Sitting on a grassy ledge was a fresh new trainer, Moon. Watching the waves crash into the rocks below was oddly exciting. It reminded her of a Pokemon battle. The build-up of power and force and once the opponent is hit, an explosion of energy, often flashes of light, bounced off and dissipated against the ground.
Looking up towards the sun, she noticed a small, round bird circling above her. "Having fun, Rowly?" She cheered, waving at him. Hearing a coo from above, she smiled back.
Kicking her legs which nonchalantly dangled off the edge, she tapped her fingers carelessly against the dirt. She hadn't been a trainer for long. The grass-flying type being her only companion, but her main goal was to befriend as many Pokemon as she possibly could. Sure, there was the trials, which she was preparing to tackle, but nothing compared to having fun and reliable Pokemon friends around her.
Her starting Pokemon swooped in as she stretched her arm outwards for his talons to cling to. He cooed once again, while Moon shuffled backwards, planting her feet against the ground and jumping up. "I guess we better get on our way." She smiled, petting the bird Pokemon.
A quick search of her bag found the round, dual coloured ball. It suddenly opened, sending a bright beam to the chest of her owl, his body engulfed in a red light before shrinking. The light retreated back into the ball as it closed, ending with an audible click.
While she liked her Pokemon to be out sometimes, she wanted to make sure they were safe and rested during the travelling portion of her journey.
Stepping towards the trampled path in the tall grass, she neared a dense forest. Immediately, she realised how dark it was, despite how bright the day is. On one hand, she desperately wanted the shade, but on the other, the deep darkness was menacing.
Glancing back one last time at the cliff she had been resting at, she assured herself that this forest wouldn't be a problem, she had a Pokemon after all.
Within the forest, she followed the commonly travelled dirt path, carefully stepping over the roots sticking out from the ground and avoiding the occasional Pokemon scurrying along. Under any normal circumstances, she'd follow the Pokemon, hungry to learn more about them and potentially capture them, but with her knees quivering and breathing rough, she just wanted to get to the end of the forest.
It was a lot shorter than she thought, but far longer than she wished for. Coming out the other end, the sun burnt her blue eyes, the brightness overwhelming, but suddenly the warmth rushed back to her. Holding her arms out, she bathed in the sun, letting the gentle breeze flap her slightly baggy shirt, decorated in an appealing floral pattern. Her fringe flowed softly before settling back in place to her pale forehead.
As soon as her eyes adjusted to the light, she made out a figure in the distance, a trainer with two Pokemon. Unable to stop herself, she excitedly skipped forward. She couldn't quite make out the Pokemon from here, but getting closer revealed it to be a Pikachu and… Another Pikachu?
The trainer was laughing, but it wasn't joy, it was far too condescending. Her feet halted in movement, her eyes widening at the sight. The Pikachu seemed indifferent, but the stranger looking one had its head cast down. The tall trainer sneered at what he called 'a worthless imitator.'
Moon felt her hands clench and her shoulders shake. Without a second of thought, she found herself marching towards him, taking long strides. In all honesty, she was sure it looked bizarre, but her anger brought her to disregard that.
"Hey!" She shouted, the Pikachu looking her way, then the trainer, then the 'imitator.' The fire in her eyes sent a shiver down the man's spine. "Don't you ever talk to a Pokemon like that!" Her anger was burning up and out of her throat. She found herself standing between the man and the abused Pokemon.
The trainer stared at her, feeling the heat radiating off of her before stepping back. His Pikachu looked up for advice on what to do. "W-Whatever! You can't tell me what I can or can't do!" He spat. "It's not my fault this pipsqueak foolishly thought it could join me." His final shrug is what really set Moon off.
"How terrible can a person be?!" She stepped forward for every step he nervously took back. "I'm surprised your Pikachu even likes you if this is how you treat Pokemon!" This was really upsetting her, all the blood in her body boiling. "Listen here, I don't care if you're the best trainer in the world! If you mistreat a Pokemon, whether it's yours or not, you shouldn't deserve to call yourself a trainer, or even a decent human being."
