Aaron's Pokemon

Artoria (Kirlia)

Jeanne (Flaaffy)

Durvasa (Mankey)

Fish 4.3

Aaron Fulan

Petalburg City

After beating Larry and his corsola, we fielded a few more challenges from trainers who'd been watching. Durvasa battled until he lost, just two opponents later. His speed and ability to use Focus Energy on the move was now a known quantity to any spectators who cared to watch so he was forced to rely on his admittedly lackluster martial arts. In his defense though, he lost to an azumarill that that completely overpowered him with Play Rough.

Jeanne promptly avenged him with a nonstop stream of Shock Waves before similarly taking out my opponent's wingull for the win.

My three pokemon traded off like that. By the time Jeanne tired and Artoria got her own share of licks in, Durvasa was ready to hit the field again. Even when he was resting, my little sage did so in meditation, a persistent cycle of victory, defeat, and self-reflection. It was like I was incapable of attracting anything but training nuts into my team. Even Jeanne, though she could be a bit of a diva, was serious about keeping up with Artoria and got very passionate when it came to nailing her performances.

By lunchtime, the disparate movements Durvasa only learned at the crack of dawn this morning had begun to flow as one, cohesive dance. I wouldn't call it a complete fighting style by any stretch, but he was getting there at a remarkable pace.

Though the first match against Larry had been without any ante, the four of us made sure to take our winnings from anyone who was within our badge range. At a single badge, the prize money was pitiful but we did pull in 2,100 credits by the end of it, not bad for a morning's pay.

We headed inside for a quick lunch from the canteen before striking out into the city. Petalburg was fairly slow for a city of its size, but I'd have felt bad if I didn't take the time to explore any of it while I had the chance.

After a while, we first stopped by a sports outlet store called Mulaney's so I could make good on my promise. It reminded me of many similar places in my life with one caveat: There were entire sections of the store dedicated to toddler-sized, yet heavily weighted equipment. Pokemon were capable of warping the natural order in bizarre ways, but they weren't physically imposing most of the time. With so many pokemon that stood less than three feet in height, my own included, it made sense for workout gear to reflect that.

It was honestly a little weird seeing a set of barbells and tension bands designed clearly for individuals who stood at knee-height. I saw a sandshrew walking around with its trainer, testing out different equipment. I glanced at the labels and saw a crisp fifty pounds on each end of the bar it was using, a reminder that yes, despite their size, these were mature members of their species who could probably fold grown men in half.

For his part, Durvasa looked like he'd died and gone to heaven. I was seriously wondering if sticking him in a gym or sports outlet like this with unlimited food and water would help him master his rage through the joy of working out or something. Probably a dumb idea, but the look on his face kept me from ruling it out completely.

"Come on, bud," I told him. "Let's go find someone who can get us a set fitted for you."

He whined like a child but allowed me to pick him up and tuck him beneath my armpit like a football. We soon found someone who worked here, a young woman in her mid-twenties who wore a red uniform with the store logo. A nametag over her heart said her name was Julie Mulaney, which made her either the owner or the owner's daughter.

"Hey, kid, what can I help you with?" she greeted.

I suppressed the pang of annoyance at being called a kid, again, and smiled. "Hi, I'm looking for weights for both myself and my pokemon."

"Ooh, a mankey huh? A budding fighting master?"

"I also have a flaaffy and kirlia who need weights. Would you recommend tension bands or barbells?"

"You sure you want to give a kirlia weights? That's not really their thing."

Before I could answer, Artoria pulled her spoon from her back and jumped into a series of kendo kata that made the spoon whirl like a helicopter. She abruptly pulled it to a stop in what could best be described as a military salute, the silver slapping audibly into her palm with a satisfying clap.

"Kirlia-kir. Kirlia," she said, bowing from her waist.

"She says she would very much like anything to improve her physical performance and that she would appreciate your expert opinion," I translated.

