Bo knew he should be saying something. Anything really… Ok, not anything, he realized as a couple hundred thousand things that would shatter her already trembling self-confidence and grind it to dust popped into his head. Still, not saying anything wasn’t an option.

Judging by Alice’s vulnerable eyes and hunched posture, even spouting off facts about how to kill someone would probably be better than dead silence. Hell, he knew how to recite just about every way possible to break someone’s neck by heart. He should probably just go with that and hope she finds a positive message somewhere in there. Nevertheless, he found himself unable to form the words as memories overlapped his vision.

“I’m serious, Skittles. What if I’m just not good enough?” sniffle. This was bad. It also kind of felt like my fault even though I was definitely right! Still… I was used to people crying with teary eyes, especially after Baron and I had stomped them in a battle. Usually, it was even kind of funny, though Auntie Yuzu said I wasn’t supposed to say that out loud. But this was Dani. Dani wasn’t supposed to be sad and her big, weirdly blue eyes weren’t supposed to be teary! Dani was supposed to be loud and glaring and maybe punching me in the shoulder. Even when I beat her in a battle, she usually just stomped her foot a few times and promised to beat me next time.

“Uhh…” I didn’t know what to say. We’d just been arguing before this like we always did. Like when we fought about who got the last hotdog or whose feet smelled worst. Usually when we argued it ended with me stealing the hotdog and running or Dani holding her foot in my face until I admitted mine smelled worst. I mean, sure, this fight had felt a little worse than our usual fights but I didn’t think Dani would get upset. I had just wanted to battle again.

After I’d lost in the Indigo Conference semi-finals twice in a row (stupid Ethan, stupid Lyra), Auntie Yuzu had suggested I try exploring someplace new for a bit. Thinking it was a good idea, I’d remembered that Cecil, before he’d been eaten by that Gyrados, had told me about how he was going to go find a bunch of treasure in the Crown Tundra within the Galar region. He’d even said that there were rumors about a super cool kind of Moltres there. What he hadn’t mentioned was that the place was full of old people and colder than a Jynx’s boobs.

I’d been miserable there until I’d met Dani. Then I was really miserable cause she kicked me in the nads and yelled that I shouldn’t be a perv talking about boobs. She’d even kept nagging me about it while I was on the ground (like I was really going to make the same mistake after that). That was just the start. For a month after that, she followed me around everywhere when I was looking for Moltres and then complained that I was following her. She got us yelled at by a ranger because she kept trying to build a bigger campfire than I did which meant I always had to keep building an even bigger fire. She even got us chased by a full grown Hydreigon when she got too loud while we were arguing about who got to try and catch the Deino we’d found. Annnd…, she kept calling me Skittles! It didn’t even make sense. I liked bubblegum. She was the one who always had those stupid fruit candies in her pockets.

It wasn’t until some creepy, psychic pokemon with a huge, green head had appeared that I realized Dani was actually awesome. I’d been looking for berries with a nice granny when the psychic type came out of nowhere and possessed the old lady. He tried to trick me, offering the chance to earn ‘fabulous rewards and everlasting gratitude’ if I’d help ‘restore him to his true glory,’ like I was some kind of dummy whose grandpa had never had given them the ‘Sabrina talk.’ Baron and I had immediately tried to rescue the old lady, but the pesky psychic was too strong for us. It wasn’t until Dani had charged in with Brute and Witch that we managed to fight him off, sending the psychic packing while wailing about being ‘set back decades of work.’

Dani and I had been friends ever since, especially after realizing we were both there to find Moltres. Together with our teams, we wondered all over the tundra for months. We even managed to find Moltres and it was epic! Even if the Legendary managed to get away, that battle had definitely taken the top spot of all my battles (suck it Ethan!). That had been yesterday and as our teams were recovering, I’d heard on the radio that Galar’s annual circuit was coming soon. It was perfect! After the battle with Moltres, I couldn’t wait to do another Gym circuit and battle all kinds of new trainers. I’d been so excited that I immediately told Dani about it once we got our pokemon back. I figured that me and her could travel together. It would be awesome!

That was when she started getting angry. She didn’t want to go yet and when I pushed, she yelled that I could just go off on my own if I wanted to. I very logically yelled back that she was being stupid. Then she started to get upset and I tried to stop yelling at her and then she got more upset and now she was tearing up and it felt like that time a Nidorino had stabbed me in the stomach…

“Uhhhh…” and holy Arceus have I just been saying uhhh this whole time?! “Uhhh, you are good enough?”

