Aaron's Pokemon
- Artoria (Kirlia)
- Jeanne (Flaaffy)
- Durvasa (Mankey)
- Unnamed (Egg)
Fish 4.9
Aaron Fulan
Petalburg Woods
I sat in front of the campfire, the egg on my lap as Jeanne tried her hand at recreating the thoramin. It was… a work in progress. The first step, turning her tail-bulb and horns into tesla coils, was simple enough. The trouble was, Jeanne wasn't particularly gifted when it came to music.
I tapped my pokenav and a prerecorded note rang out. Jeanne looked absolutely adorable. She did her best to internalize the note and I could spy a hint of her pink tongue striking out of her mouth as she concentrated. Her tail-bulb flashed and a buzzing zap filled the air.
"Flaaf," she said, shaking her head in disappointment.
"Doesn't sound like it, does it?"
"Flaaffy."
"Did you think it'd be that easy?"
"Flaa? Flaaffy-flaaf."
"Try again. I'm sure you'll get it if you practice," I encouraged.
Truthfully, Jeanne had little talent for music. I'd still support her though. Music was something to be enjoyed. It was, in the end, something that could be achieved with raw passion and dedication alone. I had no doubt that she'd get there in time.
While my little lamb was doing her best to pick up the basics of music theory, my starter was trying to teach Durvasa his letters. She'd initially begun by scratching the alphabet into the dirt using the back of her spoon. Durvasa did his best to learn them, but it was hell on the little guy.
Durvasa was a mankey. His brain was hardwired to process information in a much more practical, proactive way than a human or ralts. What worked for Artoria in her youth didn't necessarily have the same effect with him. She had to indulge in an impromptu spar more than once when he finally lost his patience or got too restless.
In the end, what worked was Artoria reading the serving instructions of Durvasa's favorite pokechow. When he realized he could find out more about the ingredients, purported nutritional benefits, and flavors from the labels on the cans, he got a fair bit more cooperative.
Which wasn't to say he was magically fluent now. If anything, that was just the first step. Artoria had a hard time bridging the gap between human language and phonetics with the simple, intent-based language of pokemon.
I leaned back and watched the stars. Much like Earth, this world had its own constellations. In fact, it had several, from both pokemon and humans alike, and not just psychics. Alice once told me about a migrant flock of pidgeot that marked their destinations by the light of the stars as well as the electromagnetic pull of the earth below.
What I knew to be Rayquaza's coiling body was the plume of a massive pidgeot to some bird pokemon. That same line of stars was also the lightning of a raikou, Cobalion's mighty sword, or the antlers of Xerneas, depending on where you were or who you asked.
Lying here, staring up at the heavens, I was reminded of just how colorful this world was. Beyond the games and anime, there was so much to this world that didn't fit onto the screen. My pokemon weren't doing things that would make them better fighters but that was alright. There was a tranquility here that was almost magical, with natural beauty that was utterly unspoiled by civilization.
Just me, my team, and the forest around us.
It was a novel feeling that had yet to wear off. I didn't think it ever would.
X
As always, we trained on the move. I'd picked up a metal katana from a novelty store in Petalburg on my last day there. It was blunt and the steel wouldn't hold an edge even if I bothered to sharpen it, but it felt nice in my hands. The weight of a steel sword was distinctly different from a bokken. The way it sliced through the air made me feel as if I'd acquired something I'd lost.
'Now if only I could find a real sword,' I mused aimlessly, going through a complicated sword drill as I jogged. I was in anime-land and I would train like it.
'I do not believe a responsible adult would sell you lethal arms, my lord,' Artoria said. She jogged next to me, copying me move for move. Her spoon flickered with the blue of psychic power, then the violet-indigo of ghost, and the faintest hint of pink fairy. She was trying to get used to the feeling of "toggling" between the energy types, for lack of a better word.
'Yeah, you're probably right. Couldn't hurt to ask though. Dewford or Lavaridge maybe? I wouldn't mind a European longsword either. Though I might have to go to Kalos or Galar to get one. Hoenn takes after Japanese culture I think.'
'Or perhaps Japan takes after Hoenn?'
'Really? We're playing cosmic chicken and egg games?'
'Arceus is real though. Ergo, it stands to reason that he and his thousand hands forged this universe first. If he created yours as well, it must have come after.'
'We don't know that.'
'Perhaps.'