The employee blinked in surprise as she tried to process what she just saw. "Huh… That's a real special kirlia you got there, kid."

"Yup. Artoria's one of a kind. So, bands or barbells?"

"Well, that depends. Are you traveling or local?"

"Traveling."

"Then definitely weights, but not barbells. Now, we sell equipment in three forms: rubber bands, metal weights, or sand. They've all got their advantages. Bands are the easiest to maintain at home and for people, but pokemon tend to grow very quickly. If the tension bands aren't swapped out consistently, they can snap and hurt the pokemon or you if you're nearby, especially for fighters like mankey. Or, the opposite happens and they become loose and no longer useful as training aids.

"Solid metal weights are a little more straightforward, but they can be fairly cumbersome to carry around; hammerspace bags have their limits after all. We do have weighted shoes, belts, bracers, and the like that can be fitted with metal plates of differing densities, but they're a bit on the pricier side than regular barbells. Lastly, we also have pouches of weighted sand that perform like the metal plates."

I thought about it. A quick bit of napkin-math told me that a set of weighted equipment for each of us would be about 1,900 credits for a human and 1,300 credits for a pokemon after League subsidies, for 5,800 credits altogether.

I had 7,498 credits after my mom gave me my monthly grant and Frankie drained seven days of pokemon center lodgings from me. 5,800 wasn't impossible to afford, but I'd be left with a little less than 1,700 credits. I reckoned when converted to good ol' freedumb-bucks, it was about $200, give or take a few Hamiltons. We wouldn't starve or anything, gym sponsorship guaranteed that much at least, and if we beat Norman in three days, our monthly grant would increase, but…

"I know that look. Four sets of gear is a lot for a new trainer," the employee said with an understanding nod.

"I can afford it, but yeah, it's cutting things a bit closer than I'd prefer. I like keeping a few grand for a rainy day, or a TM or something, you know? Or what if I catch a fourth pokemon that's more demanding on my wallet and my food bill suddenly increases? I'm not really looking for a fourth right now, but still…" There was the egg to consider. I didn't know when Caitilin would come through on a larvesta egg, but a baby pokemon probably had hidden expenses I hadn't accounted for yet.

"Good, you're thinking smart. Too many new trainers live paycheck to paycheck. I really feel like budgeting should be a bigger focus on the TLE, but hey, what do I know? I just own a sporting goods store."

'I-I suppose I do not need fitted weights immediately, my lord,' Artoria said shyly. I could sense her emotions just fine though; she said it like a child told to return her Christmas present.

'That's fine, Artoria. If anything, I'm the one who least needs training equipment.' I sighed but handed her my pokenav. "I'll deal. Give me three sets of fitted weights for my pokemon, please. That'll still leave me with around 3,600 for emergencies."

"Sure, kid. But hey, how about this? I'll let you purchase your own gear for twelve hundred if you do me a favor, eh?"

"Can you do that?"

She shrugged. "I own this joint. Or really, me and my hubby, but close enough."

"Alright, what's the favor?"

"Well, see, my husband and I want to advertise the store a bit more, you know? There's a small thing on the beach two days from now, kind of a cross between a town fair and a block party, where we'll be opening a booth. There'll be booths, games, hawkers, beachside sports, the whole shebang. I want you and your pokemon to help us out. If you do, I'll forget about those seven hundred credits."

"Pass. That's a full day of training we're losing out on and I'm battling Norman in three days."

"It won't be the full day, just from nine to about three in the afternoon. Besides, do you really want to train just the day before battling a gym leader?"

I considered it. She wasn't wrong, and I did say it'd be a shame to not explore the city. A block party seemed interesting enough. Still, seven hundred credits was about the equivalent of seventy dollars for six hours of work. "I don't know… Pay isn't bad but I feel like I could do more to prep for my battle than save a few hundred."

"Hmm, tell you what? Dave, my husband, has a hitmonchan who helps demonstrate the exercise equipment. He used to take Archie, his hitmonchan, out to different boxing competitions, still does when he can find the time. I'll call him up and ask if he'd be willing to teach your mankey a thing or two. How's that for a deal then?"

