ARC 2:

Journey

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Ralts was sitting on a small boulder, sweating nervously.

I was pacing in front of her while she watched me.

“Ralts we need to talk,” I said with a serious voice.

She gulped.

We had slept in the tent for the first time yesterday evening, Chelsea and Hylla had left to do their shit somewhere else and I had the choice between staying in a hotel or sleeping in the tent I had bought.

I could’ve slept in a hotel but I wanted to get used to sleeping outside so I had set up camp somewhere on the outer edge of town like a homeless person.

Lake Verity wasn’t far away from Twinleaf town, in fact it was only an hour away but I wanted to get some training and power testing done.

When the sun began to rise I headed in the general direction of the lake and when I was far enough away to not bother the townspeople, I left the trail that went towards the lake and hiked into the forest.

The forest was not really dense and it was quite beautiful in the morning sun.

I had seen flocks of Starly wake up and head towards the horizon the moment the sun shone over their trees, I saw Budew open their buds and enjoy the sun which was cool to see.

There were a lot of them and they mostly went on with their day.

I made sure to stay away from any Ariados, I don't want to end up like Piplup who managed to get caught in the first episode it showed up.

Finally we found a nice clearing with some boulders and we did some power testing. First, I had Ralts try the shining fist attack.

We never really had the time to study it so now it was the perfect chance.

I made her try it while standing on the ground and it took her 4 strikes of hitting the boulder without any damage before it worked.

Her arm lit up as she retracted it and started glowing like a small star punching it forward.

And it turns out, whatever the move was called, it was weak as shit.

Sure it was strong compared to a human but with the likes of Machamp and Blaziken out there it was laughable weak.

Considering the physical stats of the Ralts species that were not that great to start with it didn’t surprise me, it was a useful move for close combat but not a move that would be a deciding factor anytime soon.

One punch would make a slight crack in the boulder and the time for the punch to actually charge up was too big to throw it out fast in real time battle.

So we did some more testing and turns out, when she does the fist attack while falling it does at least 4 times more damage, breaking the boulder in one strike with ease.

I guess that the momentum from the fall is being transferred to her fist or something which was nice.

I decided to name the punch move just “smash” until I got its real name and named the combination attack of Disarming Voice and descending “smash”, Meteor Smash.

It kinda looks like a meteor to me when she falls like that with her fist clenched and shining like a star.

Also, because of Smash Bros but no one in this world will understand the reference.

So after figuring out the nature of her punch we tried to do some more testing with the Disarming Voice jump, which I have to find a new name for now I think about it.

I had her try to do a Confusion while in the air and it worked but it was kinda bad,

A full force Confusion would take too much time and she would reach the ground before firing it and a low power Confusion would just travel through the air like a normal Confusion.

Considering how it was unlikely to hit anyone in the air due to its slow speed and the fact that most Pokémon were too small it was kinda useless to do that.

I had hoped we could use it to launch ourselves even further while in the air but like I thought Confusion doesn’t bounce back so that was a minor disappointment.

After that I had her practice Disarming Voice Jump and landing safely for over an hour.

She fell a lot but over time she became better at landing, learning to bow her knees to break her fall.

In that hour I spent some time writing stuff up in a notebook I had bought. I didn’t dare to write down any future knowledge or knowledge I shouldn’t know because that might be hard to explain.

I considered using a cipher but they were easy to crack with computers, especially when someone has a Porygon to assist with decoding.

Instead I just wrote up possible attack patterns and drew the entire match up chart.

I was bound to have a few things wrong but I got the gist of it.

When Ralts finally managed to consistently launch herself and land safely I made her beat up a few boulders with smash and Disarming Voice, trying to make it stronger.

I was not sure if it really works but people in the anime did it so I guess it wouldn’t really hurt.

And that was how we spent the morning and when the sun finally reached the middle of the sky I decided we had trained enough for now.

Normally I would grind until we were around level 20 but I guess that would be really boring, also I was pretty sure levels didn’t exist in this world.

I fed Ralts some of the weird berry things that Hylla had given me before she and Chelsea had left and after that I had put her on of the boulders that was still intact and started pacing in front of her.

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“I need to confess something, Ralts,” I said ominously.

She turned red and nervously started fiddling with her nonexistent fingers…

What did she think, I was going to say, that I was about to kill someone?

I was just pacing in front of her, arms behind my back and having a thoughtful look on my face.

There was no real reason for me to act like this but I love dramatics and I always wanted to put the drill instructor act to use.

I stopped pacing and faced Ralts, I held a dramatic pause before beginning my speech.

“I can not make you the strongest.” I said and she frowned, the blush fading away. “You won’t be able to become the very best.”

“Ralts?” she asked.

“What you just did for over an hour, all that training? In the end it won’t matter.” I told her bluntly.

“Rals,Ra Ralts?” She protested.

I translated it to her telling me she felt stronger or something

I pointed at myself, “I am a mere human, I don’t have Aura or Psychic powers to boost yours.”

I pointed at Ralts. "You are right now a Ralts, and even when you finally evolve into a Gardevoir you still won’t be the strongest.”

I sighed. “No matter how much you train it will be impossible to become the strongest.”

“Ralllltts?” Her voice was a little shaky and it seemed like she was emotionally affected by what I was saying.

“Even if you manage to become the most powerful Psychic in Sinnoh or the world it won’t matter.”

“Ralts?” She tilted her head, her red eyes filled with confusion.

