubbing his chin thoughtfully with his left hand, deep in thought.
« It would explain why some Pokémon changed in millions of years and some didn't... Those that can still channel the "ancient power" remained unchanged, like Relicanth. It's an interesting theory.» he smiled, and she brightened up, happy. If he thought that it made sense...
« Yeah!» Jacq nodded enthusiastically.
« Do you plan to prove it by training a Pokémon that learns Ancient Power and record when exactly it evolves? If it is exactly as it masters Ancient Power...»
« Yes... I was thinking of looking for someone to trade me one... » she said.
That would probably take a while... especially because she needed to trade them something in return first, and she had no idea what to catch. She didn't like the idea of just randomly catching a Pokémon just to trade it away... She would have liked it much better if she could have offered something else she had made herself in return.
A garment, something useful, maybe even money... But strangely, people here seemed to find the idea of buying Pokémon more difficult to accept than simply trading them, like they didn't like the idea of giving away a Pokémon for something that wasn't another Pokémon or simply gift them.
She was probably missing some context to understand the whole thing. Um... Maybe she could offer their next Terastalized Pokémon they would catch in return...?
That already sounded much better to her.
---
A couple of hours later, after they had all finished work, she and Turo had left the Academy to walk a bit through Mesagoza together.
If they really wanted to settle down and live together, they needed to start thinking about what to do after they graduated from the Academy. It was still a bit of time away, but Turo had convinced her that it was better for them to start looking for possible places to live as soon as possible, even just to get an idea of where they wanted to live.
The first place they saw was an apartment on the third floor of a building near the Mesagoza West gate. There was a Seabreeze café right underneath, and a good number of people coming and going. It had every comfort you could ask for, or at least all kinds of things Sada still couldn't help but find incredible even as she had grown accustomed to them. Electricity and water everywhere, two different bedrooms, a bathroom, a television , a complete kitchen and even machines that would clean your clothes or dishes for you!
Turo had carefully examined every inch of the place, and would sometimes look wistfully out of the window, not without a bit of a sad smile. His Magnemite, which he had named Ampere after the scientist who had, like, invented electricity or something like that, hovered excitedly nearby, bopping up and down as it checked every nook and cranny of the place.
« ... What do you think? It's far away from the city center, but it's the best we can do for now...» he asked anxiously. Sada chewed at her lip as she looked outside. From that high, she could barely see the people running around in the streets. She didn't like that.
It didn't make them feel real.
« ... I'm not sure I actually want to live in Mesagoza. » she mumbled unhappily after a moment.
That had made Turo stop and furrow his eyebrows, surprised.
« What...? Why? Why didn't you say so sooner?» he said.
Sada fumbled with the collar of her spring uniform, not sure of how to put it.
« It's... Too crowded. Too many people, too many things, too many sounds... I don't like the idea of spending all my time closed up in a city.» she said after a moment. She felt guilty as she said it, because she knew that was exactly how Turo liked to live. Surrounded by people and the comforts of society.
He sighed, and looked back outside.
« I... I thought you liked being around people? When we were with your tribe, in the communal tent... didn't you feel comfortable there? Safe? » he asked in a low voice, and now it was her time to sigh and hug him close.
« Yes, but they were my tribe. I don't know these people. They may live near me, but I don't feel like we are a community. There's just too many people for that. » she hesitated, raising one hand to caress the back of his neck. She felt his shoulders slump slightly.
« Then... we'll look for another place...» he said, and she frowned in discomfort.
« No, it's fine... I'll get used to it-»
« No. I want to do things right. It has to be a place we both like. » he nodded with a smaller smile, and she felt a wave of affection for him wash over her as she returned his smile.
« ... All right. »
---
« So what place were you thinking of? Where would you like to live?» Turo asked once they had left the apartment, his Magnemite trailing behind them.
They started walking through the streets of Mesagoza to head back to the Academy for the night, and Sada took a couple of moments to actually think about it.
« I... I would just like a place with not too many people. Something with more nature... but not in the complete wilderness, of course.» she hastily added, anxious, throwing Turo a glance.
« If we...» she hesitated, before continuing « ... if we really are going to build a family here... I'm grateful that the child will grow up safe here. I really am. » she said in a low voice, and she saw Turo's eyes widen slightly at her words.
« ... We won't have to worry about food, and illness, and they will never be hungry or in danger from creatures, or cold like I was. » she added.
