Alright, this is something I started awhile ago, but I never got back around to until now and I'm really hyped up to finish and publish it! :D

As per usual, I hope you enjoy!

Please read and rate/comment, I'd love to hear what you have to say!

Dawning of a Butterfree

Chapter 1

Shinji

There she is! I stop with lost breath and hide, peeking out from behind a tree. I watch her, sleeping angelically as her dark blue hair shimmers in the morning sunlight. As she wakes, her equally dark blue eyes shine even more brilliantly than the day before as she begins to ready herself for the day's travel.

"Stalking the girl again, are we?"

I jump slightly, looking down to see Elekid smirking below. I frown at him. "Shh! We can't let her see us!"

"You know, she's only been in the forest for a couple of days and it takes five days for a human to get out of here. Maybe you should introduce yourself, Butterfree."

"Don't be ridiculous! She's a contest trainer…" I sigh, floating back to the grassy floor at the root of the tree. "She'd try to catch me."

"Don't you want that?"

"If she catches me, then she'll only think of me as a partner…" My wings droop with my antennas. "That'd be too hard to deal with…"

"Well, isn't it harder to never see her again when she leaves or are you going to continue to stalk her? He smirks, chuckling to himself.

I focus all my annoyance into tackling him. "No!"

"Hey! I was just joking!" He laughs before looking over my wings. "Brace yourself, here she comes."

Without second thought, I fly up in a panic. She looks around the brush, looking up into the leaves where I'm hiding for a long moment. I can feel my heart flutter as I stare into her dazzling eyes. She turns away, not seeing me, and walks back towards the stream she was camping by.

I sigh, settling myself as I perch on a branch of the tree. She looked at me…

"Heh, I know someone who can solve your love dilemma." A voice giggles above me. I look to see a cheery Buneary with a pink bow tied around one ear. "My name's Akemi. My master can help you, she's a Poké Witch."

That sounds too good to be true… I frown, glaring at her. "What's the catch?"

"There's no catch." She giggles, hopping down the tree branches to the grassy surface below where Elekid is. "Promise! Now let's go!"

I nod, flying down and grabbing Elekid by the arm, dragging him with me. "Come on!"

"Where are we going?!" He yells as he tries to keep up with the pace of my wings, tripping a few times. "Slow down!"

"We have no time!" I flap my wings faster, keeping the overly cheerful Buneary in sight. "We need to follow Akemi!"

"Who in Hell?!"

She leads us further and further north to the most overgrown part of the forest. I pull Elekid through the thick brush, not wanting to lose Akemi. Elekid yells complaints that I ignore. Eventually I stop, seeing the eerie Old Chateau standing before us.

Vines growing up its beaten exterior, paint faded due to the elements that have pounded it over the years. I always thought it to be too rustic and creepy for any normal human to want to explore unless they were looking for trouble. The Chateau is where the Gastly roam and they love to pull pranks on anyone, Pokémon or human. I haven't roamed in this area since I was a Caterpie.

Elekid eyes the building with a frown. "What're we doing here?"

"My master resides on the second level." She jumps through the shrubs that have nearly overtaken the front gate. "Follow me."

I fly Elekid over the gate and reacquaint him with the ground, letting him walk the rest of the way. I follow Akemi in hesitantly, the memory of the Gastly picking on me when I was a Caterpie haunting me. I shake it off as I enter the grand double doors, following right behind Akemi.

She giggles, as a Gastly appears and licks her, obviously not affected by his attack. The Gastly disappears and Akemi continues on her way, leading us up a staircase to the right. We enter the first room on the right to see a large library and a human girl that seems to be almost an adult. She wears a blue sleeveless shirt and black skirt with blue and black boots. Her hair is long and black under her black pointed hat, wrapped by a thick blue ribbon.

Akemi jumps over to her on lands on her shoulder, gaining her attention from the book the human holds in her hand. She smiles, petting Akemi's head. "Hello, Akemi." Who're your new friends?"

"This is Butterfree," Akemi jumps down to me, "and he has a problem that I think you can solve."

"Oh, really?" She smiles as she closes her book and kneels down. "I'm Chieko. What's wrong?"

"She understands us?!" Elekid yells, snaps back astonished.

Chieko smiles kindly. "Of course."

"It's her special gift, silly." Akemi giggles, patting Elekid on the back.

She asks again, "So, what's you're trouble, little one?"

"Well, there's this human…" I start off, not able to make eye contact.

"He has a crush on a human girl!" Akemi blurts cheerfully.

"Is that so?" Chieko looks at me and I nod, unable to say much more without stuttering and babbling like an idiot. She smiles, standing again and turning to a bookshelf. "Ah! Here it is… The Poké Mermaid."

"Poké Mermaid?" I repeat, flying up to see the book in her hands. "What's that?"

"It's the story of a girl who became human to be with her true love." She smiles, showing me one of the pictures. "I can do the same to you, if you want."

"Turn me human?!" I feel my heart beat fast. Then I could be close to her…

Elekid clears his throat, frowning with a suspicious look in his eye. "Can he really turn human?"

"Yes. There is a remedy I can make, but the effects could be temporary." She explains, taking an older looking book off a different shelf. She turns back towards me saying, "The effect of the potion normally lasts for three days and then you'll turn back into a Butterfree. There is a way for you to become a human permanently, but it's hard to achieve and comes with a heavy cost."