“Hah, easy for you to say, Mr. ‘I-can’t-believe-I-lost-to-two-champion-ranked-trainers-in-the-conference-semi-finals-twice-in-a-row!’ I spent months trying to get my fifth badge and failed every time,” Dani said miserably while her two fairy types hovered anxiously behind her. Witch was trying to comfort her while Brute glared at me angrily, like this was indeed all somehow my fault. “I know I’m stronger now. Master Mustard himself swore that I’d gotten stronger, but so what if I got a little bit stronger. Trainers who became Champions and legends never needed to hide out and train for a year just to be able to compete. Trainers like, like you, Bo, just freaking stomp around getting stronger and stronger until the rest of us just end up faceless nobodies they met once upon a time. What if that’s all I’ll be? Someone who’s just there to lose to people born to be better.”

“That’s stupid.”

‘Drat! Stop waving a fist Brute, I know that wasn’t helpful!’

“I mean,” I tried to back-pedal hurriedly. “What you said was stupid-ow! Hey, I’m trying Brute, but it was stupid. Dani, who cares if you failed the first time? Who cares if you fail a thousand times? You’re you! You’re cool and awesome and really, really violent. If you’re not strong enough now, you’ll just get stronger. You’re never going to be a nobody or a loser. As far as I’m concerned and as far as Brute and Witch and Baron and everyone else worth anything is concerned Dani, when it comes to you…”

“…If you fight, you win.”

“What?” Alice’s confused voice snapped Bo back to the present.

Blinking, he refocused on her worried face, feeling just a bit more confident. “If you fight, you win,” he repeated, a smile spreading across his face. “It’s something Dani and I used to say to each other. During the last few years, it was almost a joke; saying that if we fought someone it was practically a guarantee that we’d win. Really though, we first started saying it to mean something else. As long as we don’t back down, as long as we don’t give up, as long as we fight, we win in all the ways that matter.”

Alice smiles at that, but still doesn’t look reassured. “Thanks, but I kind of doubt that helps with actually winning battles.”

“You’d be surprised,” he responded gently. Squaring up, Bo decided to just try speaking directly. “In terms of actually getting stronger, I’d have to say that your team is about as strong as they can get with the way things are.”

Seeing her devastated expression, Bo hurried to keep speaking, a quick spike of aura directing Gizmo to keep Alice’s affronted Persian from attacking him before he could explain further. “That’s actually a good thing, though. Each of your pokemon are in their peak physical condition which speaks volumes of how well they’ve been trained.”

“But if we can’t get any stronger,” Alice started hesitantly, only for Bo to cut her off.

“You can’t get stronger the way things are,” Bo corrected. “If I had to guess, you’ve been focusing a lot on physical conditioning, move practice, and tactics. That’s great for building up a good base, but true ace level pokemon are something… more. They’re something beyond what should be possible by normal conventions. Tell me, what do you know about aura?”

“It’s the energy used by pokemon for moves,” Alice answered matter-of-factly. “It also makes them stronger and faster than their size makes them seem.”

“…And what else?” Bo motioned for her to continue, only for her to flush and look slightly panicked. He nearly sighed, but held it in at the last second. He wasn’t upset with her, but Alice probably wouldn’t know that. “Schools still aren’t teaching anything about aura are they?”

Only once she responded with a quick head shake did he finally huff a sigh, though Fay mimicking his huff alongside him had him cracking a slight smile afterwards. Refocusing on Alice, he continued. “Sorry, it’s just that aura is so much more than what most people think it is. If I had it my way, we’d be teaching kids about it right alongside reading and writing, but the League considers that too dangerous. Even Gramps doesn’t like coming right out about it. Tradition he says.”

Seeing Bo shake his head in exasperation, Alice ventured a question. “So what is aura then?”

“Aura is a fundamental of life,” Bo started. “It’s like an energy that’s present in every living being, from humans, to pokemon, to animals, and even plants. Rather than being something physically felt like heat or force though, aura is ethereal. It’s what our souls are made out of, if anything. As such, no human is able to live without it and having more aura within them does provide a lot of benefits, buuuut it’s more obviously vital for pokemon.”

Squatting down, Bo brushed his hand over the ground, scooping up a small pile of loose dirt before asking Song to conjure a floating sphere of water above them. Pointing to the pile he’d made, Bo kept going with his lecture. “Think of humans as this dirt here.”