« ... But I also can't imagine them growing up in a big city like Mesagoza. » she said.
« Well, I did, and I came out... all right, not exactly "fine"» Turo answered after a moment with a little smile. He looked around them, towards the little alleys and café that lined them.
« Not too many people... maybe we can have a look at Artazon, or some of the other smaller cities of Paldea... Montenevera, maybe?» he mumbled.
She playfully jabbed him in the side.
« It's way too cold up there! And you wouldn't survive two weeks without tripping on some ice and breaking something there.» she laughed, and he scowled.
« Well, yeah... but at least there wouldn't be any Smoliv there...» he answered.
They kept walking and thinking out loud, and she let her two Pokémon out, watching the Litleo run towards a couple of Squawkabilly perching on a bench.
« We'll have to think about them too. Ötzi is going to become really big once he evolves. » she pointed out, as the Golett turned towards her with a questioning look after hearing his name.
Turo released Miguel and frowned thoughtfully, his eyes distant.
« ... Right. I'm used to Pokémon being not much bigger than Mirai at most-» he said, with just the slightest hesitation at pronouncing the dragon's name. She squeezed his hand, interlocking her fingers in his, as Miguel perched on his shoulder and playfully pecked at his ear, and he smiled gratefully. It was in little moments like these that he would show traces of what he was truly thinking; even as he had tried to act indifferent and like the loss of his companion wasn't still affecting him, in that moment his eyes had regained back a little bit of their spark.
« But I guess we can't really keep them always locked in their Pokeball by living in a small apartment, right? I hadn't thought about it... Sorry, Ötzi.» he said to the Golett, who shook his head and let out a little whistle.
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« Where would you like to live, then? What would be something that you always wanted but could never get in a big city? » Sada turned the question back on him, and Turo took a deep breath and slowed down until they stopped completely. He looked around, thoughtfully, then finally looked up, towards the bright sky with not a single cloud in sight. She copied him and immediately knew what his answer would be when her eyes landed on the shape of the Moon that was starting to rise as the sun set.
« I suppose... Somewhere where I could watch the Moon and the stars would be really nice.» he said after a moment.
She smiled sadly, looking down as they started to walk up the stairs to the Academy.
« ... I thought you didn't like the Moon.» she said. Turo took a moment to answer as he followed her, and she threw a little glance behind her. What she saw made her smile a little bit happier.
« I... I didn't. But I guess it was just because I always took it for granted. It's... weird to look at it now and think... That there is nothing there yet. That... "home" isn't there. » he said after a moment, stopping to take a big breath.
Ampere bumped him on the back, before floating back around near his head, waving its two magnets in what was probably an encouraging gesture.
Sada personally found the little electric Pokémon a bit strange and difficult to understand, but Turo seemed to love it. Then again, Ötzi was probably similarly difficult to read for someone that wasn't used to deciphering its little whistles and spikes in energy.
The Golett and Litleo were both ahead of them both, the first thanks to being effectively tireless and the second having a much easier time than them in climbing the stairs on four feet.
« But the stars... those are still the same. » Turo was saying.
« I was always so sure that I would one day go to the far future and explore them up close... that I haven't looked at them in so long from here on Earth. May as well do it now. » he added as they kept climbing, his breath slightly laboured.
She looked back again, and her smile widened. Turo must have noticed, because he frowned slightly, knitting his eyebrows.
« What is it? You've been smiling all this time.»
Sada simply shook her head and didn't answer, pulling him closer as they approached the great Academy doors.
« ... Nothing » she said. She turned briefly to look back at the stairs they had just climbed: Turo had just walked them up all at once. Sure, he still was breathing heavily, and it had taken quite a while, but he had managed to do it without having to stop and sit down once, and he hadn't even noticed.
His health was already getting better by spending so much time travelling and actually moving around Paldea. She smiled, remembering their first meetings where a light walk would leave him completely exhausted.
« I'm sure we can find a place with a nice view to call home.»
She huddled closer to him as they walked towards their dormitory rooms hand in hand.
---
The following weeks passed as they kept looking for possible places to live. Turo had excluded Cortondo from the start as there were way too many olive orchards around the area. Alfornada looked nice, but it was a bit too isolated for his tastes.
Zapapico, Cascarraffa... too much dust and sand.
