Chapter 21

[Jay]

"Heya, Chell. How's training coming along?" As I casually walk on over to greet the tired Oshawott, I try to figure out how she thinks she's doing, so I get a better idea of what advice to give her. As I sit down, I can see just how tired she is after a simple bout of swinging her scalchop around. She's breathing pretty hard, and her fur is now drenched, sticking to her like she had walked out in the rain for a good while. She's also breathing pretty hard, implicating that she's used up most of her energy already. Nevertheless, she looks up at me and greets me with the biggest smile I've ever seen. "It's going great, Mister Jay! I'm really tired, but I think I'm making progress!" She beams, pointing to her stump with a paw.

I chuckle in response to her enthusiasm, using my hand to mess up the fur on her head, paying no mind to the wet, soggy feel of her sweaty fur as I do so. "Stop it, Mister Jay!" She giggles in response to the light teasing, swatting away my hand with a light smack of her scalchop. "That's great, kid. Now, I'm going to take a closer look at the stump you carved up, 'kay? I'll see if I can't give you some tips." Taking a look at the stump, I can see a lot of decently sized, diagonal and horizontal cuts along the surface of the wood. However, when I walk on over to the stump and use my finger to feel along the cuts, I raise an eyebrow in confusion. I find it odd, that the cuts I'm feeling are rather wide for the kind of blade that Chell uses. The cuts are made at an odd angle, too. "Hey Chell, can you hand me your blade for a sec? I wanna check something out over here." Chell quickly makes her way over to me, handing me her trusty scalchop with the blade extended from the shell's opening. I take the blade, and hold it up to one of the numerous cuts on the stump, putting the sharp edge of the blade into the gash. As I try to move the blade from side to side in the cut, my suspicions are proven to be true. The gash doesn't cut too deep, and the angle of which she is cutting is the cause of that.

"Chell, take a look at this." I motion for her to come on over, which she complies to without question. Using her blade, I make my own gash along one of the untouched areas of the stump with her blade. Holding her scalchop in my hand, I make a vertical cut downwards along the stump. The blade penetrates the wood with ease, leaving an indent deeper than the rest of the cuts. The cut is also smaller in width, due to the more precise angle that I'm cutting at. "Gimme your paw, kiddo. I want you to feel this." Tapping the bark where the vertical cut is close to one of Chell's cuts, I gently take Chell's paw and place it against the cut she made, and then placing it against the cut I made, both made with the same blade.

"Do you feel anything different, kiddo?" I ask her, Chell immediately nodding in response. "I do! Your cut is thinner than mine." She states, taking the scalchop from my hand as she tells me. As she takes it and places it back on her chest, I grab her attention by tapping her on the head with a finger. "I noticed you slashing at the stump, and I couldn't help but notice how quickly you were cutting at it. Why were you swinging your sword around so fast, anyway?" I ask her, seeing her scrunch up her face in thought when she hears my question. "I don't know, actually. I think I just wanted to do more damage faster." She replies after a while of thought, to which I nod in understanding. "I get that, but think about it like this. Do you think that a lot of careless, shallow gashes would win you the match? Or would a few precise, deep slices get you the win instead? Which do you think would be more effective against your opponent?" I ask her, allowing her to think for herself as I walk off to take a bottle of water from my backpack.

As I open up the bottle and take a sip, I sit back down next to Chell, handing her the bottle as she keeps thinking about what I had asked her. "Here ya go, Chell. You need to drink up, or else you'll dry yourself out real quick." Chell quickly takes the bottle, eyeing it like she would eye a piece of food on her plate as she puts the bottle to her mouth and greedily gulps down the water handed to her. In no time at all, she had already washed down half the bottle. She sighs happily as she puts down the water bottle, letting me pick it back up. "Thanks, Mister Jay!" She thanks me as I take a look at the remaining contents of the bottle, sighing as I drink up myself. "Geez, someone was thirsty, eh?" I reply in a sarcastic manner, taking another couple of sips from the bottle myself.

