Chapter 4 What Friends Are For
This one's a little more of an introspective/expository chapter. I hope it's still interesting nonetheless!
As Purrloin leapt at Noodle and brought claws down on either side of his face, Hil's mind was drawn in two different directions. He knew he should focus on the battle at hand, but at the same time, why were they battling at all? Was this man a part of Team Plasma? That seemed to be the case, after all, he spoke of liberation the same as they had, and spoke of pokémon as if they were his fond friends. If that were the case, then, why was he dressed so differently than the rest of them and why hadn't he left with them?
"Hil! Focus!" Cheren's voice barked at him. Hil blinked dazedly and found Noodle staring up at him pleadingly.
"R-right, sorry! Noodle, try another Tackle…" Hil spluttered. Noodle nodded at him and turned his head back to face the Purrloin with a determined glare.
N didn't speak at all this time, instead, he all but glanced at the Purrloin and it leapt into action. It faced away from Noodle and began to scratch at the ground, throwing up clouds of dust and grit from the pavement. Noodle hissed and waved the cloud of debris away with his fanning tail, and then launched itself at Purrloin in a blind fury. Purrloin easily sidestepped the maneuver.
Again, Hil found himself staring at N. If he wasn't Team Plasma, though, what was he…? He thought back to the comment he had made about talking to pokémon, and then looked at the Purrloin, who had returned to rubbing against his legs. N hadn't told it to perform that Sand-Attack at all and yet it had done so. Skilled trainers could indeed come up with elaborate strategies that didn't require them to constantly bark orders at their pokémon, but that took years of practice and getting to know one's partners. A Purrloin shouldn't have been able to do that…
At Hil's continued silence, Noodle huffed in annoyance and brought his tail down across Hil's left shin. Hil jumped back a little and spat out an apology.
"Please," N mused quietly as the battle dulled. His rapid speech made his words sound a little more threatening than they likely were meant to be, "please focus and allow me to hear the voice of your pokémon."
Desperation clenched Hil's chest. But why? he wanted to scream at this mystery man. "Fine, fine!" he shouted to nobody in particular. "Noodle, Leer, let's try to end this!"
Noodle rushed again at the Purrloin and slithered up close to it, giving it a menacing look. The Purrloin hopped back and hissed at him, and then jumped, landing perfectly on Noodle's back. It dug claws again and again at his smooth flesh, raking deep lines into him. Noodle rolled and bucked the Purrloin off at last, retreating to Hil's ankles afterward. He was panting and trembling. Alarmed at the violent display from N's Purrloin, Hil leaned down and quickly scooped Noodle back up in his arms.
"S-sorry, Noodle," he apologized yet again, "it's okay, we don't need to battle anymore…" Hil found that N was staring at him with crossed arms and pursed lips. The Purrloin sat to his left and licked its paws dutifully, cleaning away the evidence of their battle. Hil's confusion gave way to anger as he took in the damage Purrloin had dealt to Noodle. "What's your problem, anyway?" Hil spat at N. "You've made your point, liberate pokémon or whatever, now go join back up with those Team Plasma idiots and leave us alone!"
"That is an example of what I am trying to prove," N said softly. He bent to his knees and rubbed the Purrloin gently behind the ears. He purred something Hil couldn't make out at Purrloin and then pointed over its head, vaguely in the direction of the forestry surrounding Accumula Town. Purrloin followed where he pointed and then meowed loudly, brushing its body one last time against his arm. N smiled and appeared to stifle a giggle, and then off Purrloin went, rushing into the treeline. N turned his attention back to Hil at that point, standing up and brushing off his pants. "Pokémon suffer at the hands of trainers such as you."
Hil clutched Noodle tighter. The cutting remark hit a little harder since Hil remembered all too keenly having lost to Bianca earlier… and having had to run from Lillipup… He gritted his teeth and shut out those thoughts. He opened his mouth to shoot something back at N but was cut off by Bianca.
"And what makes you so high and mighty and perfect, huh?" she demanded. She planted her hands on her hips and glowered at N. "Who died and made you king?"
"Bianca, maybe don't…" Cheren muttered, holding a hand protectively in front of her. Again, she batted him away.
"No, Cheren, stop it, I'm not scared of him," she growled, "this guy's being a jerk! He—he—leave Hil alone!"
Hil wanted to smile at her words. It felt nice to hear her defend him, even if he'd never tell her that.
