Chapter Two: Old Ties

…

"So do you think the sages were right about." I paused. "Everything?"

Inoru and I had been walking down the mountain with a baby Bellsprout and Slakoth clung to our shoulders for the past four hours, only occasionally taking breaks to grab some water we brought with us.

"We're not supposed to question it. I mean, you're here right?"

"That shouldn't be enough proof. There's no way any Pokémon can truly be evil." I said quietly.

Inoru stopped in the middle of one of the thousand stone slabs leading all the way down Mount Takujimi.

"Nico. This journey will only work properly if you trust everything Elder Toji taught us both."

"Well he said we weren't supposed to have any rules as we went. That the best way to experience the journey was in our own way."

Inoru brushed past me as I stood on the same step as him. "Then we should forsake everything the Order taught us?"

"Well not everything but-"

"A few of the Initiates had a point, a part of all this is to remind the world of its roots in tradition."

"And also of our progress, we have to grow outside our boundaries the Order set so we can learn at our best."

Inoru sighed. "Sometimes I feel like you don't really listen to everything we say."

"I am listening, I just think that our responsibility is to live a little out there. Maybe train and live a bit like regular people outside the mountain, meet some girls-"

"Girls!?"

Inoru looked at me seriously for a moment. "We've taken a few steps away from the mountain and that's the first thing on your mind?"

"It wasn't yours?"

"I was taught to desire one thing." said Inoru with pride. "Knowledge, and the perfection of my character. Without that, there's no one alive who can save the world from itself."

"Wait you mean that?" I trailed.

We walked in silence for a bit.

Then Inoru fed his Bellsprout a bit of rice from some he carried in his pack. The Pokémon gladly ate it and nuzzled his hand with her head.

"There are theories, that humanity strayed so far into materialism, greed, and degeneracy, that whatever came through the gate was trying to punish us for our sins."

"So we can never enjoy life a little."

"We're monks Nico. We're not allowed to enjoy life at all, that's the point of all of this."

I frowned. "From what it sounds like, you're the only one who doesn't like the Order."

Inoru said nothing.

After a moment, I sighed. "Ino, come on man-"

He descended the mountain a bit quicker.

"Look I didn't mean to-"

Inoru frowned. "Despite the shortened use of my name, I don't particularly care about what you said." he said, not looking at me as his hurried pace down the mountain continued. "Even if we're exhausted, I don't care. We can't stay on the path during nightfall."

I agreed. If a nearby Vigoroth or something was able to smell my Pokémon, it could reasonably guess I had stolen him from a member of its tribe.

"Then we shouldn't walk slowly at all."

I was happy to hear Inoru's previously grumpy tone change when he saw how fast I started to walk down the mountain with him.

"Wait! Be careful not to trip!"

…

The sun had just barely peeked behind the horizon for an hour by the time Inoru and I made it to the very bottom of the mountain.

And finally, there it was.

Lights. A village.

People who weren't monks.

"Where are we supposed to sleep?" I wondered.

Inoru sighed, looking around. "I was told they don't really have a shrine here of any sorts. I suppose out in a nearby field if we can find one."

…

I was able to mix some water and rice paste into a thick mixture soft enough for my baby Slakoth to eat.

I was literally sticking a baby bottle into its mouth and watching it sip from it like it was my own child. The cutest thing I'd ever seen.

"It seems. Happy." Inoru said.

"It's not female Slaking milk." I shrugged. "But it probably gets the job done."

Inoru nodded quietly.

I petted the Slakoth's head quietly, he closed his eyes and began to rest.

"Have you thought of a name?" asked Inoru.

We were both in the middle of some villager's corn field. I think we were both so tired from hiking for nearly ten hours straight we couldn't move very much off our sleeping bags.

"No."

That reminded me.

"I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to-"

"It hurt because it was true." Inoru admitted.

"What did?"

"What you claimed. I am a bit unhappy with the Order."

"Why? You passed tons of cute chicks and never once was allowed to talk to them with Ari over your shoulder?"

Inoru laughed a tiny bit.

"No. I'm upset for the same reasons you are."

"Such as?"

"I'm almost sure they're hiding the truth from us. Elder Toji is among the greatest scholars of the history of Mew, spirits, and anything related to them in the history of the Order." I nodded in agreement with this. "And it's still unclear as to why humanity was almost destroyed by Pokémon."

"It could be our destiny to make the name of the Order legendary in competitive Pokémon battling."

"And it could be our destiny to leave it for good."

I paused for a moment.

"Yes. Yes it could be."

I noticed Inoru had stayed quiet for a bit longer than we sometimes usually did while in deep thought when we talked. Because he had fallen asleep.

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I took a note as technically still Inoru's subordinate, and went to sleep as well.

…

The next day, our morning consisted of merely eating some heated up rice, checking in on and feeding our Pokémon, rolling up our sleeping bags into our pack and walking into town for directions.

For the first time in over half a year, I set my own routine, choosing when to wake up, and what to do. Finally.