"So, about the question I asked you. Did ya come up with an answer yet?" Upon hearing my question, she shakes her head. "I don't know. I think that both ways would work well." She replies, to which I grin, patting her on the head. "Great answer, kid. You're quite right. In truth, both would work well, but they would work best when used together." She really surprised me with that one to be honest. I hadn't really expected her to work that one out like she did. She grins at the praise, really melting into my ministrations. Her head is pushing into my hand, as if trying to get me to pet her harder as she lets out a satisfied hum. "You've already gotten the fast part down, but your precision could be improved." I tell her, walking over to the stump and tapping it lightly with a finger. "For now, just stop trying to attack quickly. Instead, try relaxing and cutting deeper with each strike. Then, when you're able to do that, try cutting deep and fast at the same time. Got that?" She smiles and nods in confirmation, quickly getting up and readying her scalchop again. "You got it, Mister Jay! I'll try my best!" She replies, quickly returning her attention to the tree stump.

"I know you will, kiddo. Just don't try too hard, 'kay? Last thing I want to see happening is you hurting yourself." I tell her before I leave, getting up and walking on over to check up on Katrina. Upon my arrival, I can see that she's stopped resting and has picked up the pace again, returning to her pattern of attacking with a combo of Pursuit and Scratch. She's using her chain of attacks at a relatively fast speed as well, relentlessly striking the unfortunate stump over and over again with her close range moves. As I take a closer look at the small feline, I can see that her expression is calm as usual, but her eyes show me a different side of her. Her gaze is cold and calculating, but also holds a fiery aura of determination. She is also completely focused on her target, not letting up her assault. Every now and then, her deft back legs give the stump a swift kick, creating some distance between them, before she quickly rushes at the stump again, resuming her attacks.

From what I can see, though, her moves are predictable to a certain degree. She's not really trying to make her movement more varied, save for her angles of attacking. However, that may be due to the fact that she's fighting a stationary opponent that won't fight back, instead of an actual enemy. As I sit down next to the swiftly moving Purrloin, I keep a close eye on her, checking to see if I can't find some other points that I can give her some advice on. The only thing that stands out to me the most is her eyes. Those two orbs are focused on the task at hand, constantly monitoring the target, while at the same time they make minute shifts from the left to the right during a reprise in her attacking, like she's checking her surroundings.

This pattern of her eye movement really surprises me. She's already developed a strong sense of awareness, which is really vital for any fight. Her ears are also twitching as she moves around, no doubt being used to detect any alien sounds around her. To sum it all up, she's quite impressive, if I do say so myself. The only flaw that I can see for now is the lack of a ranged move for her to use, as every kick that she uses during her combo, it almost seems to break up her chain of attacks, forcing her to rush back in if she wants to keep hacking away at the stump. That kinda blows, but at least her speed is high. Her maintaining of focus is also pretty good as well, as she always switches up her angle of attack whenever she lands the hit on a certain side more than a few times.

However, what happens next is…unexpected, to say the least. Katrina leaps up into the air to deliver another Pursuit attack, her paw glowing a faint grayish black. However, as she lands the hit, her front leg suddenly bends at the joint. She cries out in pain as her paw loses its glow, her inability to straighten her leg causing her to fall to the ground in a heap. She curls up into a ball once she hits the ground, unable to do much besides cradle her leg in pain with her other legs.

Sitting right there beside her, I notice immediately, rushing quickly to her aid. Putting both my hands on her body, I gently try to get her to straighten up, so that I can get a better look at her injury. When she refuses to, I reach out my left hand to rub her back, trying to get her to relax. "It's going to be okay, Kat. I can help, but I can't if you don't show me that leg of yours." My coaxing seems to work, as her body relaxes, allowing her to straighten out and leave her injured leg out in the open. Taking a closer look, I don't see any external injuries to the limb, meaning that the cause of this is most likely internal. "I'm going to move your leg now, so tell me if something starts hurting." She gives a nod, letting me slowly move her leg to straighten it. As I get halfway through the action, she gives a pained hiss, clenching her teeth as her face contorts into an expression of pain.

