Ralts was standing in the middle of the battlefield, held a pebble in her hand and was looking at me. Or atleast, where she thought I was.
I was standing a few meters to her right, Ralts raised the pebble and threw it full force...to her left.
"Miss!" I informed her and I moved again, this time to stand behind her, though a bit further away.
Ralts sighed and knelt down to grab another pebble from the pile near her feet, she waited for a second before turning around and throwing it, this time it landed at my feet.
"Hit," I said and she let out a sigh of relief.
She knelt down to grab another pebble as I again moved to a new location.
Oh yeah, she was blindfolded, I did mention that right?
She was tilting her head, clearly having trouble finding me.
"What are you guys doing?" a voice behind me whispered.
"Wahahaa!" I cried out and turned around to see Chelsea standing behind me. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"
This morning Chelsea apparently decided to go for the emo look because she wore a black skirt, black boots and black shirt with the outline of a Haunter in white on it. This time she had her purple hair in a high ponytail.
"How in the fuck do you manage to sneak up on me like that?" I cried out.
Chelsea grinned at me, "That's because I alw-"
Before Chelsea could finish being creepy a pebble hit her in the face. It didn't really hurt, I knew it from experience but still it left her blinking in surprise.
"Hit," I called out at Ralts, "Though this time a miss would've been better."
"Ralts?" she asked and lifted the bandage that I had wrapped around her head to block her view.
"RALTS!" she cried out when she saw Chelsea and ran towards me at an incredible speed to hide behind my legs. She was surprisingly fast.
You were the one who threw the pebble you know?
"What are you two exactly doing?" Chelsea asked again, "because I just came here to check up on you, and now I see a blindfolded Pokémon throwing pebbles at her trainer. Should I call the police?"
"Ralts," Ralts muttered hiding behind my legs.
"We were training her empathy senses," I told her.
"Has she grown empathetic to your suffering yet?" Chelsea dryly asked. She looked at Ralts who was cowering behind my legs.
"That horn thing on her head can sense emotions," I told her, "I think it's technically called Empathy but I'm not sure. She can sense emotions."
"I know that a Ralts can do that but why train it?"
"Because," I began, "if we train this power and she becomes powerful enough, not only will she be able to sense emotions but also pinpoint the exact location of people and Pokémon. That way Ralts will be able to track down her opponent's location at any given point or time."
I saw Chelsea's incredulous look and went on with my explanation.
"It can become a form of Hyper Awareness that can be used not only to assist in aiming ranged attacks but will also nullify any stealth based move like Double team or Smokescreen."
Chelsea stared at Ralts and then back at me, "that sounds very powerful."
I shrugged. "Not as much as you would think, there are other moves to pinpoint your enemy's location like Future Sight and Aura. Still, it will give us the slight edge. And it's a passive ability, so hopefully it stays active the entire fight."
Chelsea had again that grin of her's, "So, Mister Mysterious is also an excellent strategist."
I rolled my eyes, "Seriously, still going with that schtick?"
"Ralts?" Ralts copied.
"Anyway," Chelsea said. "We need to check your left arm and replace the bandages."
"Ahh," I said. "Hylla is awake?"
"Nope." Chelsea answered as she walked back to the hospital, making me wonder if I should follow her.
Ralts and I did anyway and we found ourselves in the lobby where Chelsea was dragging a second chair towards the one behind the desk.
Next to the two chairs was a metal trolley, the kind they always had in hospitals. On top of it I saw various medical supplies that made me gulp.
Chelsea took a seat in the comfortable desk chair and gestured to me to take a seat in the plastic chair she had just dragged over. I sat down and Ralts jumped on my lap where she sat silently.
"Arm please," Chelsea said professionally and I laid my arm on the plastic armrest.
Chelsea began unwrapping the bandage in silence. Becoming agitated by the silence I tried to make conversation.
"So," I began, "Any reason you look after my arm instead of your sister?"
"Don't trust me to do a good job at it?" Chelsea smiled.
Can you please not make it sound like you're going to stab me if I give the wrong answer?
"Just curious," I answered, deciding to stay vague for obvious reasons.
"Well if you want Hylla to take care of your arm you better amputate it right away." Chelsea had just unwinded all the bandages and now my arm was visible. And God was it ugly, the flesh was no longer ripped open but it was still rough around the edges and dried patches of blood made it not look any better. That and the lack of sunlight made it look really ugly.
