"1. Don't shirk work!
2. Run away and pay!
3. Smiles go for miles!"
"Alright everyone, go to work!" Chatot cheered to the Guild.
"HOORAY!"
Everyone dispersed, and Chatot flew over to our little foursome. "Ah, Kata and Ebet! Lovely to see you ladies again!" He seemed more fixated on Kata while saying this, who just folded her arms and rolled her eyes. Chatot stepped back a bit. "Well, yes, as I see you've befriended Team Dazzle, I was going to ask if you could show them around Treasure Town. "
Ebet squealed. "Yeah, of course! That'd be fun, okay, Chatot!" I exchanged looks with Ivy, then broke into muffled laughter.
Chatot cleared his throat. "Well, yes, that'll be all. Have a good day, and all that. Goodbye Ebet, Team Dazzle...Kata...Squawk!" Then Chatot wandered away.
I couldn't resist. "Ooh, Kata, looks like someone has a bo-oyfriend~!" I teased. Kata shot me a death glare.
"Really Rito, you're so childish. I hate Chatot," Kata mumbled. Ebet rolled her eyes at Kata.
Ivy looked confused. "But Chatot's nice! Why do you hate him?"
Kata held her hand up. "Don't wanna talk about it," she said abruptly, and headed up the ladder to town quickly. Ebet, trailing behind, turned to Ivy and I and mouthed the words, "Tell you later." Then she chased after Kata, us following suit.
We headed down the cliff and instead of continuing south to the beach, we headed west through a short path of trees. On the other side was a busy, bustling town. Ivy looked around in amazement. "Wow...lots of Pokemon!" she exclaimed, turning this way and that. Ebet, who couldn't even tell left from right in town, started chatting with a local Urasring and Teddiursa. Meanwhile, Kata showed us around.
"Right as you walk in you have Duskull Bank to your right. If you faint during a mission, you lose your money, so store it here not to lose it. A bit ahead and you'll find the homes of many village Pokemon, and down to your left are Chansey Day Care which handles any eggs you find, and Marowak Dojo for training at will. Electivire's shop is right next to the houses; he'll combine moves with linking. But he's not here today."
Something went off in my brain just then; I remembered the rest of the shops from visits in the past. "I know the rest," I said to Kata, pointing way down towards more buildings. "Down there on your right is Kecleon Shop, where the two Kecleon brothers sell exploring essentials. Always go there before an exploration. Right next to it is Kangaskhan Storage, which stores any important items that you don't want to get lost or stolen on missions. Below that is Xatu Appraisal, I think he helps you open boxes or something, but he's not there either. Finally, at the lonely edge of town is Sparpedo Bluff, which you can see from the Beach."
Ivy giggled nervously. "That's a lot to remember...I hope I get lucky."
Kata and I laughed along with her. "You'll get used to it," Kata promised. "C'mon, let's go buy some things at Kecleon Shop." After Ebet said goodbye to her friends, we all headed to Kecleon Shop.
"Welcome to our shop!" the Kecleon brothers exclaimed at its latest customers, as was their tradition. I scanned the shelves and bought a couple of Gummis, an Oran Berry, and a Reviver Seed, which revived a fallen team member. Ivy was right-it was all hard to remember. Kata and Ebet bought from the purple Kecleon, who sold really expensive stuff that I couldn't even begin to think of buying. How lucky we were to have such experienced (and rich) friends!
We finished up our little shopping trip and stepped away, when a Marill and Azurill stepped up to the shops. The Kecleons looked pleased.
"Ah, the little Marill and Azurill brothers! How are you boys doing?" the green Kecleon asked.
"Just fine, Mr. Kecleon, sir!" Azurill chirped.
"We need an Apple, please, Mr. Kecleon!" Marill asked.
"Well of course, my little ones! Here you are!" the Purple Kecleon exclaimed, handing Marill a paper bag with an Apple presumably inside of it.
"Thank you!" Marill and Azurill exclaimed at the same time.
"Now all we need to do is find our Water Float!" Marill exclaimed, and ran off.
"Water Float?" Ivy asked as the brothers faded into the crowd.