“Humans are… dirt?” Alice asked slowly, her voice going a little flat at the end.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Exactly. Humans are just big piles of dirt clumped together. Our bodies are formed and grown entirely from physical matter, pure flesh and blood. That alone though, just gets you a cadaver. In order for humans to truly be alive, we need aura. As we grow in the womb, some of our parents’ aura flows into us, giving us life. Like so,” he finished enthusiastically, gesturing towards his Froslass.

Obligingly, the ghost let a small stream of water spill from her gathered sphere onto the little pile of dirt. Not minding the mess, Bo’s fingers quickly flicked over the resulting pile, molding the wet lump of dirt into a charitably humanoid shape.

“And thus, we have human life. Random bits of dust gathered together and made into something more by aura.”

“Human life… is mud?” Alice ventured slowly.

In response, Bo quirked a puzzled eyebrow up at her. “I was actually thinking more like clay. It sounds much less derogatory.”

“Like how humans are dirt,” Alice commented with another odd tinge in her voice.

“Exactly,” Bo beamed up at her. “Now you’re getting it. I’m telling you Alice, by the time we’re done, you and me are basically going to be one mind. It’s going to be awesome.”

He saw several of the teenager’s pokemon shift in place and glance at her worriedly, but Bo ignored them. They were clearly concerned that he was putting too much pressure on her, but he figured she could use the confidence boost right about now. Besides, the girl clearly hadn’t received enough compliments throughout her life. Even now, her face was doing this weird twitching thing in response to his praise, but Bo would valiantly ignore that too.

“Pokemon are different though,” he continued. “Rather than starting out as any sort of physical form, pokemon are formed within their eggs as pure aura.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah,” Bo smiled at her surprised curiosity. “It took a while for researchers to figure out, but they eventually realized there was no way for pokemon to reproduce the same way animals do with pokemon eggs all being the same size unless those eggs only contained aura. The baby pokemon growing inside the egg is just their soul. It’s actually why eggs develop and hatch so much faster when they’re around lively environments. The soul within the egg resonates and grows in response to the aura within the people and pokemon interacting with the egg. It’s only once that egg ‘hatches’ that the aura condenses and uses the egg’s shell to create the baby’s physical form. Song, if you will.”

While Bo scooped up some more loose dirt, Song happily set to work reshaping the remaining water she had gathered. Soon, she had turned the water into a caricature of a baby Snorunt, causing Alice to coo slightly. The older human just smiled and moved closer to the water figure. Blowing on the loose dirt in his hand, Bo coated the water figurine with a loose layer of soil a second before Song blew her own frosty breath over it.

Casting an appraising eye over the result, the ice type ultimately shrugged and placed the figurine down. Standing proudly next to the little wannabe-clay doll Bo had already made was now a hollow glass sculpture that’s surface was speckled with little specks of dirt frozen to it. Despite the frozen exterior though, Bo could just make out the still liquid water within the hollow frame.

“And voila,” Bo and Song gestured with a flair. “We present to you a pokemon. While on the surface, it looks like it’s made out of the same things as humans, just an accumulation of physical matter, but you can tell that the inside is different.”

“Aura,” Alice whispered with an understanding gleam in her eyes, but her Persian hissed lightly and they turned to find him gesturing towards himself. Bo didn’t know him enough to guess, but Alice nodded like she’d heard him clearly. “Except, pokemon don’t have aura under their skin. They have blood and flesh like us, not soul energy or whatever.”

“More of a metaphor than literal Tama,” Bo replied to the skeptical cat. “My point is that pokemon are more like aura molded into a physical form while humans are more like a physical form given life by aura. That difference is why pokemon are naturally stronger and can heal from physical injuries so easily. Injuries might cause them to bleed or weaken them momentarily, but as long as their soul, their core of aura, isn’t damaged, they’ll recover with time. Pokemon even have an inherent survival mechanism to keep them from exerting themselves past the point of recovery in the form of fainting.”

Bo would have kept talking, but he was pulled up short by an impatient snort. Turning as Fay jumped in front of him with a warning snarl, he saw Alice’s shiny Rapidash stomping one of his hooves and gesturing pointedly with his sharp horn. The fire type’s trainer spluttered at her pokemon’s actions and made a few calming gestures, but Bo just laughed. “Let me guess. ‘Something, something, something, I will shish-kababob you?’”

“Whaa? Noo,” Alice answered unconvincingly. “But Ouma would like to get to the part about him getting stronger.”