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

I grinned wide. That was more like it. Maybe it was arrogant to think so, but money was easy enough to come by. Expertise? That was a much rarer commodity and hitmonchan were really known for just one thing. "That's a much better deal. I'll even give you the seven hundred credits if you're willing to extend the tutoring session for the three days while I'm here."

"I'll have to talk to Dave. How about you give me your pokenav number and I'll get back to you? He should be free in about an hour or two."

"Deal. Thanks, Mrs. Mulaney."

"Julie, kid. 'Mrs. Mulaney makes me feel old."

We shook on it and I walked out of that shop a much poorer, but happier man. Artoria walked by my side, satisfied with the outcome even if she wasn't the main beneficiary. Jeanne bleated cheerfully and gave Durvasa a static-filled hug, which he promptly squirmed out of and onto my shoulder. He was of course the happiest of all; he knew there was only so much he could learn from observing a video on the net.

I did have to curb my own enthusiasm though. Hitmonchan were intuitive experts at boxing, but that didn't automatically make all of them masters. Archie retired from regular battling to help his trainer run the sporting goods store. I wasn't sure what he would be able to teach Durvasa, but I'd be sure to get my money's worth.

X

We hung around the shopping district and visited a few more stores before Dave called me back. He called me out to Riverside Park, a series of recreational areas that had been sectioned off from the rest of the Touka River Delta by the city. Awfully derivative name aside, it was a beautiful oasis of nature in an otherwise urban area. A series of canals, both natural and manmade, made it feel like a small archipelago. Each little island had something different, from playgrounds and bird baths, to flowerbeds and the occasional dirt battlefield. I even saw a basketball field and a tennis court.

I found Dave on one of the practice fields dedicated to trainers. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man in his late-twenties with a goatee and a bald head. If the hitmonchan at his side wasn't enough of a clue, he wore his store uniform.

"Hi, Dave? I'm Aaron," I said as I walked up to him. "Julie said you agreed to give Durvasa here a few pointers before our match with Norman."

"That I did." Contrary to his appearance, he had an unexpectedly soft voice that reminded me of dad's bedtime stories. He sounded like he'd be good at singing. He patted his hitmonchan on the shoulder. The punching pokemon nodded down at my mankey and jabbed the air in rapid succession. "This here is Archie. He and I used to be a gym trainer out west in Dewford. We're not the best or anything, but we know enough to show a rookie fighting type the ropes."

"We appreciate any advice you care to give us."

"Man," Durvasa let out a soft bark in agreement. I was glad. I'd wondered if, with a mankey's temperament, he'd have been willing to take advice from others who weren't "in the troupe."

"Alright, to start, let me see what you and that mankey can do. We'll have a mock battle so I can get a sense of what you need."

"Sounds good."

That was how Durvasa ended up fighting a hitmonchan.

Needless to say, Durvasa had his ass handed to him. Repeatedly and with great enthusiasm. Not only was Archie as tall as a grown man, he had the speed to easily keep up with the nimble pig monkey and the experience to see through any tricks or dirty fighting. No matter what Durvasa tried, Archie was able to counter him with ease.

In the end, Durvasa lost himself to frustration and abandoned all forms and tactics in favor of berserk Fury Swipes that Archie evaded with a mix of what I assumed was Detect and Quick Guard. The retaliatory Mach Punch knocked my mankey flat on his ass and out of his berserk haze.

"Sorry about that," I apologized. "Durvasa is working very hard to control his anger, but I guess he just can't help it when he feels too overwhelmed."

Dave shrugged. "No harm no foul. It's not the first time I've seen a mankey lose control and yours held out a lot longer than I expected."

"Right, Dewford."

"Yup. That place is a fighting specialist's paradise. You can even find pokemon from as far out as Kalos and Alola there. Archie, what do you think of the little guy?"

