Thankfully, the door didn't immediately swing open with comedic timing as soon as I slumped down to recover. I had almost been expecting it to, considering that some time had passed while I was struggling to work out with the Sandshrew. Even if nurse Joy wasn't free, I was surprised that Audino herself wasn't back yet. She had been tagging along with me for the majority of my time here at the Pokémon Center, so I sort of forgot she probably had other work to do around the place.
As I sat there slumped down and relaxing, I turned my attention back to the Sandshrew, who was still pumping his arms like a relentless machine. Did this guy take iron and protein supplements straight from the egg or something? I got the feeling that despite still being an unevolved Pokémon, the Sandshrew just radiated a more experienced aura. "So have you been battling a long time?" I called out to him to try and restart the one-sided conversation from earlier. It wasn't like there was anything else to do while I was waiting.
It drew his gaze back toward me, and he offered a slight nod in my direction, and an affirmative-sounding grunt.
"So, is there a reason you haven't evolved? The way you fought yesterday, if you had been evolved and had bigger claws and the defensive spikes of a Sandslash, you could probably have handled that Galvantula by yourself." I realized that I had probably said something inappropriate almost immediately, as the smooth, steady curling of the Sandshrew's arms hitched in their motions briefly.
The Sandshrew put one weight down, and then extended the empty hand out toward me, flexing his short, claw-tipped digits, before pointing at his other hand that was still holding the weight. I just stared for a moment, trying to figure out the pantomiming without really understanding. The expression on my face must have revealed as much, the Sandshrew rolled his eyes and put the other weight down as well. He pointed at his claws, and then drew a line extending far out from his hands.
"Oh!" I exclaimed, suddenly realizing it. "You don't want to evolve because your claws would grow much bigger! And then you wouldn't be able to work out?"
His head shook and he made a wobbling back-and-forth gesture with his hand that I interpreted as 'so-so'.
"So I'm close but not completely right? I'm sorry, I don't quite understand what you're getting at. I understand you don't seem to like talking, but can you just tell me? You'd be so much better at battling if you evolved though, even if you had to change how you did your working out with your claws, so why worry about it so much?" I tipped my head aside as I tried to understand where he was coming from. I would think that someone who seemed to be very serious about getting stronger would want to evolve as soon as possible, to get even stronger.
The way the Sandshrew stared at me with utter disappointment, though, made me shrink back from the stare. It was as if I had said something utterly incomprehensible. His mouth even opened as if he wanted to say something for a moment, and was struggling to come up with the words. He made a sound, but it was like a vague whisper I couldn't make out. Looking frustrated, he waved me closer.
After a moment of hesitation, I bounded closer. Despite Sandshrew being a relatively small Pokémon overall, he was still almost twice my height. Now that I was closer and looking upward at him, I could see a nasty-looking scar across the underside of his chin that was normally hidden by his posture and the downward turn of his head. It ran lengthwise across the underside of his jaw with a slight downward angle, far enough it traversed partially down along his throat. My eyes widened and I blanched at the sight of it, realizing that he likely hadn't been refusing speech out of choice.
My reaction seemed to calm the irritation in the other's eyes, and he crouched down to lean in close to me, close enough that his head loomed near the side of my face, and the raspy, barest words were made clear, even mostly-suppressed by the sound of the Sandshrew's exhale of breath. "Life isn't battling. Battling isn't life." The voice was like the sound of sandpaper on metal, slightly shrill, raspy, and barely in the range of hearing.
To me, it sounded like he was repeating himself, but the Sandshrew's expression and emphasis made it sound like the two things were both important and separate, so I thought about it some more as he leaned back from me again. Once again, I had fallen into the trap of thinking as Pokémon being able to do nothing but either battle or be in their Pokéballs. But how would having giant, dangerous claws for hands affect your day-to-day life? Not just lifting weights like the Sandshrew obviously seemed to enjoy, but doing anything at all? If he evolved, he would be choosing a form that was very much more suited to combat, but much less suitable for doing just about anything else.
"You don't want your life to be all about battling." I murmured as I stared up at him, and he nodded and gave a waving gesture toward me, seemingly encouraging me to continue speaking. "So life isn't battling, but why say battling isn't life, too...? So... those who only battle aren't really alive? Or something like that?"
Once again, the Sandshrew made a wavering side-to-side gesture with one hand. He shrugged his shoulders and tapped the side of his head, then pointed at me.
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"You want me to think about it more, huh? Alright. I will."
He flashed a smile in my direction, abruptly breaking the serious, stern-looking expression he had been wearing for the discussion. Nodding his head, he turned back to his weights and picked them up, placing them on the rack he had retrieved them from. Once he had returned them to their place, he moved toward the exit and waved a hand at me in a gesture to follow.
"I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to stay here until they come and find me. I'm supposed to be doing a test in a bit."
A dismissive snort came from the Sandshrew, and he made a repeated 'come here' gesture with his hand as he pushed the door open, waiting in the doorway and staring back at me expectantly. I released a sigh and bounded in that direction, both because he didn't seem ready to take 'no' for an answer and I was curious about where he wanted to go.