“Even when you win every tournament and beat every opponent there will be a Pokémon who has the perfect counter to your powers and is immune to every move you can do. And even if you manage to beat that Pokémon there will be Legendary Pokémon who manage to overpower you because they are the gods of this world.”

I took a deep breath, people in movies never ran out of breath in movies while holding a speech but this was exhausting.

“Even if you can take down a Legendary there are Pokémon like Arceus and Victini who can not lose due to their nature.”

Ralts was staring at me, her red eyes locked with mine. I really wondered what she was thinking.

“And even if you manage to beat Arceus someone will show up with the lorestone and plotsword, who will win because he is your only Kryptonite and the universe just decides he should win.”

It's the simple nature of the universe, especially in one like Pokémon where power levels were everything.

“However,” I said and Ralts perked up. “I can make you the most dangerous Pokémon in the world. The Pokémon that people don’t want to fight because they know nothing will go as planned. A Pokémon that will make Legendaries struggle because they don’t know what’s going on. A Pokémon that battles the way Arceus will pause and wonder what the fuck is happening.”

I grinned. “A Pokémon that is unpredictable and fights like no other.”

“Ralts!” Ralts perked up. It was so easy to manipulate her feelings.

She was still a child after all, a child that lives in a world that is about to end unless someone stops it.

“Your strength is limited to the amount your body can handle.” I took a step closer and tapped her forehead. “But this isn’t.”

“Ralts?” She asked.

“Your brain is not limited. There’s no skill cap on your mind, there is no limit to your determination.”

Ralts smiled, good this was going alright so far.

“You can’t be the strongest but you can be the smartest, the sneakiest or the trickiest. The most versatile and creative.”

I mean its basic knowledge right? There will always be someone stronger than you, there will be battles you can not win by conventional means or normal strategies.

“So that’s why I will not only focus on your strength. No, I will also work with you on strategy. When we’re done with physical training we will study together and figure out new ways to fight, how to switch playstyle during a battle and how to fight on a psychological level. Raw power is only a small part of the battle.”

I smiled at Ralts. “In short, we will be the very best, using mind and body. Now how does that sound?”

I opened my arms, waiting for Ralts’ response.

Ralts turned around and for a second I wondered if I was too dramatic.

She jumped off the boulder, face towards the boulder and screamed.

The soundwaves split the boulder in two and Ralts was catapulted towards me by the bouncing sound waves. She crashed into my stomach and I fell over, not expecting a Ralts suddenly headbutting into my stomach.

We both fell over and Ralts hugged my chest, squealing with happiness.

“Now that’s a way to give a hug.” I chuckled as she kept hugging my chest affectionately.

Well it seems like Ralts was on board with the entire idea, in raw power she would be lacking but we would find a way together.

“Are you really trying to disturb the entire forest? There are people who actually have things to do.” A boyish voice suddenly interrupted.

I stopped and leaned over, Ralts stopped hugging and gave our intruder a curious look.

A glaring flaw in her emotion radar was that I trained her to pick up hostile/violent emotions aimed at us while the person was also hidden from sight.

She was able to sense others and locate them but I told her to ignore most of it unless she was in battle, else her radar would be drowned out by all the unrelated emotions.

No need to pick up the depression of a random Sobble after all.

I gave our intruder a curious look.

He was around my age, having striking yellow hair that was slightly pointed up and flew backwards like they were devil horns. He had orange eyes that didn’t look happy.

He wore an orange and white striped cardigan with short sleeves and a short green scarf,he had a backpack draped over his shoulder and wore gray pants with brown boots to finish it off.

“Hmm…” I mused thoughtfully, “And who may you be?”

I already knew it, with that kind of look it was obvious.

“Look,” He said, not answering my question, though it was not really necessary. “I don’t really have a lot of time. I just wanted to say that you are being rather loud, WAIT, are you a Pokémon trainer?”

“No,” I said as I got up, “I just abducted a random Pokémon and now I forced her into loving me.”

“Ralts.” Ralts nodded.

Sometimes I wonder if she even understands me.

“If you are a Pokémon trainer then you should battle me,” he said, he suddenly looked at his watch and his eyes narrowed. “We can make it quick. I really need to train my Pokémon before I show it to Professor Rowan.”

“Welp,” I said, “I kinda have to go.”

“Where to?” the blonde teener asked perplexed, as if he was the only one in this world with a schedule.

“Lake Verity.” I said,

“You’re looking for the Legendary too?! Aw man! Well, you’re not the one to catch it because I’m going first!” he yelled dramatically.

His voice was kinda high pitched and he sounded like he was high on a sugar rush.

“What about the battle?” I asked, wondering if he would realize the loop in the conversation we just made.

“Oh, so you do want to battle!” He said, “I think I got some time, yeah you will do.”

And with that he threw out his Pokéball, still not having properly introduced himself.

In a flash a bright blue penguin-ish creature appeared, it let out a cry as it jumped in front of the trainer..

A Piplup, interesting.

“Ralts, if you would do the honor?”

Ralts took a step forward and glared at Piplup.

Piplup didn’t flinch. Well at least it has more spine than Dawn’s Piplup.

“I’m Dust by the way,” I said. “And this is Ralts, what’s your name?”

He grinned, “My name is Barry, I’m from Twinleaf town.”

“Piplup!” Piplup cried out.

“And this is Piplup,” he looked at his watch, “I don’t have long.” He gave me a grin. “Now let's get this going.”