My training was going well, though not quite as well as my pokemons'. Ever since the tentacool incident, I'd been trying to reinforce my body with aura more often. The sting of the briefest brush of a tentacle had me seizing up in pain. It wasn't even a move, just the tentacool's natural venom. Hell, I didn't even think it was on purpose.
Unforgivable. Pokemon or not, magic jellyfish or not, I dove in to save someone and in turn needed saving. That didn't sit right with me. Being headstrong and reckless was fine, but only if you had the strength to back that talk. And this body, this younger me, was far too green.
I allowed myself to sink into a sort of moving meditation as I swelled my senses with aura. The world seemed more vibrant, the colors richer, the sounds more audible. Empathic perception as the sole talent I had as a psychic; it stood to reason I ought to begin by enhancing other forms of the same. Power would come in time.
In front of us, Durvasa honed his Detect, dodging the rain of Thunder Shocks and occasional Shock Waves from Jeanne. By evading at the last second, he could evade even the homing bolts of electricity, forcing them to ground themselves before he could take damage.
He was also doing it while wearing his weights and facing away from Jeanne as Jeanne was several steps behind Artoria and I.
It was a happy accident, but electricity turned out to be a wonderful training aid, maybe the best possible type for the purpose. It charged the air, making it buzz and hum before the crackling attack came. It meshed perfectly with the hypersensitivity provided by Detect, giving Durvasa a challenge that, while difficult, was predictable and avoidable.
X
We stopped for lunch at a ranger station situated near a creek. It was unlike the ones I'd seen near Slateport. Those had been little better than shacks by the side of the road, with a few logs and boulders scattered around some campfires to serve as benches. They'd been built to be as unobtrusive to nature as possible.
This one was a fair bit larger, large enough to have a healing machine, a small general store that sold canned goods and commonly forgotten camping supplies, and a bunk for rangers. At a guess, this was because of the nature of the route.
The route to Rustboro from Petalburg was a part of the traditional circuit, meaning people went out of their way to start their journeys here, as opposed to wherever they were originally from. Buses, flying services, and teleporters were available to make this relocation easier. The League encouraged this because it made keeping track of, and protecting, rookie trainers much easier.
A ranger station here served double duty, first to watch the rookies and guide them on their way through Petalburg Woods, and second to watch the rest of Petalburg Woods, the significantly less-traveled area with stronger pokemon. In that sense, a larger station was only natural.
Which raised the question, "Say, why is this place so busy? It's early May now," I asked the man at the counter.
He looked back at me with a friendly, megawatt smile. The sheer openness of people in this world still sometimes took me aback. "Well, hello there! What do you mean it's busy?"
I gestured around me. I could see more than a dozen-odd people sitting around, some chatting and having lunch and others looking through the general store's merchandise. "This. Shouldn't most people have moved off the first few routes by now? I expected to see a handful of people like me who aren't following the traditional route for the gym challenge."
"Some are like you, but not everyone starts their journey at the same time. It'd get kinda crowded, don't you think?"
"True. I guess most people don't actually expect to finish the gym challenge in a year."
"If at all. So it's not too strange to see kids go out to nearby cities and call it quits. Having a lot of badges is great and all, but most people don't want to put their lives on hold for a year or more, you know?"
"Yeah, I can see that. I only have two too so it's not like I can brag or anything."
"Yup. Take it slow, kid. You don't have anything to prove," he said with an easygoing smile.
"So they're all rookies?"
"Ehh, a couple. A few of them are veterans, I reckon. We do have to make money year round, you know. We sometimes schedule nature hikes, fishing contests, and similar events for the locals. If you go around to where the ranger cabins are, you'll see a lot more of the serious patrols coming in and out."
"Makes sense. Thanks for your help…"
"Jim, kid. And you're welcome. You're free to browse around or loiter."
So that's what we did. I made my team a quick lunch out of last night's leftovers before cutting them loose. Given that my team had been training all morning, Artoria could be trusted to not keep an eye on them. They'd burned a lot of energy on the way here; surely they'd just sit still and make some friends, right?
Wrong. So, so wrong.
Not ten minutes after I'd taken my eyes off them, when I'd just gotten seated and comfortable, I heard the angry screeching of a mankey and the startled squawk of a flaaffy, followed by a loud splash. I groaned and turned to face the creek.
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I saw exactly what I'd expected: Durvasa looking triumphantly smug while Jeanne tried to keep her head above water with an undignified doggy paddle. Sighing, I got up and waved the veteran trainers back to their seats. "Sorry, everyone. Those numbskulls are mine."