N looked all three of them over and sighed. "I'll admit, I am confused by what your Snivy had to say even at the end of that battle. I also admit I had heard that three new trainers would be given pokémon today at the hands of Professor Juniper for her accursed Pokédex, and indeed I had come with the intention of removing them from your care, to prevent any more pokémon from fooling themselves into thinking they may be attached to reckless, careless trainers. But unlike you three, heartlessly capable of watching your pokémon flail and struggle for you," N pointedly looked at Noodle coiled up in Hil's arms, "I can't watch that go on. Watching just your Snivy go down was hard enough. The day for liberating pokémon from you three will come in due time anyway, hopefully in a far more peaceful manner. I am just sorry I was not able to cause the pokémon that will separate from you less emotional distress by getting it over with now."
"What is that supposed to mean? Can't you speak normally?" Hil shouted fiercely, frustrated. Cheren and Bianca both visibly pulled back, eyes wide. Furious, Hil carefully held Noodle tighter so he would not fall, and took a few deliberate steps toward N. This man spoke in riddles! He made no sense and had the audacity to say he had intended to take their pokémon! Their new friends! His ticket away from—
N shuffled away from Hil's aggressive display. That had not been the reaction Hil had expected. "Perhaps I misspoke, I did not intend to anger you, humans are difficult to explain things to… I wish none of you any harm… Please calm down before you hurt that Snivy. I'm going to leave now. Head to the Pokémon Center and heal it, please." N straightened his ballcap that had fallen slightly ajar and gave Hil a slight, pained smile. "I am sorry things have to be this way. You seem to not enjoy battles all that much, either. You struggled to focus and strategize. You seem like someone, if the world were simply different, I may have even liked." He turned his back to Hil and his friends and then began to walk away.
Cheren and Bianca flanked Hil on either side and chattered away at him, a mix of worry and anger. "Is Noodle okay?" Bianca had asked. "Come on, let's go to the Pokémon Center," she insisted fretfully.
"What an absolute bother," Cheren huffed as he looked after N. Bianca began to walk Hil toward the Pokémon Center but that didn't stop Cheren from fuming. "Who does he think he is? To come over to us, battle you, and then insult you for it?" He shook his head.
Hil heard their words but gave empty responses and dull nods of agreement in answer. His mind was still stuck on something N had said. You seem like someone, if the world were simply different, I may have even liked. It shouldn't have stung the way it did, but Hil couldn't help it. N hadn't even given him a chance to get to know him! He had just started spouting Team Plasma's ideologies, and then demanded a battle! Then had decided Hil wasn't worth liking? If the world were simply different… am I really that hard to like? Hil thought in frustration. He had only just gotten Noodle! Of course he wasn't an amazing trainer yet! Nobody was on their first day! Besides, pokémon enjoyed growing alongside their trainers! If N could talk to pokémon like he so claimed, surely, he should have been able to pick up on that from Noodle? Unless…
Hil looked down at the Snivy curled up with his eyes shut in his arms. For a fleeting moment, he wondered if Noodle, too, disliked him as a trainer. Almost as if sensing the discomforting thought, Noodle's eyelids flickered, and he looked up at Hil groggily. They stared at each other for a few seconds and then Noodle trilled, a long, happy, high-pitched noise that made Hil, Cheren, and Bianca stop in their tracks.
Hil laughed, a nervous laugh that barely hid the sadness in his voice. "I'm glad one of us had fun," he added weakly. Bianca awed and melted, gingerly petting Noodle on the head.
"You don't think we'll be seeing that N guy again, do you?" Bianca whimpered. She pouted at Cheren, twiddling her thumbs.
"I don't know," Cheren answered, sounding resigned. "But that's not really what I wanted to talk to you about."
"Really? What are we gonna talk about then?" she blinked innocently at him and fixed her jacket.
They were leaned against the pale orange, tiled wall of Striaton City's Pokémon Center. They, along with Hil, had stayed at the Accumula Town Pokémon Center over the course of the previous night, and had set off toward Striaton City at daybreak. Thankfully, the arrival in Striaton City had been much less eventful than their foray into Accumula Town. Hil had decided to go train in the Dreamyard, a set of ruins where Munna and Musharna were said to gather, and Cheren had asked Bianca to stay behind with him to talk. Leaving Hil to his own devices in the Dreamyard had been a little unsettling, but he had reassured himself that they would catch up to him once they were done speaking.
He thought for a moment about how he would phrase his response to Bianca. "I'm worried about Hil," he finally said, flatly.
"Why's that?"