We were actually heading back toward the rear door of the Pokémon Center under his guidance, and through the glass door I could see that the rain was coming down hard and heavy at the moment, a rumble of thunder sounding out, coming from the distance. As if he didn't even notice the weather, the Sandshrew pushed the door open and strode out into the backyard. The wind shook the shrubs and the branches of the trees, pushing a wall of rain into my face after I reluctantly bounded out after him.
I was drenched immediately, and the rain was cold. Not quite icy, but between the rain and the wind, I was worried I'd freeze into a Ditto-cicle if I stayed out here too long. Shivering, I stared at the Sandshrew as he just stood out in the rain, staring up at the sky and spread his arms apart like he was welcoming the storm.
"I'm sure you mean this to be some sort of profound moment, but I'm afraid I just don't get it!" I had to speak louder to carry over the sound of win and rain pattering down over everything, and his expression shifted into a grin, his chest heaving like he was laughing, despite the fact I couldn't hear him making any noise over the building storm.
The Sandshrew made a waving gesture at the surroundings, as if taking in everything around me was supposed to be my answer. I stared around at his prompting, but I didn't see anything remarkable. For all I thought that this was supposed to have some kind of profound meaning... he also could just be completely crazy. His advice earlier was a wake-up call, but this? It went right over my head.
He merely stood there in the rain, closing his eyes and remaining still. It was possible to mistake him for a statue. Weren't ground types supposed to detest water or something? Was something about that the message he was trying to send? I shook my head and gave up trying to understand him. "Well I'm going inside! You can stay out here and get drenched if you want!" I all but shouted at him, and he merely moved one hand in a gesture that seemed to wave me away.
Bounding back inside, the moderate temperature of the Pokémon Center blew over my body like a heater compared to the rain and wind outside. I shook myself like a dog to try and dislodge the remaining water from my body, and was somewhat successful. At least I only left a few small puddles of water down the hall as I bounded along, rather than one long trail of water.
When I neared the room with the work-out equipment, I saw nurse Joy and Audino exiting the room as I returned.
"Oh, there you are!" Nurse Joy seemed surprised to find me moving down the hall, and raised a brow at me after seeing my soaked state. "What were you doing outside? I thought Audino had your outdoor testing done before it started raining?"
'Diiino!' "I did!" Audino protested her innocence on the matter as nurse Joy peeked down at her, and pointed at me. "It's not my fault he went outside again!" Her attention turned toward me, and she crossed her arms. "Don't go thinking I'm going to keep you company all the time if you catch a cold and have to stay here even longer. Though, it's cute that you want to spend more time with me." The abrupt shift in demeanor from scolding to flirtatious came at the drop of a hat mid-sentence, leaving me rolling my eyes. Just how did this girl's brain work? Not everything I do is about you!
"I don't want to talk about it..." I mumbled, shaking my head and still struggling to decide if the Sandshrew was profound or completely mad. Maybe a little bit of both?
Nurse Joy walked away from a moment, stepping into a side room, before returning with a white towel with a large, red Pokéball logo on it. She dropped it down over top of my head unceremoniously, and picked me up while I was entangled inside. "Well, let's get you dried off before you freeze, and then it's time to wrap up your testing. Your trainer is waiting for you back in the lobby area." I wriggled, feeling my body squish under the pressure of hands scrubbing the towel against me.
When the fabric was removed from over my head and merely bunched around me, I was being carried in nurse Joy's arms. I admit, realizing that made me freeze up for a moment, and I barely even noticed that Mable was there. She took one look at me, wrapped up in a towel, and immediately glanced back up at nurse Joy. "Let me guess, he's already causing trouble?" She didn't even miss a beat, like she had been expecting me to do something! Come on, I'm not that unreliable, am I?
I glowered in Mable's direction, and she laughed. "Oh, relax, Ditto. I'm just teasing you. I hope that everything went well overnight?"
I nodded my head in response, and nurse Joy voiced her agreement. "Yes, it seems like Ditto made a full recovery with just some medicine to give him a kickstart and a good night's rest. I was worried he might have strained himself during the battling yesterday, but it seems like it wasn't nearly as bad as I worried. He should be good to go for the transformation testing, assuming he's feeling up to it?"
That last took on a questioning tone and was aimed my way, so I nodded once again in agreement, though I squirmed in place in the wrapped embrace of the towel. It was a war between enjoying being carried by nurse Joy and embarrassment of the very same, and embarrassment was winning out. I can walk- erm, hop- just fine! At my restless fidgeting I was lowered down to the ground alongside Audino and sighed in relief.
"Couldn't bear to be away from me, huh?" She quipped, covering her mouth with a hand and stifling a gentle laugh.
I sighed again, more heavily and from exasperation this time. Part of me wanted to retort, but I didn't want to encourage her. I just wanted to get these tests over and done with so I could go home.