I found Artoria looking out over the creek, doing her level best to look anywhere but back at me. She shuffled nervously back and forth, her aura tinged with the color of shame, bemusement, and then shame that she found this funny. 'I have no excuse.'
'I trusted you to keep them well-behaved,' I chided. Disappointment was much easier to express when we had a telepathic link between us.
'Yes, my lord…'
'Dare I ask what happened?'
'Jeanne wanted to groom Durvasa.'
'And she licks everything she likes,' I mused, putting two and two together.
'She licked Durvasa's ear when he was trying to sleep.'
'Ah, that explains it.' I watched Jeanne flail a bit more. The water wasn't deep, only about four or five feet at most, but to a flaaffy that was less than three feet tall, that was plenty of fluid to drown in. 'She does know how to swim, right? I'm not misremembering?'
'She does, my lord. Her emotions are also not panicked.'
'Oh, good. I was wondering if I was imagining the color.'
'Diva.'
'Yup. Diva.'
'I believe she wants you to save her.'
I sighed. 'You know, I expected you to deescalate before stuff like this could happen.'
'What? My lord! Have you any idea how difficult it is to tame a mankey's temper?' Artoria looked at me incredulously. I would have almost believed her had I not seen the barely contained mirth in her aura. 'Besides, my dear sister is in need of harsh lessons.'
'And you find this funny.'
'And I find this funny,' she confirmed with only the barest hint of shame.
"Are you going to go save your flaaffy or will you just keep staring off into the distance?" came a voice beside me.
I turned to find an older girl, maybe about seventeen or eighteen, with a whiscash at her feet. She was a bit chubby with a heavily freckled face protected from the sun by an oversized straw hat. The whiscash and her trainer had somehow managed to approach us from the nearby mudbank while we were talking.
"Hmm? Oh, sorry, I sometimes zone out when I'm talking with Artoria," I explained, gesturing to my kirlia for emphasis.
"A telepath? Haven't seen one since Anistar. Well your flaaffy looks like she's drowning, kid. You want my whiscash to go get it?"
"Nah, she's just being a diva." I said, shaking my head. I yelled at the flaaffy. "Jeanne, I know you can swim you brat. I can see your emotions! Get back here!"
"Flaaff!" she bleated sullenly. She nonetheless began paddling to shore.
"Really? Did you forget I can see emotions?"
"Flaaffy… Flaa."
"You did."
"Flaa…"
I grabbed Jeanne around the middle and carried her like a sack of potatoes. "Right, see? Just being a diva."
"And that one?" the veteran trainer asked, eyeing my mankey. Durvasa had found himself a nice pine tree to beat up and was busy shaking it to see if anything interesting would fall out. When a wurmple fell out, he caught it and gently put it back into the tree with a sheepish bark.
"He's also mine. Believe it or not, they get along fine most of the time."
"Uh-huh," she hummed disbelievingly. "You've got a weird team, kid."
"I do. Say, you have any fire types? I'd like to dry this one off."
"You know? I do at that. Come on, let's go find a nice clearing where my magcargo won't set the forest on fire."
That was how I ended up spending my lunch break, scolding all three of my pokemon. Jeanne for her compulsive need to lick people, Durvasa for overreacting, and Artoria for failing to stop either of her siblings before things ended with Jeanne going for a swim.
On the plus side, things did end up with me meeting Gloria. The veteran trainer had eleven badges, eight from Kalos and three here. The badges were good for a few years so long as she kept active as a trainer so she didn't seem to be in much of a rush to complete the rest of the Hoenn set. As she said, a conference was a conference; there wasn't any real need to compete in one every single year.
Though she wasn't as dedicated as many others, that didn't mean she wasn't a competent trainer in her own right. Hearing stories about her journey was thrilling, especially the time she got lost inTerminus Cave and almost became food for a durant colony. As far as she was concerned, that sole event justified having a magcargo on her team.
X
We typically stopped walking to set up camp fairly early in the afternoon. Not only was it necessary if I wanted a warm meal cooked over a fire, it also allowed Artoria to meditate with the moonrise. She and Durvasa had come to an agreement: His reading lessons would take place every day after our morning workout and breakfast and every other evening.
After tossing a foil packet filled with sausages, potatoes, and peppers into the fire, I motioned Durvasa and Jeanne away to give Artoria some peace and quiet. She sat cross-legged with her mega stone on her lap and her trusty spoon laid next to her.