Still it was better than before and it was clearly healing.
"What do you mean by amputating my arm right away?" I felt confused.
"Hylla wouldn't be able to fix your arm, in fact just replacing your bandage is something only I can do." She sounded proud and had a satisfied smile on her face. "Hylla has many qualities but being a doctor isn't one of them."
Chelsea opened her hand and said, "alcohol."
I thought she meant me and she was offering me some but to my surprise Ralts reached out to the metal trolley and grabbed a small bottle and handed it to Chelsea.
The teamwork between the two showed that they had done this before, my guess was that Ralts and Chelsea had worked together to fix my arm while I was unconscious and apparently Hylla was sucking at her job.
Chelsea opened the bottle and dipped a piece of cloth inside it and began cleaning my wound with it. It hurt like a bitch but I grinded my teeth, I needed something to distract myself from the pain.
"Wait, but don't you and Hylla work together? She told me she was a doctor." I began, hoping to distract myself from the pain.
Chelsea answered without looking away from my arm, "Hylla does the administration and the legal stuff and yes, she is a doctor but only in name."
"Ralts," Ralts said and pointed to a spot Chelsea missed. I had hoped she wouldn't notice because it hurts when she dabs the wound but my loyal Ralts betrayed me.
Chelsea managed to keep talking without looking up from her work. "She has a medical license but never did any medical school or medical training to get it. She convinced the guy in charge of the medical school that it was a waste of time to let her follow the course and exam."
I blinked, "Wait she did what?"
Chelsea shrugged. "Hylla is like that, the guy gave her an impossible test and she somehow managed to beat it. It's thanks to the fact that Hylla is officially a doctor and I can do my job without a license even though I am just doing minor treatments. Officially I am only assisting her."
"Uh," I said dryly, I wanted to point out how illegal it was but I kinda did not know how illegal it exactly was. I had no ideas about the laws in this world, considering they have legal dog fights (or something comparable), the law gave me not a lot of confidence.
Chelsea however was really good. She was already carefully cleaning up the rough edges of my healing wound.
"So, how did you learn all this stuff? In fact, how did you and Hylla end up running a hospital anyway?"
The moment I said it Chelsea lost her focus and pressed the cloth a bit too hard against my wound and caused a short moment of flaming pain, before she recovered and pretended nothing happened.
I bit my tongue and managed to not let out a cry.
Although Chelsea managed not to falter, her emotions betrayed her...or Ralts did. She must have sensed a shift in Chelsea's emotions because she gave Chelsea a confused look.
"Our parents taught us, or me. Hylla never really cared for our parent's hospital but I do." Chelsea answered the question cheerfully, too cheerfully for my taste.
So it was their parent's hospital, well following the question why are they not here I reached the logical conclusion.
"They're dead aren't they?" I whispered, why did I say that out loud? God I suck at this.
The following akward silence however confirmed it.
"I'm sorry," I said, knowing how hollow those words could be, "they'd be proud of you, I'm sure of it."
"I hope so."
She silently said and began wrapping the bandage back on my arm.
So it seemed that the sisters inherited the hospital, or probably Hylla did since she was of legal age. Assuming of course that they had the same legal age as my world.
Hylla obviously didn't care as much as about the hospital considering she was neither skilled in healing nor interested in her job.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
The question was why did the Sinnoh League deem the hospital important enough to keep it open even when it was a waste of money, or so the people in town thought. If all the injuries they treated here were minor, why pump money into this place?
After a short silence Chelsea seemed to be done because she said; "And you can go on with your day, Mister Mysterious." She grinned at me, back to her usual self.
"Thanks," I said gratefully. "Seems like I was really lucky to have such a good doctor."
"Hehe," Chelsea chuckled, "Wasn't luck Dust, Hylla requested it."
My heart skipped a beat. "Wait, what?"
She looked at me like it was something obvious. "You don't know? Nobody informed you? When the police were looking for a place to fix you up Hylla personally requested that you would be nursed in her hospital."
"Why?" A feeling in my gut began to stir. .
Chelsea shrugged. "Dunno but it makes my life at least a bit less boring. Don't you think so?"
What is that even supposed to mean?
I nodded and Chelsea stood up to clean up all the mess we made.
Hylla had personally requested I would be nursed here, placed a Pidgey cam in my room and didn't even know a single thing about being a doctor. It seemed that Hylla was playing a game but what was she trying to achieve?