"Hitmonchan. Hii… Hitmon-chan," the boxer said with a careful nod.

Dave nodded understandingly. Like Ash and his Pikachu, it wasn't unusual for trainers to learn to interpret their pokemon's speech. "Yeah, little fella's got potential. A bit short-tempered, but that isn't anything we didn't already expect coming into this."

"So what does that mean for us then?"

"Well… Your mankey's young. I'd say a few years old at most in the wild and you haven't been training him long either. We're also only going to be teaching you for a few days. Under the circumstances, I don't recommend trying to learn anything overly complicated but I'm open to ideas. What do you think your mankey needs most?"

My thoughts immediately went towards the moves I knew hitmonchan and mankey shared: Dynamic Punch, Close Combat, and Focus Punch came to mind as the strongest fighting type moves available. I eliminated them one by one. Like Dave said, Durvasa was young and high-power moves like that placed a lot of stress on the body. There was a reason they were often the last moves learned by a pokemon. Or in the case of Focus Punch, I felt Durvasa could pick it up on his own in good order.

And then there were the elemental punches. Any of them would grant Durvasa some much-needed coverage. Ice and electric were especially useful to shore up one of his primary weaknesses to flying types. Still, as useful as those would be, I didn't think they were necessary right this moment. For that matter, Durvasa had a hard enough time working out his own fighting type aura. I didn't want him splitting his focus to try to learn an elemental punch he didn't currently need. In fact, even if I wanted to optimize Durvasa's training for gym badges, he would only benefit from knowing Thunder Punch against Winona and Wallace, two leaders I wouldn't be seeing for months if not a full year.

I shook my head. Those were great, but with the time we had, I wondered if it'd be best to learn something more immediately applicable. "What Durvasa needs most is a strong foundation. I tried to teach him what I knew of hand to hand combat, but there are a lot of gaps. I'm more concerned with that than I am about getting him a new move to play with."

"Slow and steady route, huh? That's not bad, but your mankey isn't a human. He can take a lot more punishment than a human athlete can, and so grows a lot faster too. But you're not wrong being cautious either. Learning a move he's not ready for isn't good for him," Dave said. He scratched his goatee in thought before speaking. "How's this? I'll have Archie teach him some basic footwork. At the same time, he can pick up your choice of Power-Up Punch or Detect."

I glanced down at Durvasa. "You do what you want, bud. Would you rather have something to hit harder, or to avoid getting hit?"

My mankey looked down at his fists, clearly conflicted. He stalked up to the hitmonchan and held his fist out, whether in question or challenge, I didn't know. "Man-mankey. Man?"

"Hitmon."

"Man."

'He asked the boxer which was more important to him,' Artoria translated. 'The boxer said strength means nothing if his fists cannot reach his opponent. By the same principle, he himself does not need to be the strongest if he can avoid his opponent's blows. Evasion is further useful because it allows him to close the distance against a ranged opponent more effectively than simply muscling through.'

'I take it Durvasa wants to learn Detect?'

'Indeed, my lord.'

'Thanks, Artoria.'

"Looks like he's made his decision," Dave said.

"Yeah. Durvasa would like to learn Detect from Archie."

"We can do that, work in the training for Detect along with general footwork. Ready to get started now?"

"Man!" Durvasa cheered. He spent all morning scrapping in the field behind the pokemon center but was eager to get right back into it.

Then, to both our surprise, Archie plopped down on the ground. He patted the dirt in front of him in a clear sign that Durvasa should join him.

"Umm, what happened to footwork?" I asked Dave.

"First things first, you gotta know what fighting energy is," he explained. "Aura. Ki. Fighting spirit. It doesn't really matter what you call it, but you do need to understand how to access it. I assume Archie's going to teach Durvasa the basics of what they taught in Dewford. What makes a jab different from a Mach Punch? Why is that energy so important and where does it come from? It won't take long but you may as well take a seat. A good fighter uses his head too."

