Chapter 7
"Rival Trainer Battles"
Yasashi and Mizu locked their eyes as the television monitor shows the two Pokémon and their health bars increase to max. "Go Sentret!" Mizu yells as her Pokémon rushes onto the stage. Yasashi looks at his Pokémon in confidence and yells, "Go Eevee!" The Pokémon rushes onto the stage and the battle finally begins.
Music from the orchestra plays in the background as the battle starts. Yasashi began to contemplate a strategy to tackle the battle, and figures one out. "Eevee, use Tail Whip to lower its defence!" he says. "Got it." it replies. The Pokémon moves swiftly across the huge stage and brushes its tail against the opposing Pokémon. It tries to swat the Eevee away and it returns back to its side.
Mizu realised his strategy of creating an advantage and tries to make the first blow. "Sentret! Use Scratch!" Mizu orders. Using its tail, it leaps in the air toward its opponent and makes direct contact with its little claws on the Eevee.
Yasashi looks at the monitor to see that the attack took off about a fifth of its health. He began to feel nervous about the situation but decided to make his move. "Eevee, use Tackle!" The Pokémon quickly dashes toward the Sentret and slams into the Pokémon. An announcer in the background in heard talking into his microphone commentating on the battle. "Critical hit!" he yells. The attack took more than half of the Sentret's health and Mizu began to lose morale in the battle. Am I going to lose this battle? No! I'm not finished yet! "Sentret, use Scratch again!" she yells without any strategy. It runs toward the other Pokémon only to miss its attack and the Eevee counters with another Tackle to close the match.
The Sentret is sent flying toward Mizu and she catches it in her arms. She falls on the floor for doing so but she is more worried about her Pokémon. It looked up at her with its saddened eyes. "You did great out there." she says as she cradles it in her arms.
Yasashi walks to her and hands out his arm. She shakes his hand after getting up and looks at the Eevee in disbelief. "You have a pretty strong Pokémon, Yasashi. I can't believe it myself, but a loss is a loss." She looks at the bow on its left ear and smiles. Yasashi looks at the Sentret as it tries to move up but to no avail. Yasashi asks Mizu if he could hold her Pokémon for a minute and she hands it to him, though very puzzled. He remembers that his DNA contained information from every known Pokémon in existence and tries to use this to help the Pokémon he holds in his hands.
What was that move called that helps heal wounds? Does it work on others or…? Let's try, Recover! Suddenly, a wave of light is flowing out of his hands to the Sentret and it begins to feel better. It jumps off of his hands and moves around bursting with energy. Mizu and the crowd stare in disbelief and Mizu asks, "How on earth did you do that?" Yasashi shrugs and replies that it's a secret. Mizu opens her mouth as to persist, but stops. She looks at her Sentret that is dancing around and smiles.
The monitor is flashing with the image of Yasashi and his Eevee as the winners and cheering can be heard from audience. Prof. Oak walks toward the two to congratulate them and turns toward the large crowd still cheering. "Well, there you have it! The first battle ends with Yasashi Ikiru being the winner of our first match!" he says as the audience continue to cheer loudly. Oak goes to Yasashi's Pokémon and heals it with a potion and an ether and returns to the front of the stage. Yasashi and Mizu return to their squares to await for the next match. "Now for the next battle! Let's see if Sei-Shun can dethrone Yasashi in the next match as the top trainer of the three so far!" Sei-Shun's square suddenly switches with Mizu's and then he and Yasashi are facing each other.
"You ready?" Sei-Shun calls out from the opposite side. "Of course! Let's start this battle!" Yasashi replies. The monitor now shows Yasashi and Sei-Shun with their respective Pokémon and the match begins.
"Zigzagoon! Use your Growl!" Sei-Shun calls out. The Pokémon takes a step back and lets out a cry that lowered the Eevee's attack. "Use Tackle!" Yasashi says to the Eevee. It rushes straight toward the opponent and slams into it like it did before and the Zigzagoon falls backwards. Its health drops almost halfway, but Sei-Shun wasn't swayed by this. "Use Tackle as well Zigzagoon!" The Pokémon zips across the field in a zig-zag pattern which Yasashi's Pokémon couldn't keep up with and then it is sent flying. "You did it Zigzagoon!" he yells from across the stage. The Eevee manages to land on its paws and Yasashi looks at the monitor. The attack took almost a third of its health, and he knew that Sei-Shun had the advantage with his Zigzagoon's speed, but Yasashi could still win this if he gets lucky. The match continued for several minutes and both Pokémon had their health very low. Both of the trainers knew that only one would win this battle, and it was nearing its end.
"Okay, Eevee! Use Tackle!" Yasashi says.
"Zigzagoon! You as well!" Sei-Shun says also.
The two Pokémon rush at each other, everyone holding onto their seats at this point to see the outcome of what seems to be the end of this match. As they were about to make contact, both of them suddenly missed their attacks! Everyone was bewildered at what had just happened and gasped. Before anyone could react, the Eevee turned around quickly enough to gain the advantage of the situation and dealt the final blow on the Zigzagoon. Even when it was faster than the Eevee, the Pokémon's confusion caused it to fumble when it realised what had happened, but it was too late.