"It's a very rare item for the Azumarill evolution line," Kata told her.
"Ah, those boys are as fine as always. Their mother is sick, you know, so they are responsible for housekeeping and all that," the purple Kecleon told us.
"Wow, really?" I said, raising an eyebrow. "What amazing little kids." Everyone nodded their agreement.
Suddenly, the brothers tore back to the shop yet again. "Mr. Kecleons, you gave us two Apples!" Marill exclaimed.
Green Kecleon laughed. "Well, you can keep it, you two are just such nice boys," he said.
"Wow, thanks so much!" the boys said simultaneously. Marill ran off, and Azurill started to go as well but dropped an Apple. Ivy smiled slightly and handed it to Azurill.
"Thanks so much, miss!" Azurill exclaimed and ran off. Ivy did not respond; in fact, she looked rather dizzy. She suddenly shook it off and asked us, "D-did you all just hear somebody scream?"
We gave her strange looks. "I have good hearing, but even I didn't hear anything," Ebet said.
"Maybe you're overexerting yourself. Go to bed early tonight," Kata said, putting her hand on Ivy's shoulder.
Ivy muttered, "Alright..." but seemed mostly lost in thought. We walked around aimlessly, just familiarizing ourselves with the town and its inhabitants. We were about to get a new mission from the Bulletin Board when we passed by the Marill brothers talking to a Drowzee.
"Oh! Mr. Rito! Miss Ivy! Look, Mr. Drowzee is going to help us find our Water Float!"
"Really? That's great!" I told the brothers, Ivy nodding in agreement.
"Heh heh. I always like to be of assitance," Drowzee said with a grin. "Come boys, let's go to Mt. Bristle, I know we'll find it there." He started to head off with the brothers, but bumped shoulders with Ivy in the process. "Oops! Excuse me, Miss," he said before taking leave.
Ivy again did not respond, looking dizzy again. I tried to snap her out of it, but only a few seconds later she did, looking horrified. "O-oh my Arceus!" she exclaimed.
I stared at her. "What's wrong, Ivy?" I questioned.
She then proceeded to tell me she had had some sort of vision where Drowzee had been threatening Azurill on Mt. Bristle! "Really?" I asked her. "But that Drowzee seemed nice..." I looked towards where Drowzee had left with the brothers, then laughed. "You must really be tired, Ivy. Let's choose an easy job for you today." Ivy looked offended, but didn't object. We made our way back to the Guild and to the right Bulletin Board.
"Hmm, let's see, taking out criminals I guess? Let's see what we can do," I told Ivy, before an alarm went off over our head. We stepped away from the board, panicking. Then the board flipped over!
"Gah! What happened?" I asked Ivy, who just shook her head with a bewildered look. The guild Sunflora giggled as she stepped up to us.
"Dugtrio is updating the outlaws on the board, that's his job," Sunflora said. On cue, the board flipped over, with new pages. But right in the middle was a big picture of a notorious outlaw. It was none other than...
"Drowzee!" I exclaimed in amazement. Suddenly all of what Ivy said made sense! There was no time to make sense of it, though. With a fierce look in my eye, I said to Ivy, "Let's go!" With equal fierocity, Ivy joined me as we ran to Mt. Bristle, leaving a confused Sunflora behind.
We arrived at the foot of Mt. Bristle. Immediately I noticed Marill staring up at Mt. Bristle, back to us.
"Hey! Marill!" I called out to him.
Marill turned to us, and I could see tears streaked his face. "Oh, Miss Ivy, and Mr. Rito! Please help me! Drowzee tricked us!"
"Don't worry, we'll save your brother, Marill!" I assured Marill. "C'mon, Ivy!"
We headed into Mt. Bristle.
There were plenty of rock and ground types here- GAH! I suffered through this. Ivy rolled her eyes plenty of times, taking out the majority of enemies while I survived by the skin of my teeth and any Oran Berries we picked up. At least I got experience from whoever Ivy defeated. Any bird Pokemon we encountered on the way were defeated by me. It was hard, but we made it to the peak, even with a couple Oran Berries left.