"You look pale," Chelsea suddenly said. I looked up and saw she was finished. "Have you eaten anything since you've woken up?"
"I always look pale," I deadpanned. "And no, I hadn't had breakfast yet. Wasn't sure I could just grab something or had to wait for one of you two to wake up."
I had seen myself in a mirror yesterday and it was horrifying.
I had anime protagonist hair!
It was blue, somewhere between Aqua blue and Marine blue. Who the hell has blue hair? I mean in the anime world it was more common, not a lot but a bit more. I would still stick out in a crowd, even here and that annoyed me.
Luckily my hair was not spiky, instead it was long but not girly long. The hair locks in front of my eyes reached my mouth and would block my eyes if I didn't swipe it out of my face. My hair was messy but not like a homeless man kind of messy but more like a rebellious teenager. It kinda pissed me off, it was like Rem from Re:Zero had gotten a child with Light Yagami and the child joined the edgiest metal band he could find in highschool. It kinda looked cool but also pissed me off for no real reason.
I had a pretty normal face with deep blue eyes that made me regret I had not chosen a name related to blue.
Like Blue...get it? The antagonist in Pokémon Red?
My skin was also really, really pale, so pale it made me wonder if I had some kind of Vampire powers but the lack of sharp teeth seemed to suggest I was just pale. Chelsea blamed my lack of substantial food but I knew better.
I was an edgy anime protagonist. Helix may have mercy on my soul.
"Ralts RaRalts," Ralts said and I thought she was talking about my appearance but I realized that she was talking to Chelsea, she pointed at my stomach and then said again her own name.
Chelsea seemed to understand it because she laughed and looked at me. "You can just grab something from the kitchen if you're hungry." She tilted her head. "We have dinner at six, yesterday was an exception because we were out of food."
"Thanks," I said. "Well, in that case, I'm going to get some food for Ralts and I."
"Yeah, you should. You both look really pale." Chelsea laughed at her own joke and then walked away.
We went to the kitchen and I wondered what the hell Ralts should eat but that question was quickly answered. In the kitchen fridge I found a paper bag with a memo stuck to it saying: Food for Ralts, not edible for humans, side effects may include death. Seriously, stay away from this stuff. -Hylla
Did Hylla seriously think I was this stupid?...okay, I totally would try to taste what Ralts' food tastes like but still.
In the end Ralts ate some kind of berry/apple hybrid which probably had a fancy name but I really didn't recognize it.
After breakfast I asked my eternally determined Ralts if she was up for some jogging, she was...but only for 10 minutes. As I expected her small legs couldn't really carry her for an extended session of running. That along with the fact that one of my steps took like 10 small steps of hers made it really awkward to jog together.
Most of the time I would run a few meters, wait for Ralts to catch up and then run again. Still, her unwavering determination couldn't carry her forever, or more than 10 minutes.
Being the good trainer I took her upon my shoulders and carried her, sure I could put her back in her Pokéball but we really had this Ash/Pikachu relationship going on so I decided that I could carry her. Which made me feel exhausted after my 40 minute run of carrying an exhausted Ralts.
When we arrived back at the hospital I found my favorite purple haired spy sitting at the desk again and she was sleeping on top of a book.
She again did that creepy thing where she snapped her eyes open the moment I stepped close. "The shower is on the second floor at the end of the hallway next to the backdoor. Feel free to use it," She said, putting a few yawns in the sentence for good measure.
"Thanks, I think?"
She gave me a sweet smile, and then went back to work...which meant sleeping obviously.
I left Ralts in my room to recover from her 2 minutes of running and found the shower. When I was done I entered my old sweaty clothes again and made, again, a mental note to buy new clothes once I got the bounty for Team Rocket.
I went back to my room and found Chelsea looming over Ralts who sat atop of my bed. Ralts seemed to be having a conversation with Chelsea, although Chelsea couldn't really understand her either, she seemed to be amused by Ralts Pokéspeak though.
"Ralts!" Ralts cried out happily and hopped into my arms the moment she saw me.
"You know I've only been gone for 10 minutes at most?" I chuckled.
"Rals Ralts!" she cried out, giving me another critical hug attack.
"So what are you doing here?" I asked Chelsea, sounding more hostile than I intended but she didn't seem to mind because she gave me her usual creepy smile. "Can't a doctor check up on her patient?"
Not if said doctor is creepy as hell.