Medali was... almost as nostalgic as Mesagoza for him. After leaving the Moon at four years old he had spent the rest of his childhood with his parents there, and that's where his parents would spend most of their time when they weren't on the Moon.
But the Medali he knew was nothing like the one in this time. More than one time as they would spend the night in the city while they trained to challenge the Gym he found himself looking for a familiar home that just wasn't there.
Or... wasn't there yet, to be exact.
He sat down at a table in Treasure Eatery, waiting for Sada to finish talking with the chef as she tried to figure out what the secret dish she had to order to challenge the Gym Leader was.
What a weird challenge.
Still leagues better than the dumb giant olive he had to push in Cortondo, at least.
Sada was going to attempt the Gym challenge first, but he was also already registered and busy trying to figure it out.
She was having a bit more difficulty in deciphering the food-related hints scattered all around the city and piercing together what was and wasn't out of place, and that reminded him that for all the progress she had done in being able to fit in this for her completely new world, there were still so many things where she still had much to learn... like he did.
At least he had gotten better at disguising his anachronistic accent and reading had gotten smoother.
Sada huffed angrily and stormed off, holding two piping hot portions of grilled rice balls. Judging from her murderous gaze, she must have gotten it wrong in some way.
« This is so dumb! I thought I was right this time!» she said, sitting down in front of him and chomping down on one, huffing.
« What about you? You've been sitting here this whole time, didn't you go looking for clues?» she added, furrowing her eyebrows at his simple dish of grilled fish.
« ... yeah, I am.» he answered calmly, before looking around the dinery. He nodded his head, and Miguel came flying back to his shoulder after having been hiding perched high on some wooden beams near the ceiling.
« What did she order?» he asked, offering him a bit from his plate. The Pokémon pecked at the food and cawed.
« Krilled rice kraws! Large! Large! » the Murkrow answered, and Turo nodded as he jotted down the failed combination on his napkin.
« So extra large grilled rice balls don't work... but I saw another student challenge the Gym Leader by ordering rice balls so those must be right... It's probably a combination of what you add to them and how they cook them...» he muttered, raising his head with a satisfied smirk as Sada watched him with her mouth hanging open.
« You.... you're using Miguel to spy on what other students are ordering?!» she sounded like she didn't know if she should feel outraged or impressed.
« You know what they say. "Work smarter, not harder"» he answered back, and she pouted, angrily muttering something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like "dumbass".
He smiled.
« And here I was running around the whole city challenging the other students for hints... I thought that was what you were supposed to do!» she stole a bit of fish from his plate, and he pushed it towards her. He had just ordered whatever to get himself a nice place where he could observe the whole place secured, and had practically not touched it. The idea of eating real fish or meat kept grossing him out somewhat, and he avoided it when he could.
« There's no true way you are "supposed to do" it. Just do what you think is best and works for you. » he answered, and she mulled it over a bit as she finished munching on her second grilled onigiri.
« Well... I know that it's rice-balls-something now, at least... » she said, trailing off deep in thought. Her eyes started sparkling a moment later, and she ran off back to the counter with a devious smile on her face. Turo and Miguel followed her with their eyes, perplexed.
« W... What is she doing?» he turned to the Pokémon, who definitely had much sharper eyes and ears than him as Sada argued with the chef.
« Rice! Large!»
« Uh?»
A moment later, it was his turn to be astonished as Sada came back to the table followed by Ötzi, both carrying a tray filled with a veritable mountain of grilled rice balls.
« ... I just ordered one serving of every kind of grilled rice ball they had.» she said with a smirk. « This way you won't know which one was right!» she added with a laugh, as she and her Pokémon started stuffing their faces... Or at least, she and Kim did. Ötzi seemed happy to just look at them, and seemingly enjoyed the smell of food even if he didn't really need to eat.
Not much time later, a young man in a business suit and tie that had been sitting at the counter walked up to their table, a slight frown etched on his face. He didn't look that much older than him, and Turo was suddenly extremely conscious of the extremely dumb and childish school uniform he was wearing compared to him.
Man, he wanted to wear his bodysuit so bad-
« Well... I can't say I've ever seen someone just order everything they could for the Gym challenge. I usually recommend challengers to try something else from the menu here, but I guess you already did that. » the man said in a monotone voice.
« ... let's get this battle over with.» he added, fixing his tie and motioning Sada to follow. She gave Turo a quick smirk and got up, still munching on one last rice ball.
