-Route 101-
Himiko decided to go to the place Brendan talked about. It wasn't too far, he said, but it was because she didn't have half the practice he did on walking. For a girl that had never left Mahogany Town on feet, this was somewhat of a trip.
She soon reached Oldale Town, while carrying Futa in her arms. They both weren't bothered by any Pokémon during the small trip, so it wasn't a huge problem.
Oldale Town wasn't any bigger than Littleroot Town, having a few less houses than it. On the other hand, there were two buildings that caught her attention; one of them had a bright blue roof, and that was where Himiko went first. It was the Pokémon Mart, where some old man was blabbering about it being closed. This meant he couldn't buy pokeballs because of that. There was a note on the door, saying it was closed due to extraordinary events, but would be open the next day.
The other one, with a red roof, was the Pokémon Center, although it was slightly different from the one she knew from her hometown. Inside it, some people were complaining with a nurse about recovery issues, but it wasn't a thing she could understand. The nurse herself was very busy trying to restore the health of some Pokémon Himiko recognized as a Wurmple, so she decided to take a seat and rest a little.
That moment, Himiko heard a calm, male voice. "Do you know what to do?" someone asked, but she couldn't find who said this, even looking aside. She decided to ignore the voice, but it asked again: "Do you know what to do?" THIS time, she got scared and thought to run, but before she moved, the voice could be heard one more time. "It's me, Futa. I'm talking by telepathy."
If Himiko was already scared before, now she went crazy. She had already heard about psychic-type Pokémon, but not only had she not seen any before, but she couldn't ever imagine that her Ralts was one of them. She ran from the Pokémon center, still carrying Futa, and went back to Route 101, to a place where there would be no one near them.
"Oh, boy, you scared me that time!" Himiko said, loudly.
"P-P-Please don't do this again. Negative feelings hurt me."
"I'm sorry. I didn't know you could talk this way…"
"And I didn't think you were a rookie trainer as well…"
"You… you decided to help Birch earlier… by your own will?" Himiko stopped saying loud what she wanted to talk, being sure Futa could understand it anyway.
"Yes and no. I can't stand negative feelings, you both were scared. But I felt your will to help, and stopped that zigzagoon."
"So… Are you still willing to help me?"
"Of course I will help you! You made me happy, and I should help make you happy too."
"T-T-Thank you."
"It seems that you need some help. I can see it."
"Can you… help me?"
"I can give some advice. That friend of yours; Brendan, isn't it? He called you to Route 103. With him being a Pokémon trainer, he will probably ask you for a battle."
"Are you sure you're up to this?"
"It's not an option. Your dream is becoming a Pokémon trainer, too. Trainers battle to show their superiority. And I'll battle for you"
"R-Really? I don't want you to be hurt…"
"Think about it on the positive side. It hurts me just to hear your thoughts. I know I'm not strong enough to defeat a high leveled Pokémon, but that's what training is for. We will go into the grass, we will battle weak Pokémon, and we will get stronger."
"And… you're doing all of this… just for me?"
"Yes. I know you want me to be safe, and I'll be safe when I can handle any Pokémon battle."
Himiko just went emotional. She hugged Futa in such a way he was the only thing left in the world, and started crying.
-Route 103, two hours later-
Himiko finally got the hang of battling. All that she needed was to think about it strongly, and Futa would attack. She even discovered that tackling opponents wasn't the best strategy. As he got stronger, Futa developed some real psychic powers, and went on damaging Pokémon without taking risks. It was true for every single Pokémon they battled, save one.
There was a dog-type Pokémon, which Himiko never heard about, but Futa went right to the spot and taught her about it. It was a Poochyena, it's dark-gray skin was some contrast with the nearly-white skin of Ralts. Its face, with those yellow eyes, screamed darkness. It started salivating when it saw Futa, WHOM couldn't even touch the dog's mind.
"I can't seem to find this guy's thoughts", he said to Himiko
"Should we run, or try to fight him physically?" she thought somewhat loudly
Before Futa could answer, the Poochyena jumped over it, trying to hit his sharp teeth in that body. Futa just heard the little thoughts: "Run, Run". And that's what he did. The Poochyena's teeth ended up hitting the rocky ground they were fighting on, and it decided to keep chasing its prey.
"Just keep holding it… It will become tired sometime."
But that time didn't seem to be anytime soon. The poochyena kept running after it, while Futa teleported a few meters away, which only made the dog angrier. That anger was slowly draining Futa's power, and a few moments later, he couldn't even say a thing by telepathy.
At that moment, Himiko discovered she was doing it the wrong way. She shouldn't be running away from it; in fact, there wasn't only one poochyena there, and they were probably tagging, while both Futa and Himiko couldn't see it. But there was a small thought she had, that even she knew was silly.
"Attack him. Now!" she screamed, and it was at this moment the poochyena stopped, surprised. Futa charged its body, and hit it with a full-shot tackle. It wasn't even close enough to knock out the poochyena, but after being stricken by Futa, it got scared and, that time, he was the one to run away.
It had been around an hour ago, but these moments against the poochyena were still hammering Himiko's mind. She decided to hold Futa in his pokeball that time, to protect his frail mind from that thoughts, while she stopped, a few yards away from Brendan. He was somewhat busy out there, doing some research for his father, and she didn't have enough courage to bother him unless she was ready for the consequences.
But there's always the time… a time where she would need to face it, her first Pokémon battle. While she was thinking deeply about these last words, he looked back.
"I was thinking you wouldn't come here, Himiko."
"You shouldn't think about it so fast… I wasn't prepared enough for coming here, yet. I needed to know a little more about my Pokémon."
"But that's why I called you here. Don't tell you managed to do this alone."
"I can't be sure… I tried, at least."
"You probably know by this time… There's only one way to discover about it. And it is… with a Pokémon battle!"