"I can't fit through that hole! Get in there and steal the treasure for me!" I heard Drowzee yell.
"N-no! That's not ours, we can't steal it!" Azurill's shrill voice pierced our ears.
"Well then...I guess I going to have to do away with you!" Drowzee exclaimed, heading towards Azurill.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!"
Drowzee looked towards us, and exclaimed angrily, "You two! How did you find me?"
Instead of responding, Ivy cried angrily, "You're not going to hurt Azurill!" With a flick of her leaf, she released a new move- Energy Ball. Azurill shrieked and ran out of range, and it struck Drowzee in the stomach.
"Why, I oughta...!" Drowzee exclaimed, and used Psychic on us. Ivy screeched in pain-an impressive amount of damage inflicted on her despite being a grass type. Though I doubted that more and more each day...
"Rito, keep your head in the game!" Ivy cried at me as she Tackled Drowzee. I snapped out of it, nodded, and fired off a nice Thundershock. Lucky us, he was paralyzed! We went off a bit, until the effect faded and Drowzee attacked us with a close range Psychic. The match could still go either way. Despite this, though, I was losing hope. He was our strongest opponent yet!
But the worries faded as Ivy bravely stood back up and Tackled Drowzee- who caught her mid-Tackle and tossed her to the ground. She was almost out. I growled at Drowzee, "You're not allowed to hurt her!" Then, with all my might, I charged up my last Thundershock-which was blue! The extra-power Thundershock struck Drowzee head-on and he fell to the ground, unconcious.
Ivy struggled to her feet. "We...we did it, Rito!" she cheered weakly.
I helped her walk. "You were amazing, Ivy," I said happily.
"S-so were you."
Grabbing the Exploration Badge, I teleported me, Ivy and Azurill out of there.
We were at the Guild, getting a hefty reward from Sheriff Magnezone and the two deputy Magnemite. Even after Chatot took his part, we had 200 Poke, a Yellow Gummi for me and a Purple Gummi since apparently Ivy loved those. We also got another Reviver Seed-yes!
"Bzzt! It is impressive that rookies managed to catch Drowzee! Bzzt, how did you know where he was?" Magnezone asked us.
"Actually, Ivy had some sort of vision of the future!" I exclaimed proudly. Ivy blushed.
"I-it's true...I don't know why, but I had dizzy spells, then saw the future..." Ivy rambled, not knowing what to make of it.
Magnezone just shrugged. "You'll figure it uot in due time, bzzt! Thank you for your cooperation, bzzt!" Then Magnezone left, his deputies and Drowzee in tow.
Then once again we were confronted by Chatot. He looked pleased. "Wonderful job, Team Dazzle! You've been here two days and are already doing great things! I'm certain that you will be great explorers!" I grinned, while Ivy blushed red.
After a shower, we both met on the lower floor. Surprisingly, we had been early, and not many other guild members were here. We sat down and chatted, laughing about crazy theories of her seeing the future and how she became a human. Her laugh was soft but merry, an adorable little giggle. I felt elated every time she laughed at a joke I made.
Some time later Kata and Ebet joined us, and we shared our story with them. They were both very impressed at our rookie skill. Ebet joked, "If this isn't a case of beginner's luck, I don't know what is!" We continued to chat until dinner, with one hilarious scene where Chatot came by to flirt with Kata. Though Kata vowed us all to secrecy as to why Chatot has a slap mark on his right cheek.
Dinner was as great as it had been last night. Everyone shared their stories for the day, and many congratulations came for our story. Everyone was so nice, it was amazing to be there, to truly be a part of this. With Ivy by my side, who blushed at the praise, I felt lighter than air, as I had been yesterday. Was exploring always like this! Count me in for life!
It was saddening when the day finally came to an end, though I looked forward to what tommorow would bring. I said goodnight to Ivy and watched as she climbed into bed and closed her beautiful red eyes. Wait, did I just say "beautiful"?
Then it hit me. Her bravery, shyness, and the mysteriousness of her being...I was enchanted. The strange Chikorita that I had known for three days...I had a major crush on her.