Turo simply sat in front of his empty plate, stunned, before letting out an incredulous laugh and sitting back to enjoy the following Gym battle with his Pokémon.
... Moments like these were why he had fallen in love with her.
---
Three weeks later their Gym battle in Medali, they were trying to decide which Gym they wanted to challenge next. Turo had a feeling that they would both need more Pokémon to win more than three badges each, however, which brought him back to the problem of having no idea what other Pokémon he even wanted alongside him.
Well... He did have half an idea actually: one of his side projects aside from Tera shards had been looking into how Pokémon of this time were adapting to man made changes to the environment, starting from Pokémon like Grimer emerging from pollution to more artificial life forms.
He kind of wanted to use what he knew about his own time to study how Pokémon evolved, and how this would lead to them adapting to Hadron Energy in the future... putting it all as a hypothetical for the people of this time, of course.
He would have loved to have a Porygon to study, but they weren't exactly found in the wild... Which was why Turo walked into their shared laboratory one evening where Clavell was working, followed by Ampere who floated curiously near the radio in the corner.
« So, um... do you think I could ask the Academy for a Porygon? » he asked the biology teacher, who raised his head from the notes he was taking and blinked.
« A Porygon...? They aren't exactly given to anyone, you need to give Silph the reason for why you want one... I suppose it's for that other research of yours? The one about the development of mechanical Pokémon?» Clavell asked, and Turo nodded. At that the other man nodded thoughtfully, tapping the pen he was writing with on the desk.
« I see... If you write up a little abstract of what you're currently doing, there should be no problem...» he said, and Turo couldn't help a little smile.
A Porygon just for himself!
« What version do they give out now?» he asked.
Clavell's answer was a blank stare, the pen stopping in midair.
« ... Version? You mean evolutions? I think Silph released an upgrade for them a couple years ago but that's it...» he answered, perplexed, and Turo's eyes widened.
« ... What? You mean you haven't gone past Porygon 2?!» he asked in complete disbelief.
Arceus, he... He didn't think Porygon's development had been that slow at the start!
« What kind of language processing model does it come equipped with?» he asked, only for Clavell's confusion to simply grow.
« I... I'm not sure? I never worked with one... They understand basic commands, I think...?» the man answered.
At a loss for words, Turo opened up the browser on the old school computer and typed "Porygon" in the search bar. He found almost nothing about it, just basic information and articles titled stuff like "First completely artificial Pokémon created by Silph!".
There was a picture of one in the article that left him stunned.
« Arceus... I thought the first version of Porygon looked so geometric because of the shitty resolutions of old pictures, or that it was just... concept art... You mean to tell me they actually look like that?» he said, turning the whole monitor towards Clavell.
The man looked quite perplexed by his surprise.
« Well, they smoothed out the edges, quite literally, with Porygon 2, but yes...?»
Turo turned to look back at the picture of the little, block shaped duck on the monitor.
« That's.... that's adorable... » he finally squeaked out with a grin, getting a look of surprise from Clavell in return. Look at those cute little feet! Those primitive hexagonal eyes! You could count the single pixels in them!
To be able to watch a vanilla Porygon grow and develop and learn from the very beginning... what an incredible opportunity!
« It may take a while, though, but you're not exactly lacking in things to do in the meantime, are you?» Clavell asked, putting a sudden stop to his daydream of deciding a nickname for his cute little Porygon. Turo frowned, a tad bit disappointed. Oh... well, it made sense.
They weren't going to give a Pokémon like that to a random nobody like him.
Especially one with... Literally no history behind him like he was.
« R-right... Yeah, we are looking for people for another "Teraraid", but the cave seems to be in a spot that's a bit difficult to reach and-»
« A what?» Clavell shot him a surprised look, and it took a moment for Turo to realize why.
« ... yeah, me and Sada decided to give a name to the whole thing. "Finding wild Terastalized Pokémon and fighting them with the help of other people to break its Terastalization state in order to catch it" was a mouthful. » he replied with a shrug, disinterested. « It's all the way up Glaseado Peak. Can't say I'm a fan of the idea of trekking all the way up there... at least the Pokémon that has been spotted sounds interesting: an ice-type Altaria! Really curious what that looks like... it's still a bit strange to me that you can so casually guess what type a Pokémon is just by looking at it... Sure makes things easier...» he added, going back to his computer. After a moment , he noticed Clavell throw him another confused glance over the computer's monitor.