The village was tiny, no more than about three or maybe four thousand people lived here, and from what I understood, the only purpose behind it was the same one it had for centuries. To produce enough rice and vegetables to keep its citizens fed, and to help Takujimi Shrine.

We found an elderly woman sweeping up outside her shop, but she couldn't give us a decent map to go into the Johto region.

"Every week on Thursday at six thirty in the morning sharp, a truck carrying meat comes in through the east road. Other than that, we make everything on our own. Clothes, food, medicine, you name it."

"Is there no other way to travel quickly outside of this village?" I asked.

She scoffed. "You're sages aren't you? Kamarino is over a hundred kilometers down that road." the old woman sighed after nodding in the direction of the closest village, shaking her head. "I'm sorry boys. I can't offer you more than that." she said before returning to sweeping.

"I'm not in the mood for another multi day hike." I turned to Inoru. "What do we do?"

"Maybe you should both go back up the mountain the way you came."

We both turned around.

"What?" I just asked.

Four local youngsters, followed by a Rattata and a Pidgey, apparently aged between six and eight, all appeared out of a nearby alleyway between the few buildings in this town.

The boy with the light blue hat and grey shorts spoke up. "You heard me. Get outta here, take your rice you don't ever pay for, and go."

I looked at Inoru, waiting for him to react.

"We're looking for directions to get out of the mountains and the countryside to get back into Johto. We'll be out of here as soon as we can."

"Good." the boy said. "Don't let the door hit you on the way out."

We ignored his rudeness and turned around.

Suddenly I felt a bit of food hit the back of my head. The same kid had thrown some nearby fruit and dirtied the back of my scalp.

"Hey." I laughed it off. "Not cool."

I sighed, shaking my head as it looked like Inoru was going to say something before my Slakoth did something for the first time I'd ever seen it do anything besides look cute and eat.

He climbed down off my shoulders, scooped up some nearby produce, and flung it back at the boy's shirt.

The youngsters giggled again, this time at their scrappy and rude leader.

Before he could do anything, he was hit in the stomach by the same old shopkeeper who helped us, a little. She used her broom to push him away sharply.

"Run home Mikey." the elderly lady said. "You don't want your mother to hear about what you've been up to."

He was still scrappy. "You got lucky."

I found it adorable how tough this kid was trying to act.

My Slakoth was looking up at me as if to say 'did I do well?'

"Never partake in another's immaturity." I said, and the baby Pokémon clutched onto my shoulder.

Inoru sighed. "That was random."

It honestly didn't. It seemed like he really had something to say. I knew boys like that in my previous life, not bullies, but those who tried to act tough by making trouble when they had no reason to.

"I'm sorry miss," I spoke to the shopkeeper again. "But on which end of town does that kid's family live on?"

"The one throwing fruits off my stand at you?" she laughed. "I'd avoid staying here any longer than you need to."

"She's right. We need to either find a way to make it to Kamarino or get onto that truck soon."

I insisted again. "Where does he live?"

"Well if you must know, down by the stream on the southern side of the village."

I bowed my head in thanks to her, and she bowed back slightly.

…

"Every second longer we spend here, is another second we're not actually fulfilling the pilgrimage the Order gave us by finding the next town."

"Just trust me on this Ino."

"Please, stop calling me that."

I knocked on the door of a very shabby house far from the rest of the village like a few of the others I saw.

A woman in her early thirties, with a bandanna keeping her hair back and an apron, answered the door.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Does Mikey live here?"

"He does, has he gotten in trouble with the Order or something?"

Inoru smiled up from his feet. "He threw food at us trying to impress his friends."

"Seriously, he's not in trouble-"

The woman turned around and yelled. "Michael Richardson, get over here now!"

She pulled the kid over by his ear and almost threw him towards us. "Apologize to these nice young monks immediately mister."

As I watched Mikey's half assed apology, I decided to handle this how Elder Toji did. That was the first thing I asked myself.

How would my teacher react? I don't think he was acting out this way just because, there had to be a reason.

I knelt to Mikey. "Look. I swear I'm not angry, I just need to know. Why did you throw that at me?"

"I don't know. Because I thought it'd be funny."

I smiled. "Your village has been friendly to my temple for the past few thousand years. Why change that? What do you want Mikey?"

The boy didn't know how to respond.

"This is my Pokémon. He's young, like yours. Do you recognize him?"

The two still didn't like each other, judging by the death glare they gave each other.

"He wanted to protect me, despite how much bigger I am than him. Tell me, is there anyone you want to protect by what you did today?"

Inoru spoke up now. "Yeah we should probably go. He said he was sorry Nico."

Mikey's mother chimed in too. "Yes he's quite mischievous-"

"My dad."

"Why did you want to protect your father?"

Mikey shrugged.

I looked up at Mikey's mother with a slight look of curiosity. "And where is he now?"

"Keith's busy."

"Busy doing what?"