"What kind of cost?" I frown.

"If you can receive true love's kiss, then you'll be able to stay a human, but you'll never be able to battle and fly as a Butterfree again." She looks at me seriously. "Can you really go through with that?"

I nod, not thinking twice. "Yes."

"Then there's no time to waist!" She beams, "Let's get started."

I nod, following her back down to the first floor through a large dining area with a very long table. It's bright, lit with the natural light through the windows and small candles set out in various places around the room. With the light, it takes some of the gloomy air out of the place.

It's surprisingly tidy in the Chateau for being so old and abandoned for such a long time. Though I bet this Chieko has had an effect on this place. The Gastly haven't appeared to pull pranks or scare us at all. She continues to lead us to a room to the right where I see shelves stocked with various jars with labels that I can't decipher.

She looks between the shelves stocked full of various ingredients and her book. She mumbles, taking out various containers, handing them to Akemi who transports them through another doorway on the opposite side of the room. Soon, a couple Gastly help Akemi with her chore.

I watch them move back and forth, Akemi not loosing her cheekiness for a single moment. Chieko turns to me and Elekid with a smile, motioning us to follow her to the other room.

"Butterfree." Elekid says hushed. I turn back to see a worried look on his yellow face. "You sure you can go through with this?"

"Yeah…" I nod, with that beautiful girl's smile painted in my mind. "I have to at least try."

"Well, I hope this works out for your sake…" He says, starting to mumble about something else so low that I can't hear him.

"You coming?" Akemi bounces over to us. "Come on, the potion's almost ready!"

Elekid sighs, rolling his eyes. "Where in the world do you get all this energy?"

"I'm always energetic." She grins, pulling his arm. "Now come on!"

I chuckle as he gets dragged away by the little fuzz ball of sunshine into the other room. I follow shortly behind, finding a large kitchen. I see Chieko humming over a large pot on one of the machines with a couple Gastly floating around her. I fly over behind her, sitting on the table in the middle of the room.

After a few minutes she turns a knob and pours some of the concoction into a cup, turning to me with a smile. "And here we are; one dose of instant human! You ready?"

"Always." I nod, taking the cup in my small hands. I gulp it down, making sure to drink every last drop of the sweet liquid. For a moment, I feel nothing until a shock is sent through my system. I drop the cup, watching it in slow motion until I can't see anything at all and I feel my body being swallowed by darkness.

"Butterfree… Butterfree."

Who? What's going on?

"Come on, wake up!"

That sounds like Elekid…

"Shh! He's sleeping!"

"Akemi, be nice. He'll wake up soon enough."

With Akemi and Chieko… What happened? Last thing I remember is dropping that potion. Did I pass out? I slowly regain consciousness, relearning how to open my eyes. Wait, have I ever closed my eyes?

When my eyes are finally open, I see Elekid, Akemi, and Chieko beside me. Elekid jumps beside my face looking worried. "You alright?"

"Yeah…" I start to sit up, then have a pain go through my brain like a Thunder attack surged through it. I press my hand against my head. "Ow, my head."

"Well, you did hit the floor pretty hard."

"I can tell…" I say annoyed, then see how long my arm is. I bring it down, looking it over to my hand to see that it's different; human. "It worked!"

"Well, duh!" The annoying little Buneary rolls her eyes. "Chieko makes the best potions!"

"And I can understand you guys?"

Chieko puts her hand on my shoulder. "Being a Pokémon at heart, you'll always be able to understand them."

"Well, that's good…" I smile slightly before she flashes through my mind. I jolt up, getting out of the bed I've been placed in. I then realize that I'm in a different room, one that humans have become accustomed to sleeping in. I believe it's called a bedroom. "I have no time to waist."

"Hold up. Before you set out to find her, you need to find a name to call yourself." She steps in front of me. "You can't continue to call yourself 'Butterfree' as a human."

"Then what should he be called?" Elekid asks.

Akemi bounces to Chieko's shoulder with a big smile. "What about Kazuhiro?"

"No, that won't due…" She thinks for a moment, holding her hand on her cheek. "What about Shinji?"

"Good enough, now may I leave?" I frown, quickly becoming annoyed and impatient. "I don't have much time."

"One more thing." She smiles, picking up a small backpack. "There're some various items in there along with pokéballs. Just catch a Pokémon and you'll seem to be more like a trainer."

"How do I do that?"

"Why don't you just use me?" Elekid pulls on my pants. "I don't mind."

"You sure?"

"Absolutely." He smirks. "I can be your wingman, well, Pokémon. Besides, I can't let you go through with this on your own."

"Alright…" I nod, hesitant to point the Pokémon towards him. He jumps in, vanishing into the little red and white sphere.

"You're ready." Chieko smiles, beginning to lead me out of the room and down the main staircase. She opens the door to the forest I've grown up in, but this time, I'm not Butterfree; I'm Shinji, the Pokémon trainer. Chieko smiles at me, "I wish you luck on your journey."

"Thanks." I nod, starting off in a mad dash into the forest. She's probably on the main path. I need to make it before she does… I promise you, my angel, I'll prove myself to be worthy enough of your love…