His expression was fear and only fear. Leaping backwards, he called to his Pikachu. "Let's… Let's g-get outta 'ere, Pika!" He didn't turn his back on her until he was far enough away to consider it safe.
Moon sighed, feeling the heat surrounding her head fade away. She wiped the small beads of sweat that had appeared around her neck and faced the small Pokemon. "Hey there." She smiled, crouching down to its level. It simple stared back at her, a little stiff. Its head was still drooping, an ear nearly hitting the dirt. "Are you okay, buddy?"
At the word 'buddy', it slightly perked up, but didn't move towards or away from her. "Hm…" Humming to herself, she pulled out her Pokedex, the Rotom waking up and running the start-up program. Once it realised she was trying to scan the Pokemon in front of her, it took less than two seconds to register and open the data.
'Mimikyu, the Disguise Pokemon. Mimikyu dreads loneliness and is said to disguise itself as a Pikachu in order to get attention and love.'
Moon almost teared up at that sad fact, seeing the poorly drawn face staring at the dirt, its squiggly red cheeks smudged. Then the Rotom Pokedex continued,
'Mimikyu prefer dark places, if exposed to the sun too long, their health begin to falter.'
In that instant, Moon knew what was wrong. Sure, it was sad about the abusive words and laughter from the trainer earlier, but the sun was still beating down on this incredibly hot day. Even if the sun was making its way down for the day, waiting any longer wasn't good enough.
Scooping up the small Pokemon, she ran towards the dark ominous forest, hoping that'll be enough for the surprisingly light Pokemon to recover. Breaking through the dense branches, she ended her short sprint once in the shadows of the looming trees.
Lowering Mimikyu to the ground, she petted its floppy head. Placing her Pokedex back into her bag, she found a potion she'd brought for the purpose of healing her own Pokemon, but this was very important too. She had no second thoughts about spraying the Pokemon with the interesting concoction.
Eyes appeared to blink on the belly of the Pikachu disguise. It looked around briefly, before staring intently at the girl who'd just saved it. "Eeeee… Aaa~" It cried in joy, its fake head swaying from side to side. The noises were a little odd, slightly eerie, but the Pokedex had read 'Ghost/Fairy' so she could guess why.
Regardless, she smiled, letting the small ghost run around her crouched figure. Its Pikachu head being knocked around a bit. Moon moved to sit down at the base of a tree, hoping no creepy-crawlies would sneak up on her. Mimikyu stood at her side. It kept singing joyfully to itself. She petted it again and continued to show it a warm smile.
"So, you're Mimikyu, right?" The creature jumped on the spot, only about an inch or two, but more than enough for Moon to find joy in its actions. "You're very cute, I hope you know that." Her voice was a little quieter than normal, hushing herself to try and hide her presence from potentially dangerous Pokemon lurking in the darkness, but she wanted to stay here; she wanted to stay with Mimikyu.
The disguise Pokemon rubbed itself against her green shorts, the twig at its backside beginning to wag. Holding out her hand, Mimikyu let itself crawl on for her to pick it up. She brought it to her lap, looking directly into its true eyes and seeing the happiness it was emitting. "You're an odd one." She giggled, but as soon as she said that, it froze for a moment. "Oh! I mean that in the best way possible!" Her eyebrows shot up, feeling instantly terrible. "Like, you're one of a kind. Something to treasure!" She wasn't lying, she really found this little Pokemon to be something unique.
It began to sway back and forth again, sounding out its joy.
For a good fifteen minutes, Mimikyu kept rubbing itself against Moon's palms and arms, singing and hopping. It was just ecstatic to have someone's attention and Moon had no issues with giving it that attention.
Her mind began to wonder about its costume. It was designed to look like a Pikachu, and while not perfect, it was pretty decent from far away. Even Mimikyu's eerie cries sounded like Pikachu's. It had really tried its best to become a Pikachu in every way.