“Hah. Fair enough. Going back to your team in particular, you’ve primarily been training their physical bodies. That type of training helps improve the physical component of a pokemon, the dirt you see on the surface. It’s not quite like adding more dirt to the surface,” Bo hesitated as he searched for the right way to describe it. Eventually though, he perked up and started fishing through his pockets. He was pretty sure he had… “Ah, perfect. Physical training is more like steadily replacing the regular dirt with better dirt. Song care to do the honors?”

Peering down at the small baggy of stardust Bo held out towards her, Song cackled happily. A chilling, violet emerged from her and settled over both the sand and her ice sculpture. With a few quick gestures, she had unstuck the plain dirt Bo had scooped up from the ground and sifted the glittering red sand into the ice of her sculpture. Within a few seconds, the tiny Snorunt glittered with both ice and stardust, making the Froslass clap happily.

“Artistic value aside,” Bo chuckled. “You can see that the exterior is better than before, but the inside, the ‘Snorunt’s’ aura, is still the same. Plus, there’s a limit to how much you can actually improve the exterior.”

“So we need to train their aura instead of their bodies,” Alice guessed eagerly, and Bo could see her team perking up with interest. This dipped slightly when Fay meowed smugly while crossing her arms in denial. She was adorable when she was being cocky, though some of Alice’s team glaring at her seemed to disagree.

“You’re close Alice,” Bo spoke up while trying to hid his smirk at Fay’s behavior. “But we’re not going to train their aura. A pokemon’s physical body is so tied to their aura that training one pretty much trains the other. Both your team’s physical and spiritual levels are about as high as they can get. Instead, we’re going to train your aura.”

“I have aura?” Alice asked, pointing towards herself.

“Yeah, all humans have aura, remember? That’s what makes us little dirt piles more than just dirt piles.”

Seeing that she wasn’t quite following yet, Bo hurried to keep going. “The thing that most trainers don’t know and the thing that schools should really take a couple minutes out of story time to talk about is that trainers can come to have just as much aura within them as any pokemon.

You’ve actually already felt it inside of you plenty of times. In fact, you’d have felt it every time you’ve battled. You don’t have a lot of aura within you right now, but the bond you share with your partners, that connection that lets a trainer and pokemon communicate so effectively, is made up of aura.”

Listening to his words, Alice subconsciously put a hand to her chest, as though feeling the bond with her team rooted deep in her spirit. Seeing her reflexive smile at the feeling, Bo felt his own mouth curve up in response.

“There are some other things aura helps you with that you might not have noticed too. It helps you react to fast-paced battles that humans shouldn’t be able to keep up with and even just endure being around high-leveled battles without being hurt by the noise or heat. Plus, aura is practically life itself. Building up their aura helps any living being stay healthy, fit and even live longer. Really, the number of benefits are countless. After all, the aura in trainers is no different than the aura powering pokemon.”

“Wait, does that mean humans can use moves too?” Alice interjected eagerly. Hearing her excited tone, Bo raised an eyebrow curiously, causing her to blush and look down. “Stupid question, sorry. I was a big fan of the Guardians of Aura show when I was younger.”

“Ah,” Bo nodded understandingly. ‘Do not let her know you have no idea what that is Bo. You are not that old. You just don’t watch a lot of television sober. Probably.’

Seeing that she wasn’t going to offer more information, Bo just shrugged. “If it helps, it’s not a horrible question, but as to whether or not aura allows humans to do the same things pokemon do though, that is more of a yes and no type of answer. You need to remember; humans are…?”

“Dirt,” Alice finished for him while slumping a bit.

“Yup. Human bodies aren’t like pokemon bodies. We’re fragile and not built for breaking the laws of physics. So yes, trainers, especially specialists that have attuned themselves to a specific type of aura, can pull off some pretty cool tricks. Psychics and martial artists are probably the most well-known for this, psychics relying primarily on their mind to do things and martial artists training their bodies to endure the strain of moves.

For most trainers though, things like moving at high speeds or breathing fire are still more likely to kill us than anything else. You know, come to think of it, that might actually explain why schools don’t teach children about aura. Can you imagine all the youngsters trying to use Quick Attack while playing? Arceus, that would be a lot of twisted limbs if even one ever succeeded.”

Song chuckled a bit at his description, but Alice paled, causing Bo to try and regain his train of thought. “I wouldn’t worry about that though. As dark type specialists, there’s actually a bunch of fun tricks I’ll be able to teach you eventually.”

“Like what?” She asked, causing Bo to smile widely.

“Oh, all kinds of fun stuff. As a dark type specialist, I’ll be able to teach you to lie, steal, cheat, and piss people off like nobody else!”