« ... What do you mean? Isn't that the norm? » the older man asked, and Turo couldn't hide a little smile from forming on his lips.
« Not in my time.» he leaned sideways towards the shoulder bag sitting under his chair, and got his copy of the Violet Book out of it. He opened the book to a page with practiced ease, by now knowing the book almost by memory: he and Sada had poured over their respective books so much, comparing each page and every subtle difference they had, it had become muscle memory.
The page showed some pictures and artist renditions of Pokémon from his time: Miraidon, Iron Valiant, Steelcino and many others.
« What do you think these Pokémon's types are?» he asked. Clavell frowned, obviously realizing there was some kind of trick to the question.
« ... You mean those are not all at least part Steel type?» he asked.
« No! Why would they?»
« Because they... look like it? » Clavell answered like it was obvious. He pointed to a drawing of an Iron Bundle which showed its tail and neck extending and connecting to its main body with a cable.
Ampere floated over to it, its singular eye widening in interest at the pictures on the page. It twisted the screw on its head, then bumped Turo on his arm, excited. He smiled and pet the Pokémon, rubbing the little screw on its head with his thumb. It seemed to like that, because it kept bumping into his hand, demanding more pets.
« It's literally mechanical! It has to be half Steel type!»
« So just because it shows traits of one element, it has to be of that element? What about Porygon?»
« Porygon is a special case... and it can technically become Steel type in certain conditions with Conversion... but yes, of course!» Clavell answered.
« That's how we identify types in Pokémon after all.»
« So... humans and many other living things are largely made of water. Why aren't we all water types then?» Turo asked, crossing his arms to his chest.
« That doesn't make any -» Clavell stopped, suddenly looking thoughtful. He opened his mouth, then closed it again.
« ... good point. So what you're saying is... » he looked back to the picture of the Iron Bundle. « ... That in your time, the Pokémon's body structure changed to... this... But it is completely independent from their actual types?»
Turo nodded.
« Well... some did become Steel type to be fair, but... Not everyone. Most didn't. »
Clavell frowned, and flipped through some of the pages of the Violet book in silence.
« ... Pokémon in the future will really become like this?» he finally asked, and Turo noticed a hint of sadness in his voice. « I... I just can't believe it... how could it even happen? They... they barely look like Pokémon to me, I'm sorry. Those in the Scarlet book at least... look like actual living creatures, but these... they are all so... lifeless-»
« Why?» Turo snapped, suddenly feeling defensive. He stopped petting Ampere, the Pokémon floating between the two of them.
« What's the difference between any of these Pokémon and a Magnemite? Or a Porygon? Or a Claydol or Golett? They are all artificial in different ways.» he growled.
He wasn't going to listen to someone call the Pokémon he had always lived around and loved lifeless. Porygon 568 wasn't "lifeless". Mirai that would purr at night to help him fall asleep and wag his tail excitedly when he brought some treat home wasn't "lifeless"-
« I... I was just saying that... thinking about all the Pokémon I know changing this much... it would make anyone feel sad, I think.» Clavell cautiously answered, which only made him angrier. Well, it didn't make him feel sad! Those Pokémon were part of his whole society, his entire life until now!
« ... I thought you would find them interesting, not creepy» he murmured, disappointed, and Clavell furrowed his eyebrows.
« That's not what I said, Romero-»
« Forget it. Let's go, Ampere.»
It had been stupid of him to assume that someone in this time would actually understand him...
Turo slammed the Violet Book shut, forcibly looking away from the cover as he put it back into his bag.
He didn't want to think about Miraidon right now.
He needed some time alone. Or even better, with someone that understood him. He walked out into the corridor, heading for Sada's room and ignoring Clavell calling out after him.
« ... Let's go for a walk. Outside the city.» he said when she opened the door. Sada nodded, grabbing the giant yellow backpack she kept right near the door. It was always full of supplies to stay at least a couple of days away from society when she felt like it. It made him smile, remembering her satchel full of berries and furs when he had first met her.
Now it was Poke' Balls, canned and dried food, sewing tools, and whatever strange objects she would pick up around Paldea, usually by digging them up in some ruins somewhere.
« Sure. Where to?» she simply asked.
Turo sighed, not quite sure of what to answer.
« Let's just call a flying taxi and... let's go watch the sea.» he proposed. He wanted to be as far away from Mesagoza as possible for once.