I doubted that was what Durvasa was expecting, but he sat down with only minor grumbling. I wasn't surprised when Artoria joined him; this was exactly the sort of thing she was interested in.

I worked with Jeanne on her Agility while my other two pokemon got lectured to by a hitmonchan. Really, I drew a circle in the ground and told her to remain in the area while evading my bokken. That drew some dirty looks from passersby, hitting a cute lamb with a stick probably didn't look good, but it wasn't hard to explain what was happening.

From what Artoria told me, the hitmonchan's understanding of aura was mostly similar to what she'd been taught under Quinn. Quinn saw fighting type aura as the manifestation of his knightly oaths, a literal "strength of my convictions" sort of deal. He believed that as a knight, he was strongest when upholding those oaths. Archie saw it as mere "fighting spirit" without any dedication to a higher cause. The hitmonchan enjoyed fighting simply for fighting's sake and saw it as a validation of his efforts towards self-improvement.

'You know you're not likely to be able to use Archie's teachings, right?' I told her.

'I find his perspective to be interesting in itself. As a reasonably accomplished pugilist, his understanding of aura is different from my father's, which is in itself different from psychic aura as described by my lady mother or the fairy aura I am trying to grasp now. Father and I have similar views on drawing out our inner strength, but I do not believe Archie's desire for self-improvement is incorrect either.'

'Are you hoping you can get a better understanding of fairy aura if you examine other energy types?'

'I am, and even if I learn nothing applicable from this, you did say I should broaden my horizons.'

'So I did, Artoria. So I did.'

X

So two days passed. Mornings and evenings were spent running ourselves into the ground, with evenings in particular being rough for Durvasa. After Archie got his lecture out of the way, he taught Durvasa a handful of footwork drills, made sure the mankey could perform each pattern, then threw rocks at him while calling out different drill numbers. He even enlisted Jeanne, who took sadistic joy in using her teammate for target practice while he could only dodge using specific patterns. The goal was to ingrain the basics into him so that footwork became something he no longer needed to think about.

That was how Dave and Archie found out Durvasa could use Focus Energy in motion. The principle to Detect was similar, an "expanding of the senses" until one was aware of their surroundings as intimately as they were of their own hands and feet. Archie described it as a zone or sphere around him. Attacks that were too fast could hit him before he could react, but the added awareness gave Archie the space to avoid most forms of damage.

When Archie figured out that Durvasa was using Focus Energy to sharpen his senses, he stopped holding back nearly as much. The little pebbles came at blistering speeds and punished Durvasa for even the tiniest mistake in footing. It would have been torturous for a human to be put through that; my little terror thrived in it.

By the end of his training, Durvasa could use Detect with some level of skill. More importantly, he'd fully integrated the swaying and weaving patterns of a boxer into his own, nimble style, making him even harder to hit.

We walked to the sandbar where the beachside block party was to take place. We'd received a lot from David Mulaney; it was only fair that we returned the favor. That the couple just wanted us to wear the store logo, pass out flyers, and draw in a few customers was an easy sell. We needed to keep things light for the match with Norman tomorrow anyway.

Author's Note

The sandshrew is a nod to the very first macho brace we see in the anime. A circus boy named AJ uses one to give his sandshrew a workout.

I'm probably grossly fucking up the money thing but ehh. Let's just say that the pokemon world is in a state where minimum wage is still a livable wage, you know, kind of like back in the 1950s or so.

Dave's hitmonchan is named after Archie Moore, not Archie the Aqua Exec. Archie Moore was an incredibly talented boxer. Though he's not as well-known as Ali or Tyson, he is the record-holder for the longest-reigning World Light Heavyweight Champion of all time (1952-1962).

I'm thinking there'll be one more chapter before Norman and then move on from Petalburg.

Thank you for reading. To reach a wider audience, and because I enjoy a more forum-like setup to facilitate discussion, I like to crosspost to a wide variety of websites. You can find them all on my Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/fabled.webs.