The Zigzagoon tried to get back up but fell on its side. Sei-Shun ran up to it and picked it up. "You were awesome" he says to it. He looks at Yasashi and nodded his head. "It seems that you got lucky this time Yasashi. I guarantee that this won't be happening next time." He smiles and Yasashi replies, "Guess we'll find out the next time, won't we?" The cheering grows louder and louder as the monitor reveals that Yasashi is the winner.
The three trainers stand side by side with their three Pokémon as Prof. Oak presents them their new Sinnoh PokéDexs installed with the National Dex feature as well as six Poké Balls. "There are many Pokémon in the Kanto region that cannot be found in the Sinnoh region. I want the three of you to help fulfil my dream in Pokémon research. All I can say now, is good luck, and make sure your journey is filled with joy and challenge." Oak says facing all three of them.
Yasashi looks at his set of Poké Balls and then at the Eevee. "You'll be my first Pokémon on this amazing adventure, Eevee." He and the other two trainers face each other, and then simultaneously toss up their Poké Balls. Their Pokémon then jump to their respective trainer's ball and all of them make a tick sound to signal the capture of a Pokémon. They all fall back down to their trainer and they all look at their PokéDexs. Information on their Pokémon show up on the screen. After a while, they send out their Pokémon from their Poké Balls. Yasashi looked again at his PokéDex to read the text about his Pokémon that pops up and then turns toward his Eevee.
"So, according to the PokéDex, you're a girl…"
The Pokémon stared at him blankly for a minute and questioned, "I thought you knew." It wiggled the ear with the pink bow on it and Yasashi sighs. "Well, from what I remember, around an eighth of your species or so is female, which is a low amount, for some odd reason. Besides, I said that that was the only colour I could find from my mother's sewing kit." he says pointing to the bow.
While the two were bickering, the other two trainers were speaking to each other.
"I have no idea what he is talking about." Mizu says to Sei-Shun. "I think he's talking to it. Something about not knowing its gender until now." he tells her. "Well I happen to know my Sentret's, so this doesn't pertain to me." She looks at her PokéDex faces her Pokémon, irritated. "What do you mean you're a girl?" she suddenly says.
Sei-Shun looks at his and at his Zigzagoon. Mine's a male! Well, I knew that before then, so ha! He smiles to himself and Yasashi and Mizu turn to face him. "And now this guy is going to say that his is a male I bet." both of them say in unison. "Huh?" Sei-Shun breaks out of thought and then realises what they said. "Oh, um… heh." Sei-Shun nervously says.
Everyone laughs while they continue to argue and Prof. Oak was the one to break it up. "Well now! It's always fine to have some new things appear once in a while, but let's stop this so we can finish this celebration shall we?" The three stop arguing and stand to face the crowd.
"Here we have it ladies and gentlemen, the three trainers of Pallet Town have received all they need to head off! Now let us wish them a big farewell!"
All the attenders let the air flow out of their lungs as they say farewell to the three trainers. Their mothers and fathers wish them luck at the front of the stage, the exception being Mizu whose father and mother aren't present.
Mizu was the first who arrived at the gate after the festival, next came Sei-Shun and then Yasashi with his Pokémon on his shoulder. "So, your Eevee will travel alongside you out of its ball?" Sei-Shun asks. Yasashi nods and places his hand on the Eevee's head and scratches its fur. "Yep, why don't you have yours out as well Sei-Shun?" Sei-Shun takes out his ball and looks at Yasashi in the eye. "Please, just call me Sei, that's what I have my friends call me that." He lets out his Zigzagoon from its ball by throwing it up in the air. It bursts open and he catches it in his arm.
"I heard that Pokémon Trainer Ethan and Lyra travelled alongside their Pokémon when they travelled across Johto and Kanto. Red also did that with his Pikachu I believe. If that builds a stronger relationship between them and their Pokémon, then I'll do that too." He scratches his Zigzagoon's ear and it licks him.
Mizu looked at the two while they spoke to each other and she takes out her Sentret's ball. The ball bursts open after she placed it on the floor next to her and her Pokémon stares at her in confusion. "I'll have you travel next to me outside of your ball if you're okay with that" she tells it placing her hand on its head. It lets out a cry of happiness and jumps up to hug her. "Hey! Hey!" She manages to get it to stop hugging her and wraps her arms around its stomach facing forward.
Yasashi and Sei-Shun arrive at the gate to see that all three of them would be travelling with their Pokémon out of their ball. "Hey! So we all have the same idea." Sei-Shun says pointing to Mizu's Ferret. She turns away from him. "Whatever." she says. She spots something Sei-Shun was carrying and points to it his back. "And you're bringing that too?" Yasashi follows her finger and sees that Sei-Shun carried his pack, which resembled Green's when he was on his journey, as well as something in a leather case. "Oh, this?" He points at it with his thumb. "It's my guitar. I always have it with me. Always gotta have something to livin' things up a bit, right?" he replies. Mizu shakes her head and sighs. "Whatever. You two ready to go?" She asks. They both nod at her and walk out the gate together to start the greatest adventure of their lives