“Oh…yay.”

“Right?” Bo smiled at Alice’s awed, border-lining on dumbstruck, expression. “It’s a lot of fun. Back in my traveling days, I could get completely random trainers to pick fights with me just by looking them in the eye!”

“…Fun,” Alice ultimately replied, her eyes shooting around as if she could already envision such instances in her future.

“But, before any of that, I’m going to need to teach you how to develop your aura and share it with your pokemon to help them grow further than they could alone. That is what will allow you to compete at the next level.”

Whereas before, Bo’s words had caused Alice to perk up or slump down in excitement, this time, the teenager went still, her eyes locking on him with intensity. Around her, her team likewise stilled, staring at him intently.

“We’ll start by building on what you already have and are able to do, using the bond you have with your team to communicate and work with them. From what I’ve seen, you’re already subconsciously pushing some of the aura you have through your bond to help strengthen your partners while you battle. Be careful though,” Bo made sure to stress the seriousness in his voice, causing his audience to straighten up. “You’ll need to learn to regulate how much aura you’re sharing with your pokemon. Once you start manipulating aura consciously, you’ll be tempted to push as much to your team as you can, even when you shouldn’t. Have you ever blacked out after losing a battle, Alice?”

The teenager winced, but didn’t look away. “A couple of times back when I was first starting out. The last time was over a year ago when my full team fainted.”

“Hurts right?” Bo asked, remembering his own recent blackout courtesy of the Tapus. “That’s caused by you depleting too much of the aura within your spirit. You expended too much aura bolstering your team and blacked out from the backlash. Seeing as your body needs aura to keep living, losing too much of it can actually kill you if you’re not careful.”

Bo paused until he was satisfied that Alice had processed his warning before moving on. “In order to make sure this doesn’t happen you’ll need to actually train up your spirit. It’s basically a metaphysical toddler right now. We need to get it pumping some weights. Once you have a real reserve built up, not only can you support your team while they battle, your pokemon can start borrowing the aura you’ve built up to grow beyond the limits of what they can by themselves.”

“I’m in,” Alice spoke decisively, any hesitation abandoned at the prospect of helping her partners grow. “How do I do it?”

“I have no idea,” Bo answered with a smile, only for a green barrier to blink around him just in time to block a searing beam of light shot from an angry cat. Seeing Alice’s scowling face matching her starter’s, Bo could only sigh. Trusting Gizmo to keep blocking any attacks, Bo raised his voice slightly to be heard over the sudden noise.

“Sorry, but it’s the truth. Aura is a matter of the soul when it comes to humans. Seeing as all souls are unique, the methods for training them are different for each one. Some trainers meditate under waterfalls while others do rollerblading tricks. Some make art. Some wrestle. The way to train a soul and build up aura can be anything, really.”

Alice didn’t look comforted by his explanation, but at least Tama stopped attacking him. “What works for you then?” she asked.

“…I break things,” Bo admitted. “Objects, security systems… other things. Dani does martial arts. Carter bakes and makes bombs. I’m not positive, but I think the Old Man scowls at people. Unfortunately, there really isn’t a one-size fits all solution Alice. If you’re willing to try though, I’m willing to put in the time. You and me together, we’ll figure out what works for you.”

“Not in time for the tournament though, right?” Alice asked softly.

Bo fought the urge to wince at her disappointed face. It was like seeing an abandoned Lillipup. He braced himself to try and answer her gently, when an idea sparked in the back of his head. Thinking rapidly, Bo slowly opened his mouth. “No, but maybe we don’t need to.”

Seeing her head jerk up in surprise, Bo kept going. “You’re right that we probably won’t be able to get you to the same level as any of the tournament competitors. Even if we find the right way for you to start training your aura, it’ll still take months for your pokemon to be able to utilize it in order to grow stronger. There might still be a way for you to help during the tournament though.”

“How?” she asked quietly, her voice shaky with doubt.

“Train with me every day until the tournament. You’ll be practicing for one trick and one trick only, but, if we do this right, that one trick might be all you need to get a win. The training will be brutal, and there’s no guarantee that it’ll pay off though. Still Alice, I, well I really want to try. I want to see if you can pull this off. And afterwards, I want to see how far you can grow. Are you willing to give this a shot?”

Alice didn’t respond for several seconds. Instead, she nodded to herself a few times before she turned to look at her team. Whatever she saw in their eyes seemed to help her cast away the last bits of her doubt. When she next turned to face Bo, her eyes gleamed with determination.

“I’m in,” Alice said once more.