"Anyway," Chelsea said when I just kept staring at her. "Hylla said you were going to the town and I was bored and decided to come along."
This made me stop, I hadn't told anyone that I wanted to go to the town, in fact I just decided to do that while I was showering.
Was Hylla a psychic or was it just a simple prediction? It wasn't impossible for a human to have psychic powers in the world of Pokémon. Sabrina from Kanto was a prime example of that.
'Hylla,' I thought, 'if you are a psychic, make a noise.'
Nothing.
'Hylla, I'm about to murder your sister.'
Still nothing.
'You have a nice ass.'
Still nothing, either Hylla wasn't a psychic or she wasn't stupid enough to fall for these traps, I had to try it again when I could read her facial expressions.
Anyway Hylla was right about me wanting to go to town, I wanted to ask around for information. In particular, information about Ash, Red, Ethan and Team Galactic. I need access to the information.
Sunbright town didn't have a library and I couldn't just march into someone's house to use their pc unlike in the games.
I could ask Hylla and Chelsea but asking them would be a bit too risky, I would have to explain stuff and I really do not want to explain that I was trying to figure out if I was in the games or in the anime.
Chelsea coming along would kind of ruin that plan, on the other hand could I really turn her down after she had that weird emotional moment?
Yes I could but I wasn't heartless.
"Fine," I sighed, "You can come."
"Awesome!" Chelsea exclaimed. "Maybe we'll come across Melon and Thomas and we can have a double battle."
Melon and Thomas, the kids I saw yesterday with Starly and Fennekin.
"You have a Pokémon?" I asked.
"Raaalttss." Ralts protested loudly when I put her down, honestly I was getting a bit tired from carrying her, especially after having a long exhaustive training exercise behind me.
Chelsea beamed. "Yes."
She didn't elaborate so I took it upon myself. "Fine I'll bite, what kind of Pokémon?"
"Not gonna tell you, maybe you get to see it once we challenge those two kids to a duel. Their smug looks always annoyed me." Chelsea finished the sentence with an annoyed frown.
"Ralts never had a real battle," I told Chelsea.
Ralts protested and imitated a Raticate, or I thought she did, otherwise she was choking.
"Doesn't count," I told Ralts. "We barely did any damage to the Raticate."
I turned to Chelsea. "Is your mystery Pokémon experienced with battling?"
"Nope." Chelsea said, popping the p and crushing all my hopes that her Pokémon could help Ralts develop more moves. "But that shouldn't be a problem for you, right Mister Tactician?"
"Ralts!" Ralts happily agreed.
You traitor.
----------------------------------------
In the end we didn't battle Melon and Thomas. They were nowhere to be seen and although Chelsea told me she knew where they lived I decided we wouldn't drag them out of their houses for a Pokémon battle.
Ralts had found a short tree branch which she decided to keep for unknown reasons. I would love to say that she was using the stick to learn a new move or fighting style but she was just amazed by its mere existence. Waving it around and watching it with great fascination.
Chelsea was skipping instead of walking which made me feel like a grumpy adult, especially when she dramatically waited for me every 10 seconds.
Nothing of importance really happened, we were watching some people go on with their day and I saw a girl with a Nidoking which I thought was impressive but Chelsea told me it wasn't that impressive.
After a few hours of killing time Ralts suddenly let out a panicked "RALTS!" and started pulling my leg and kept crying out her name.
"Hey, what's she doing?" Chelsea asked, concern written all over her face.
I shrugged. "Don't know."
I knelt down to meet my Ralts in the eyes. "What's wrong?"
"Ralts! RaltsRalts!" she panicked. Her eyes were big. She pointed towards...oh a dark back alley at the other end of the town.
I wanted to ask what the fuck she was so obsessed about but she continued her cries. Being the impulsive child she is Chelsea immediately dashed towards the alley. I yelled at her to stop but she didn't listen, leaving me and Ralts alone on the town's square.
"Goddamnit!" I cursed, "Does no one in this world think before they act?"
Apparently not because the moment I finished that sentence Ralts chased after Chelsea into the totally not suspicious back alley. Because that's a safe thing to do!
I followed her and found myself in a narrow street caught between the food store and some urban housing unit. The size of the house was big enough to cast a shadow on the alley, making it a bit shady and totally okay for sneak attacks. Or was I just being paranoid?
I don't know what I was expecting. But whatever my expectations included, reality managed to surprise me.