"Well, it looks like you've got a cramp, Kat." I tell her, causing her to let out a sigh. "Is there any way you could hopefully rid me of it?" She asks, her neutral expression returning as I return her leg to a bent position. "Well, I have an idea that should work, but I should tell you in advance that you may not like it at first." She thinks for a while, considering the offer before she nods, her mind made up. "If it solves the problem, I would be more than willing to give it a try." Hearing her answer, I gently reach a hand out to hold her leg. "Alright, then. Before I begin, I should tell you that this method also works as a great stress reliever." And so, Katrina's special treatment begins as my hands get to work.

Not even a minute later…

"Ah! Jay, please do be less forceful with me." The Purrloin gasps, tensing up slightly under my treatment of her. "Geez, Kat. Didn't I tell you enough before? If you want this to work, then you're going to have to relax and let me in." I sigh, stopping myself from moving. "However, this is my first time experiencing something like this, so please be gentle." She breathes, letting me resume what I was doing as she relaxes, still laying down on the ground. "Heh, don't worry about that, Kat. It's my first time doing this, too. Alright, I'm moving back in. Just calm down, and breathe in…and out…" I soothe, allowing my hands to close in on the feline below me once more.

"Nnngh…It hurts…" Katrina seethes, letting out a hiss when I apply some pressure. "I know it does, but it'll feel good soon enough, Kat. Just relax, and let me do my thing." I reply, gently rubbing her to get her to loosen up. It kind of works, as the part I'm rubbing slowly starts to relax. "See? It's working already." I tell her, as I feel her loosen up a little more as my rubbing continues. "But…you're doing it so roughly…" She pants, sweat trickling down her small frame as I let out another sigh.

"But I thought that I told you that to loosen up your muscles, a massage was necessary! It has to be forceful, or else your muscles aren't going to let up for a while." I tell her, kneading her leg with my fingers, being careful not to accidentally break her leg bone while I'm at it. Tracing her leg from her shoulder to her ankle with a couple of fingers, I apply some pressure to the lag as I move along. What? What did you think I was doing to her? Slowly but surely, my efforts on her leg muscles start to pay off. She's now completely relaxed, allowing me to knead her muscles with a little more force without complaint. "You're still a bit sweaty from the attack exercise from just now, huh?" I ask her, kind of feeling some sweat on my fingers as I continue to apply pressure to her leg. However, she seems to be quite far away from the threshold of reality right now. She purrs dreamily, giving me a half-hearted affirmative noise that's drawn out as I continue to tend to her. When I'm done, I pull my hands away from her, seeing her snap back to her senses. When she realizes that the massage is over, she almost looks saddened, her eyelids drooping a little lower in dejection as she sighs.

"Are you finished already?" She asks, the look on her face hoping for a specific negative answer, her true desires locked away behind the vault that is her tone of voice. However, that's not what she hears from me. "Yup, I'm done. That leg of yours should be all better, now." I nod, seeing her ears droop low as she hangs her head slightly. I wait for her to request the thing that she wants from me the most right now, but she doesn't ask. Well, that means she's still a little hesitant about the whole asking favors of me thing. I kinda find that to be a little strange, to be honest. You'd think that after the deal I made with her, she wouldn't be a stranger to asking favors from me at all.

As she gets up to most likely return to her training, I quickly come to a mental consensus about what to do next, my next choice of action quite obvious. "Hey Kat, I'd like you to come over here for a second." She pauses in her tracks and looks back to me, obviously not expecting me to call her over. Still, she slinks over and sits down next to me without question. Without so much as a warning, I scoop her up and place her into my lap, my crossed legs allowing her to quickly gain footing and gaze up at me in shock. "What are you-" She's quickly cut off by my hand gently stroking her back, causing her to tense up immediately upon contact of her coat with my hand, but she quickly relaxes into my touch, making a small purring noise. Perfect. She's all set for Phase 2 of my plan. Reaching one hand up to her head, I gently apply some pressure to the top of her head, my fingers holding her head as my thumb aims for a particular spot next to her ears.