---
Cabo Poco barely qualified as a village in this time, Turo thought as the taxi left them along a little road that went downwards towards not even a dozen little houses scattered along the cape.
There weren't many beaches around here, like you could find near Levincia in eastern Paldea: the coast was mostly made from high cliffs that dropped straight over towards the sea, but some houses were lucky enough to be near roads that led to little inlets and bays.
He breathed deeply, feeling the salt in the air as he carefully followed Sada along one of those roads until his shoes were sinking in the warm sand.
« ... You know, I didn't even think the ocean was real back in my time.» Sada spoke up suddenly, and he smiled at the thought.
« A lake so big you couldn't cross it... it sounded impossible! And now... Here it is. We have even flown over it multiple times.» she added, sitting down in the sand and pulling her knees up close to look at the waves. He copied her, sitting down next to her and crossing his legs.
« Yes.... we've done quite a lot of things in these months, haven't we? Survived Area Zero, started training Pokémon... got into the Academy... discovered Terastalization and challenged the Gyms... » Turo said, trailing off as he watched some Wattrell glide over the waves before flying back up the rocky clifface.
« It... it still doesn't feel real sometimes... like it's all a big vacation I'm taking and next week I'll get a call from Moreau to hurry up and get back to work...» he said, and Sada laughed a little.
« Yes! I learned so many things that still sound incredible to me, but... it's definitely real. Like... um...» she stopped, biting her lip, and after a moment Turo turned to look at her, raising one eyebrow with an inquisitive frown. She sounded like she wanted to say something, but she wasn't looking at him, instead staring at the sand and poking at it with her fingers. Her other hand was fidgeting with her clothes.
« Is everything all right? »
« This place isn't so bad, isn't it? » she almost cut him off, and he now was sure of it. Sada was hiding something from him: he had been the one to hide a big secret from her before, so now that the roles were reserved, he suddenly understood her frustration when he would always give her vague non-answers.
And because of that, Turo decided to not press further on: it would be hypocritical to insist when she had never done so with him.
« I saw a.... what was the name... "Light-house" up this cliff, and it looks like there's a little house under it, we could go have a look-» Sada was saying, her words spilling out excitedly even as she still kept one hand tightly balled up around her waist. Her eyes were wide, almost distant.
... That said, Sada had threatened him with a spear until he had confessed the truth to her, and their relationship had improved dramatically the moment he did.
« Sada.» he said in a low voice, crouching in front of her, not minding the sand getting everywhere on his Academy uniform. He raised both arms and carefully grasped her by her shoulders, and with some surprise noticed that she was actually trembling.
« .... You are hiding something.»
She stopped and swallowed hard, before lowering her eyes to the ground.
« I'm... Not sure I am... It's just a feeling... Maybe it's nothing? » she whispered, only leaving him more confused. How could she be "not sure"?
« I... Turo, I... I'm late.»
Turo simply stared at her. Late? What did she mean with late? Was it some strange sayings from her tribe that didn't translate well?
« W-»
And then she raised her balled up hand.... and gently raised it to her belly.
It hit him suddenly, completely knocking the air out of him like he had just been punched in the stomach.
« Y... You think... You're...» he stuttered, his mind reeling. She said she was "late". That could only mean...
« Yes. » now she smiled, her eyes sparkling.
« ... We are going to have a child. Our child. And we can only do it because we are here, together. Our treasure...» she whispered, cupping his face with both hands.
A kid... A kid with Sada. A family together, all of their own, when the very idea would have been impossible for both of them to even dream of just a couple of months ago, each in their own time.
He... he was going to be a father.
« Are... are you sure?» he found himself whispering, his voice trembling. Sada blinked and looked at him strangely.
« No...? It's too early to see anything, but I am over one month late...»
« You... you didn't take a pregnancy test...?» he asked, suddenly anxious. How accurate could they even be in this time? He didn't have the slightest idea of how things worked here.
Her vacant stare told him the answer even before she did.
« ... what's a "pregna-cy" test?» she asked candidly.
Turo stared at her, before his mouth twitched. He tried to suppress a little giggle and failed. Sada pouted, and squeezed his cheeks as she was still cupping them in her hands.
« What's so funny?»
... of ... of course she wouldn't think of... of course she wouldn't think of doing it... if she didn't even know that it was possible...
He just threw his head back and laughed, a wide booming laugh that left him completely out of breath, and then he kissed her.