That night on the ocean, before the mess with the tentacool, revealed to Artoria the nature of fairy type aura. Or rather, it got her on the starting line. Fairy type aura was, and would likely forever be, a mystery; that was just part of its nature, but now that she wasn't trying to forcibly leash it under her will, she had a much easier time calling on that untapped well of power.
Now, she tackled it with the same single-minded dedication I'd come to expect from her wherever any sort of training was involved. I doubted it'd be long before she could make a fairy type equivalent to Mana Edge.
And then? Then it would be within our grasp, the ultimate technique of Artoria Pendragon: The Excalispoon.
I felt her mind violently twitch at that god-awful name and a warm and fuzzy feeling welled up from within me.
Off a ways, Durvasa got to work on mastering Swift. I'd given it to him two days ago when he succeeded in dodging ten Shock Waves in a row with Detect. Granted, I had a feeling Jeanne hadn't been trying very hard, but it was still a noteworthy feat.
Norman had been correct: Swift was one of the easier moves to get down, and one that shored up a glaring vulnerability in Durvasa's fighting style. In just two days, he'd gone from never having heard of the move to throwing around golden ninja stars with some degree of accuracy. He wasn't great, especially with the homing aspect, but he looked like he had a lot of fun playing at target practice with an empty can of pokechow.
Unfortunately, though Shock Wave was considered an electric type reskin of Swift in the games, the two weren't actually as closely related as I'd first expected. Jeanne made homing bolts of electricity by enhancing aspects of electromagnetism with a hefty dose of aura bullshit, effectively turning the opponent into the opposite pole of a magnet.
That… wasn't at all how Swift worked. Which meant that despite how eager Jeanne was to help, Durvasa didn't get much out of her advice. Still, her cheering was cute so I left them to it.
After setting them up to practice, I settled in for some meditation of my own. I'd long since resigned myself to the fact that I'd never have the twins' natural talent, but that wasn't a reason to not try. I was a natural empath and had begun to infuse my body with aura, both more than most could ever say.
I spread out my senses, closing my eyes and sinking into my own mind. THere were no sights or sounds, nothing that would translate to the physical senses, but the emotions of those around me drew my attention anyway. If I had to describe it, it was as if I was standing in a black void, surrounded by floating, flickering candles, each representing a conscious mind.
Artoria's was the brightest of course, both in power and due to the metaphysical closeness we shared. Her mind was still, almost as if that flame had frozen in her discipline. We brushed against each other, a familiar comfort, before we turned to our own respective meditations.
Durvasa and Jeanne were bright as well, if in different ways. Where Artoria was a calm, stable lamp, Durvasa's mind felt like a campfire, one that lacked the trappings of man. He was a fire that could and would go out of control if left unchecked. By contrast, Jeanne's merry flame danced with an eagerness that suited the lamb who wanted to outshine the sun.
There were others too. We were in the middle of the woods; there was no way we'd ever be truly alone. A group of wurmple on practically every other tree. A nest of taillow hidden in the branches of an especially large spruce. A line of oddish coming alive from their daytime snooze to seek loamier soil. The forest was alive and each mind pinged my senses with a delightful warmth.
I still needed a minute or two of meditative stillness to enter this state of hyperawareness, but now that I had, it was enthralling. This aspect of myself was something I'd have to refine, just as surely as I refined my body and techniques.
Maybe one day, I wouldn't need to sit still and blind myself to reach this state. Perhaps I could combine this awareness with my sword style to reach heights I'd never reached in my past life.
I meditated for a few hours until the moon shone brightly in the sky. When I next became aware of the world, it was to find Durvasa and Jeanne curled up together by the fire, fully tuckered out and all but dead to the world. I left them to their sleep and threw a few more logs onto the coals to keep things toasty before snapping off a quick picture and posting it to the group chat.
Sir_Aaron: Yo, [look], Aren't they cute?
XO-CloudDancer-OX: ? Shouldn't you be asleep?
Sir_Aaron: Ehh, I just got done meditating and saw them cuddling. It was cute so I thought I'd share. Shouldn't you be asleep?
XO-CloudDancer-OX: I was about to go to bed, meanie. And Ali's cuter. [Here] he is with his brand spanking new ribbon from Fallarbor. That's two, by the way.
Sir_Aaron: What happened to this not being a competition? In hindsight, maybe I should've stuck around Petalburg for another two weeks for the monthly normal-rank contest.