"The way N talked to him in Accumula Town, and the fact he's lost every single battle he's been in so far," Cheren sighed. "Except against a wild Patrat and a wild Purrloin. I mean, you heard what N said back in Accumula, right? That he had intended to steal our pokémon? What if Hil had just been on his own?"
"But he wasn't," Bianca said quietly. She cocked her head a little at him. "What are you getting at?"
"I'm just saying… Hil hasn't quite found his rhythm yet," Cheren explained guardedly, "and I think we should try to keep an eye on him until he does." A long pause fell between them as Bianca tried to think of what she wanted to say. Cheren spoke again before she did. "He's also just, really…"
"Gullible?" Bianca offered nervously.
"It sounds mean to say it like that," Cheren muttered, "but, yes, in a way. He wants to be friends with everyone and not everyone wants to be friends."
"I think we might not be giving him enough credit, though. I mean, he got really mad at N! Didn't you see?" she pointed out. "As soon as N talked about having wanted to steal Noodle—"
"—don't call it that."
"—he got really mad at N and told him off. And why not? That's his name," Bianca whined.
"Because it's demeaning, and… ugh, whatever. My point is, I'm…"
"You're worried," Bianca snickered. "I know. You feel like you have to fight everyone else's battles. Arceus knows why." She crossed her arms and smirked at him. "We're not little kids anymore, Cheren. Maybe it's time we learned to protect ourselves from the bullies rather than rely on you to come pick up the pieces all the time."
Cheren frustratedly stamped a foot. "But what if you—I mean, he—can't?"
"We'll learn," Bianca said, with more emphasis this time.
"I guess you're right," Cheren admitted. "Still…"
"You still want to go to the Dreamyard, huh?"
"…Yes."
"Then come on, let's go. There's a difference between not letting us fight our own battles and just hanging out, we can still be with him," Bianca said brightly. She practically skipped over to the entrance of the Pokémon Center with Cheren following at a slower, more reserved pace. It wasn't just worry about Team Plasma's shenanigans that plagued Cheren's mind about his friend, but he hadn't been able to bring himself to talk about that with Bianca.
Despite Hil's snide remarks and insistence that he was fine, even a blind person would have been able to put together Hil was not yet okay following his father, Vincent's, incident in Castelia City. The daddy jokes didn't just bother Cheren because of shock value. What with Hil's love for them, that had been lost long ago. Instead, Cheren was increasingly bothered by the dry humor because of the implications behind it. Hil was in deep denial, doing his best to utterly ignore what had transpired just a few months ago.
Cheren had been the first person told by Hil of the accident. Hil had been aloof, but his voice wrought and hoarse with emotion, and he hadn't spared Cheren any of the nasty details. He let him in on all of it. He said his mother, Amber, had been arguing with Vince across the phone ever since he had left to train underneath Burgh. He told Cheren of how although he didn't often get to hear his father's sides of the arguments, he had caught stray remarks, and had heard his father desperately threaten himself before in what sounded like a last-ditch effort to get Amber to either leave him alone or have mercy. Hil had nearly choked as he explained it never worked and Amber just seized the opportunities to tear into Vince worse.
Then, Hil had gone on to explain that his mother had just been frustrated. Amber had never expected Vince's words to carry much meaning beyond being a tool to try to draw her sympathy, maybe get her off his case.
It had been a hard story to listen to. From what Cheren had gathered (which, admittedly, it had been hard to listen at times due to how shocked he was at the severity of the situation), Amber had wanted Vince to come back home and give up chasing his fruitless ambition of becoming Castelia City's next gym leader after Burgh, but Vince had been willing to give anything to chase that dream… anything. In the moments after Hil had finished telling the story, Cheren had felt awkward and a little useless. He wasn't much of one to show his feelings publicly, unlike Hil, and truth be told, he wasn't entirely sure how.
So, he had offered his condolences to Hil as best he could, given an awkward hug, and listened to his friend lament over why Vince had wanted to leave him so badly he had taken his own life. Cheren had tried to do his best to explain to Hil that the decision was likely not due to him at all, completely unrelated, even, but that had seemed to cut Hil in a totally different way. It was at that point Cheren had decided to stop offering words, and start offering actions. He let Hil speak, vent, and ever since, had done his best to sort of safeguard his friend.
Hil and Bianca… neither were particularly strong. Cheren had always been the foundation, the support. He prided himself on that role and had every intention on upholding it. His jaw clenched as he thought of N from earlier. He had heard of Team Plasma and had been warned it was possible there could be opposition from people who claimed to be part of them. He supposed he would have to be strong in the physical sense on this journey, too.