"Say, Mimikyu…" She began, letting it focus on her fully. "I have to ask. Why the Pikachu costume? Well, I know why, but I'm sure if you just acted as yourself, you wouldn't be called an imitator." It looked down at her palms, crawling a little closer and shaking its head. "What do you look like underneath that?" Immediately, Mimikyu jumped back, crying loudly, as if in distress.
Both panicking, Moon tried to hush the scared Pokemon. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean I was going to look!" She held it a little tighter, bringing it up to her face. Bouncing to her feet, she began treading along the path, back the way she'd come earlier. "Don't cry, Mimikyu, I didn't mean it…" Feeling terrible, she wanted to somehow make it up to the Pokemon. She wasn't sure exactly what she did wrong, but the Pokemon definitely had its insecurities that she needed to be careful of.
Breaking out of the dense forest, the sun had mostly disappeared behind the volcano resting in the water. It was still a little sunny, so she took of her red beanie and gave it to Mimikyu. She didn't know if it would help very much, but she had hopes.
What Moon was trying to do was get Mimikyu to relax by seeing what she saw earlier. The waves crashing into calmness, the open sky that endlessly spread out above them, and the sun – although that would be a little harder, so perhaps the moon.
She approached the cliff edge, slowing to a stop. By this point, Mimikyu's fit had started to resolve itself. It looked around, feeling the warmth of the hat atop its false head. "Kyuuu…" Moon could tell it was a little confused, but absorbing its surroundings.
"Look out here." She whispered, holding it close as it stared down to the deep waves, barely lit by the glowing sun. "I find this really relaxing. I suppose you could see it as a little violent, but there is something so peaceful in the roughness." She began to rant, but the Pokemon listened to every word she had to say. She sat down, just like she was earlier. "Hey, I've got someone I want you to meet! Play nice. He's a friend." She beamed, pulling out her one inhabited Pokeball and let it open into the sky. The familiar owl Pokemon flew out from the powerful beam of light.
Mimikyu watched in awe as it swooped down to Moon's arm. "This is Rowly. He's my friend. And Rowly, this is Mimikyu, it's also our friend."
Friend.
Mimikyu's eyes widened. It stopped moving and just sat there. Rowlet turned its head, witnessing this Pokemon's bizarre motionlessness. "Coo…?"
"K-Kyu! Eee!" Like nothing Moon had ever seen before, Mimikyu began sprinting – sprinting for a Mimikyu at least – around the cliff edge, dangerously so. It kept singing out in pure joy, wagging its fake tail. Moon chuckled, realising it was doing that on purpose, unlike a real Pikachu who would do it out of reaction.
"Mimi! Come back." She called out. It spun around and returned as fast as its little whatever's could carry it. "Look over there. The moon." Its eyes followed her finger and saw the silver shining down upon them. However, while Mimikyu watched the space rock, she watched Mimikyu's excitement of just being with someone who called it a friend.
She had already grown an attachment to the little scamp. It had to be misunderstood. Such an adorable Pokemon couldn't possibly have deserved the treatment it had received. She realised she sort of pitied it, but she knew she wouldn't soon. She was already beginning to see it as a friend and that's that.
On one arm, her bird Pokemon rested, cooing at the full moon. Her other arm felt a cold claw slowly fitting into hers. It didn't look away from the moon, but it just wanted to feel her warmth. She closed her grip on its small hand, hearing a small squeak.
Bathed in the growing moonlight, hearing the sea restlessly rush against the rocks beneath them, Moon couldn't stop her smile from growing.
"I think we're going to be great friends, Mimi."
"Coo~"
"And I hope you'll join us on our journey!"
"Kyuuu!"
Author's Note: So this is a little different to what normally is published to my profile, but I hope you enjoyed it. I decided, with a little encouragement from a dear friend (The Loneliest Of All), that I needed to write about the two cutest things from Alola, Moon and Mimikyu. Expect something else about Moon in the future, I adore her.