''Zoroark, could you help me here?'' Asarchi Ketchum, age 20, asked.
''Zor.'' a Zoroark said, walking up to him and picking up a pile of scrap metal. Anybody who didn't know Asarchi would have run screaming from the black Dark-Type. Pokémon were now enemies of humans, and attacked without prejudice. But Asarchi had a special power over the creatures. He was able to tame them with merely a look. This power had first been revealed when he was three.
Flashback...
''Ahh!'' came a scream from the street. There, standing tall and angry, was an Armando, one of the most vicious Pokémon in Palmo.
It picked up an unlucky person and threw him into a house, crumpling the patched wood into splinters.
''Asarchi, get inside!'' David Ketchum, Asarchi's father, yelled.
His three-year-old son looked at him. He was directly in the path of the rampaging Armando.
Asarchi turned back to the Armando, who caught sight of him. He was the only person who wasn't in a house.
The Armando charged. It kicked up a dust cloud that blocked both from view.
''ASARCHI!'' David screamed, fearing the worst.
But there was no worst to fear. When the cloud cleared, the Armando was standing right in front of Asarchi, a look of confusion on its face. Asarchi was watching its face intently.
''You're not a bad Pokemon.'' Asarchi said, making the Armando nod almost imperceptibly. ''You're just mad. I'm mad at whoever you're mad at for making you mad, which makes everyone else mad, so that just means that you get more mad and everyone just starts hurting each other.'' he added in the strange way that young children talk.
The Armando sat itself down on the dirt road, and Asarchi put his hand on the Armando's forehead. It closed its eyes, brilliant red even when it wasn't angry, at the touch.
''Mando.'' it said, reopening its eyes. It stood up. It and Asarchi looked at each other for another minute, absolute silence throughout the street.
Asarchi smiled. ''Stay here. Nobody's mean here.'' he said. The Armando looked surprised, then thoughtful. Eventually, he nodded.
Soon, people started to exit their homes, slowly at first, then the rest came out.
David slowly walked up to Asarchi, watching the Armando the entire time. He picked Asarchi up and put him on his shoulder.
''From now on, we have a protector.'' he said proudly. Someone clapped, and it gradually gained intensity until it was a roar. After three hundred years, the people of Darna Village finally had something to celebrate about, no matter how small it is.
Flashback ended...
Asarchi and Zoroark carried scrap metal to the village blacksmithy, about the most technologically advanced area nowadays.
As they walked along the single Darna Village street, they passed some people who were working on their own small projects, like weeding a garden or mending clothes.
''Asarchi. Zoroark.'' Jason Solo said, nodding when Asarchi and Zoroark passed. Jason worked as a farmer during the summer and as a repairman in the winter.
''Hey, Jason.'' Asarchi said.
Zoroark growled a greeting, and they continued walking. They eventually stopped at the blacksmithy and went inside.
Inside, the temperature was clearly much hotter than outside. A Greneo stood at the anvil, his arms morphed into a hammer and tongs to hold the red-hot metal that he was smelting.
He looked up and gestured to a very small pile of metal next to the coal-filled cistern, and Asarchi and Zoroark emptied their arms on the pile.
''Neo grene.'' Greneo said, holding up the metal he had been pounding with its hammer. Greneo scrutinized the metal, then, finding some miniscule error, heated it up and began fixing the details.
Asarchi and Zoroark turned around to leave, but Greneo stopped them.
''Greneo.'' he said. Translation: I'm almost finished.
Asarchi politely stayed, while Zoroark left. After a few minutes of Greneo working on the metal, he looked at it, then, satisfied, dunked it in water and handed it to Asarchi.
Asarchi took the metal figure and looked at it. It was a perfect statue of him, down to his eyes, which seemed to glow in the metal. He looked at Greneo, who smiled.
''Thank you.'' he said. Greneo gestured for him to leave, and he listened, looking at the excellently crafted statue. Greneo never showed anyone its creations until he was satisfied with them. Namely, they had to be perfect.
As he walked home, he looked up at the darkening sky, and knew that tomorrow would bring new experiences.
He didn't know just how different it would be.