XO-CloudDancer-OX: It's not a competition. But if it was, we both know who'd be winning.
Sir_Aaron: You're so much smugger over chat than in real life.
XO-CloudDancer-OX: That's not a word.
Sir_Aaron: It is now. I should get some sleep if I want to wake up for morning training though.
XO-CloudDancer-OX: Yeah, same here.
XO-CloudDancer-OX: Say, you're coming up from Petalburg, right?
SIr_Aaron: Yeah? What's up? You coming down from Fallarbor?
XO-CloudDancer-OX: Yup!
XO-CloudDancer-OX: I'll be down in Rustboro in like a week or so. I decided to actually give the whole hiking thing a try.
XO-CloudDancer-OX: Oh, by the way, Chaz is with me. We met in Fallarbor and started traveling together.
Sir_Aaron: …
Sir_Aaron: Who…?
XO-CloudDancer-OX: Chaz! You know, blonde? Wears a blue suit? Has a machop?
Sir_Aaron: …
XO-CloudDancer-OX: Oh, for goodness sake. [Here], a picture.
Sir_Aaron: Ohhh, that guy. Wait, did he follow you up to Fallarbor?
XO-CloudDancer-OX: Just a coincidence. He said he trained on Mt. Chimney for a bit.
Sir_Aaron: Mmk, so I'll see you both in Rustboro then.
Sir_Aaron: Oh, before I forget.
[Mayple has been invited.]
[ToTheMAX has been invited.]
XO-CloudDancer-OX: ?
XO-CloudDancer-OX: Who are they?
Sir_Aaron: May and Max Maple, Gym Leader Norman's kids. We got to talking and May's a huge fan of pokemon contests. I figure she'd like to meet the future Grand Coordinator early. And Max is pretty swell too. I think they'll get along great with the twins.
XO-CloudDancer-OX: Wow, someone's confident.
Sir_Aaron: I was talking about you actually.
Sir_Aaron: I consider you the most likely person to make GC in the next few years actually. I mean, I love Jeanne, but I think our routine is something that'll take a while to master.
XO-CloudDancer-OX: Aww, don't say that! Believe in your pokemon!
Sir_Aaron: I do, but I'm also realistic. You'll see what I mean when we meet up in Rustboro, but Jeanne's new fascination isn't something that can be mastered in just a month or two. More like years or a decade.
Sir_Aaron: Don't get me wrong. I think I can compete in the Grand Festival, but GC? Maybe not, at least not without a really big revamp to our routine.
XO-CloudDancer-OX: Wow, okay. We should practice together. You, me, and Chaz. We could probably learn a lot from each other, you know?
Sir_Aaron: Yeah, sounds good. I look forward to seeing how far Ali's come. Actually, I don't know anything about your routine at all.
XO-CloudDancer-OX: You haven't even looked at any recordings?
Sir_Aaron: No, sorry.
XO-CloudDancer-OX: Nah, this is fine. Even better in fact. We'll really be able to surprise you then.
XO-CloudDancer-OX: Anyway, I'm going to bed. Hehe, when the twins wake up, they'll have new friends to chat with huh?
Sir_Aaron: Or rivals. This will be interesting regardless. Anyway, goodnight, Lisia.
XO-CloudDancer-OX: Goodnight, Aaron.
Author's Note
Not much happened this chapter, mostly training and laying down the groundwork for things in the future.
Sword fact: The reason Japanese swordsmiths folded metal was because Japanese iron sucks. By folding iron, smiths infused some of the carbon from the forge into the metal, literally pounding it into layers like a croissant.
However, there is a limit to that. Swords were folded anywhere from eight to sixteen times, but no more than that. This is because while you could keep folding, the metal would become too homogenous. The layers would begin to blend together, losing the structural benefits of making those layers in the first place.
In anime and pop culture, you sometimes hear about a legendary sword that's been "folded ten thousand times." This is… stupid.
But, if you allow the writer some license for confusion, it makes more sense. While a "ten thousand fold" sword is silly, a "ten thousand layer" sword isn't. In fact, you can have quite a lot more than just ten thousand layers.
The number of layers are determined by 2 to the power of the number of folds. After eight folds, you would have a piece of iron with 256 layers. After twelve? 4,096. After sixteen? 65,636.
See? Possible, though I guess a "sword folded sixteen times" doesn't sound as special.
Where am I going with this? Umm… Swords and onions are like ogres; they have layers. And make people cry.
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.