The touch works like magic. It doesn't take long before Katrina melts completely in my touch, both of my hands now focused on massaging her collarbone, then back to her head. I repeat the motions, switching between the two spots every once in a while. For as long as my massage lasts, Katrina maintains a content look on her face, smiling happily as she mewls and purrs loudly. It only lasts for a short while, but as soon as I pull my hands away from her body, she still lies there, panting and face flushed as she looks up at her assailant. "That felt real nice, didn't it? You really needed that one." I chuckle as she gets up into her usual sitting position, looking at me with a confused expression. "Listen, if you ever want something from me, don't hesitate to ask. No matter what you need, I'll always try my best to help you, 'kay?" Her eyes widen for a bit, before she smiles and nods. "Thank you." She tells me, looking quite happy as she beams at me. Her smile this time around is different. It's not her usual smile she wears, it's…happier. More genuine.

"No problem, Kat. Now, quit training for now and rest up, alright? If you'd like, you can join Nesia and mess around with the computer for a bit. Your leg may be fine now, but you still should rest for a while to keep it from acting up again." I smile back, gesturing to the Snivy typing away on the computer I handed to her. She nods in reply, although her smile has already reverted back to its usual, lazy counterpart. As she gets off my lap and starts moving on over to join Nesia, I decide to check up on Alita. It doesn't take long to find her, as she's the only other Pokemon in the clearing, but it seems she's still having trouble aiming her Air Cutter. From how it looks from here, she's been trying for a while. I watch her launch a volley of blades at the tree stump, most of which end up missing as they hit the ground around it. Some blades do make contact with the stump, which means she's making progress.

She doesn't seem to notice that herself, though. She looks really frustrated right now, descending from her spot in the sky to land on the ground. Seeing me next to her, she lets out a sigh. "It's not working, Jay." She muses, looking disappointed. Confused, I raise an eyebrow. "What's not working?" She looks at me fully now, fiery anger plain to see in her eyes. "My aim, you idiot! I'm just not hitting the damn thing, no matter how hard I try!" She yells at me, clearly frustrated, before she looks down again. "Maybe I should just give up." She mumbles, her voice now sounding defeated as her head hangs low.

Hearing this, my smile dissipates as I quickly use my hand to lift her head up as I look her in the eyes, getting a little pissed myself. She looks shocked to see me like this, as she's never really seen me get serious at anything before. However, what I say next is spoken calmly. "Remember what you promised me, Ali?" I ask her, causing her to flinch before she retaliates, her eyes narrowing. "Of course I do! I promised that I would try my best! But look now! It's not working, Jay! It won't ever work, either!" She fumes, quite certain that she has failed in her task. However, I'm not about to let her own opinion of herself stoop that low. "Is that true? Or is it what you're just telling yourself to believe, to give yourself an excuse to give up?" I ask her, my serious demeanor unchanging, even in the face of her rage.

Hearing this, she quickly stops in her anger, eyes widening as she looks at me. "What?" The word spills forth from her mouth, as she sounds surprised to hear this. "You heard me." As she mulls it over, her expression softens as she looks down again, looking guilty this time. Now that she's calmed down she'll be able to hear what I have to tell her. "You may not believe in yourself, but I do. The world can stop believing in you for all I care, but I'll still believe in you. Never forget that, okay?" As she hears this, she looks at me with wide eyes. "Jay, I...I-" Before she can finish, she's cut short by the volley of star-shaped projectiles headed our way, which I quickly notice. I grab her and roll out of the way, for the stars to hit the tree behind us.

Looking back at the tree that now has a few deep cuts in it, I look at Alita, still cradled in my arms. "You okay?" I ask Alita, getting her to nod. Looking at my assailant, I see a Watchog, with a group of Patrat trailing behind it. They all look really pissed, which probably means that they're out for a fight. Uh oh…