"This has gone a bit too far Nico, we should-"

"It's fine," Mikey's mother sighed, waving us in. "I'll make you two some tea."

...

Inoru watched Mikey and his Bellsprout play with some very old toys in front of an equally aged TV set as Mikey's mother made us a drink.

"Thank you." She bowed her head in return after I sipped from her tea cup and spoke. "Tell me what you can. If, you can."

The woman shook her head slightly, barely looking at me.

"Mikey's always been a good kid, at least until recently. Two years ago, Keith's identical twin was sick, had some sort of very rare growth. So sick he could only get help in Goldenrod City's main hospital."

I nodded as she continued.

"Of course, we couldn't afford it. I mean, look at this place, and our hometown can hardly survive two bad harvests in a row as it is." she sighed. "With nowhere to go, we tried asking the monastery for help."

I couldn't imagine going through any of this.

"Keith's brother um," she swallowed. "Passed away shortly after we helped him up the mountain."

I looked at Inoru. "Did you know?"

He shook his head. "I only was transferred last year."

Mikey's mother went on. "Keith wasn't the same after that. He became irritable, he couldn't focus on work, housecleaning, or anything the same way he could before. There's a small bar on the end of town where he spends most of his time now. His brother's family sends whatever help he can from the nearest village over after they moved away."

I hadn't remembered feeling this sad in a long time.

Cancer. Depression. A town too poor to help in either aspects. Back in my old world these were so common the stories were everywhere.

But in the world of Pokémon? The worst hardship anyone went through was maybe losing a Pokémon battle, at the end of the day, it was kid's stuff. The anime and show were marketed to children.

This? But this? This was heartbreaking.

Inoru saw the look on my face. "Can you give us a second?"

"Of course."

Mikey's mother took him away from the TV and Inoru and I talked in their living room.

"I know what you're thinking."

I sighed. "It's what Elder Toji would want us to do."

"It wasn't the temple's fault."

"Regardless of whether it was or wasn't. This town needs our help."

I looked at the faded picture of Keith's twin brother, it was clear this household suffered a loss so deep it was a part of this man.

"You'll never become a great trainer if we spend our time helping every single town we pass through."

I scoffed. "A great trainer needs to start being a good person."

"Nico! Wake up. This isn't our problem, and it isn't anyone's fault. There's no way our temple would just let someone die. I'm sure there was nothing we, or this town could do. Back then, or now."

I balled my fists, moving my eyes away from the picture of Keith, his wife and son, and his twin brother's family who from what I could tell from the dilapidated land around the house, was helping run this farm years ago.

"No." I turned around at him.

"No?" Inoru asked. "I'm sorry, I'm your teacher, I wasn't asking-"

"No!" I yelled. "Kick me out of the Order, go back up the mountain, and tell the thirteen right now. I don't care! I don't care what you say, but I will never. Ever turn my back on people who need me!"

"I care too, but we can't cure a man of despair and alcoholism on our own. Even trying is a disservice to what our Order stands for. We don't help, we don't do anything, until a problem stands directly in our path."

"I'm all for being vegetarian, and kind and patient. But there's a difference between pacifism, and apathy."

I turned to the hallway, ignoring Inoru's next words. "You can come out now."

Mikey and his mother slowly exited the room.

"I'm sorry for intruding so much in your own house and lives. But I can't leave until I'm sure I've helped in some way."

Mikey's mother shrugged. "But, how can you help? The only time I see Keith anyway is when he's here blaming the monks or dropping food off."

"I know." I sighed. "But I have to at least try. The tea was delicious. Mikey, come here please."

He approached me.

"Hey, you're a tough kid, but I need you to act a little tougher for me okay?"

He took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay."

"I need you to get along with someone I know you don't like for a few hours okay until I can go get your dad. My Pokémon can't go with me, he'll stay here for a bit alright?"

"Alright."

"Thank you."

Mikey's mother bowed her head back to me again, and I bowed back.

I left Inoru there standing, thinking.

…

I was trying to locate the only tavern in the entire town, a bit easy to do so since a fair number of already decently tipsy men were already heading in that direction.

When I reached the front door, a man and woman were smiling and allowing guests in, smiling and bowing her head to them.

I sighed in thought. What was I doing?

"Hey."

I turned around with a smile. "Inoru."

He had almost definitely left his Bellsprout with Mikey and his mom for a bit while we figured this out.

"A smart monk would've left the village the second that kid started throwing stuff at us. I mean, we abandoned our Pokémon-"

"For a few hours."

"And are about to go into a bar-"

"To help heal a family by bringing a father back home to his wife and children."

"But none of that matters." Inoru sighed.

I looked at him.

"Because I know you're doing the right thing Nico. Because you care about doing the right thing."

This was the moment I knew, that I could finally embrace Inoru no longer as just my mentor for the rest of this journey.

But after months, as my friend.

"Yeah man."

I offered a fist to bump, which after some silence, Inoru figured out to bump in return.

…