A man was lying on the ground, breathing heavily and grunting in pain. He had blood on his shirt and although I couldn't see a wound the amount of blood made me suspect it came from his stomach as a red spot began to pool around his body.
"Help me drag him out of the alley." Chelsea demanded.
"Shouldn't you stabilize him first?" I asked.
"Can't work in the dark," Chelsea shot back and tried to pull the man up by his shoulder, only to fail.
Ralts tried to help but both were really small and light compared to the man.
I wanted to argue there was enough light in the alley but one angry look from Chelsea made me shut up and help.
Together we managed to drag the man out of the alley towards the middle of the town's square and placed him against the fountain that had a marble Gyarados on top of it.
Now that it was a bit brighter I could see the man, beside being covered in blood he was looking quite mundane.
I estimated him around 30, he had a neatly trimmed beard that made a combo with his dirt brown hair. He wore black jeans and a t-shirt with a vague pattern on it that was ripped open around the stomach and revealed a bloody mess of cloth, blood and torn open skin.
The man was panting like he was on life support. His eyes kept drifting around and foam was spilling out of his mouth.
I took a step back, unsure what to think or how to act.
Before Chelsea could start on helping the man a huge shadow passed over us and HOLY FUCK that is a Charizard.
The Charizard circled above us before landing next to us, to my surprise it had someone riding on it. A purple eyed woman who was now fully awake.
Hylla has a Charizard? Why did no one tell me?
I saw people staring at us from the edges of the square, though none of them offered to help. I realized that one of them must have called an ambulance...or Charizard. It was a weird reminder that the two sisters were in charge of a hospital and not a hotel.
Hylla jumped off Charizard's back and took a quick glance at the bleeding man. "Place him on Charizard's back now, I'll fly him to Sandgem town's hospital."
She demanded it with such authority that I already moved to help her but Chelsea stopped me. "No, he's not stable. We need to help him in our hospital or he might lose too much blood."
"We're under equipped." Hylla argued, "We don't have time for this."
"We're not under equipped!" Chelsea exclaimed angrily.
Personally I agreed with Chelsea but I didn't know a single thing about this kind of stuff. Still, to me a bandage seemed enough to stop the bleeding.
It really didn't matter because Hylla fixed her gaze on me, "Dust, help me swing this man over Charizard's back. Make sure his stomach is facing up."
She didn't really ask, but I complied anyway. Eventually Chelsea began helping us move the man but it was clear she didn't agree with Hylla.
"Pocket knife Dust." Hylla suddenly said.
"What?" I said dumbfounded.
"Ralts!" Ralts explained, I think.
"Your pocket knife, I need to borrow it." Hylla stated.
How did she even- no, now was not the time for that. I handed her my knife and she flipped it open and cut the man's shirt into pieces and handed the pieces to Chelsea.
"Make a temporary bandage, to stop him from bleeding," Hylla demanded and Chelsea began to work on it wordlessly.
We had to move the man a few times but in the end we managed to cover the wound.
"It won't hold." Chelsea looked at the bloody mess we had made. She was grinding her teeth.
"It will do," Hylla said sternly and climbed atop Charizard's back. "I'll make sure of it." The Charizard flapped its wings.
"Don't leave the town," Hylla told Chelsea, "Don't move an inch from where you're standing." Chelsea didn't answer but instead was just glaring at her older sister.
"That counts for you too, Dust." Hylla added.
Wait, what? Why does it feel like I'm grounded?
"Ralts?"
"You heard me. Don't move!" Hylla said, then she stopped. I thought she was about to say something else but instead she reached into her pocket and took out two Pokéballs.
She threw both of them at the ground and in a flash two Pokémon appeared next to us. A burning horse and a weird blue lion thingy. Or as they are called here, Rapidash and Luxray.
Hylla has three fully evolved Pokémon?
"Rapidash, Luxray, I'm flying this man to Sandgem town, don't let Chelsea and the blue haired boy leave your sight."
The two Pokémon fixed their intimidating gazes on us and it was terrifying. With those cheerful words Hylla took off.
"Your sister is kind of overprotective," I told Chelsea.
"You wouldn't say." Chelsea glared up at the sky.
I looked up at the sky where Hylla flew North on her Charizard, carrying a man who was possibly bleeding to death. It disturbed me because the wound in the man's stomach was awfully similar to the one in my arm after my encounter with the Raticate.