Edit(ed) by: Andrizzi

"Haven't seen you in a long time," Lino commented while petting Fujita.

I was currently writing down the berries that we would need to buy the next time we would be at the market. We were running low on them, and I underestimated Kitsune's hunger.

"Hey, Adam?"

I looked up.

"What is it?"

"I'll come Sunday and take Hoseki with me. My father wanted to show me and him a new arena that was built near our house."

"Can I come with you? I need nearly thirty minutes to reach the nearest one I know of."

He shrugged.

"Sure, why not. But as I know my dad, he'd like you to bring your pokémon with you, so that he can see a fight. While he was never a pokémon trainer, he still enjoys the fights. I bet he was there when you fought Okubo, too."

I raised a bow.

"Did you tell him you visited the arena that day?"

He shook his head.

"He would have wanted to follow us and would have probably noticed that you weren't there on the visitor ranks."

Eventually, the bell rang, and we got to the classes, Fujita opting to stay on my shoulder. Since she was allowed in school and class as long as she wouldn't interrupt class, she was there and listened, as it seemed interesting for her as well.

Currently, we were in biology and talking about the difference between pokémon and humans. The main difference, of course, was the ability to create attacks and being more resilient against physical damage.

"Now, can someone tell me an example of a being standing between the border of pokémon and animal?"

"An ursaring, maybe?"

"Good guess. There are not many pokémon that have not that much energy at their disposal. Even little pokémon like your eevee there have enough energy to enhance their bodies or manipulate their opponents. Ursarings, however, rely heavily on strength – as normal bears do as well. Most of their natural attacks are scratch and bite moves as well."

{They still are strong, right?}

I absently nodded, remembering how I left them always alone while traveling in the woods. Since they were territorial and strong, I saw no reason to anger them.

"Now, there is also an interesting difference in how they get injured and heal. Can anyone tell me what it is?"

Standing before the house, I looked up.

I felt around, and I could sense an egg and a female pokémon in one of the rooms. Grabbing Kitsune in my power, I teleported us both up there. Since I was in a completely human form, it was far harder than it usually was, but I also should be unable to learn teleport anyways (as far I know), so it's not that surprising.

In front of me was an ampharos, surprisingly enough.

To her credit, when I popped into existence in her room, she only blinked once.

{Who are you?}

"{I'm Kyoyhoa. Imai told me you have a problem?}"

She nodded, looking down.

{Our child simply won't hatch.}

I thought about it for a moment, then touched the egg carefully.

"{An ampharos… still alive. Same as with Kitsune's egg…}" I said, looking through the energies.

Kitsune perked up when hearing her name, looking down on the egg before him.

I reached in me and split off a small, small amount of my psychic energy, giving it into the egg.

A glow rushed along my arm, entering the egg, then it dispersed.

"{I assume you want to know what I just did?}"

She nodded, sitting down, so I did the same.

"{Well, there is a specific condition that eggs simply don't hatch when the pokémon inside of it didn't develop its brain properly. There is a 1/2000 chance that this happens, and together with the other problems that can appear with eggs – like suffocation or similar things – there is an around one in 550 chance an egg will never hatch without outside influence. That number is probably that high because of the powers we have, and the drawback of them.}"

And that was true, as well. Humans and animals had a way, way smaller chance of something even remotely similar happening to them.

"{Usually, when the brain develops, some neurons inside of it connect randomly and interact with each other. That starts the development of the brain. However, when that doesn't happen, the egg can develop further, but without the brain working properly, the child won't hatch. What I do is to give that push, but I can only help around one of four cases, as there's only a rough one in four chance that is the reason when an egg isn't hatching.}"

{Uhhhhh…}

I think I broke her.

"{Put things short: Some eggs don't start developing properly, and this can help about a fourth of them, as I just did.}"

I looked at her, realizing how she was staring at me.

{Thank you, thank you!} she cried out, hugging me with her short arms.

Slightly embarrassed, I put my arms around her as well.

"Now, since we are done with our material for today, are there any questions?"

I raised my hand.

"Yes, Adam?"

"Well, I remember that pokémon eggs sometimes don't hatch, and that can be caused by a few things, but I'm not sure which."

"Well…" he said, thinking about a moment.

"For one, sometimes they just aren't alive. Suffocated, not incubated, that sort of thing. Then they sometimes don't develop properly, when they have too little of their internal energy or something else. There are a few other, really rare cases, but that's about it. By the way, most of the alive eggs that don't hatch have an energetic problem in their development, as such, they can be saved by a push of psychic energy."

"Thank you," I responded, looking at Fujita who was looking up at me.

{Does that mean you can do that with almost all eggs?}

"As long they are alive, probably," I whispered back.

{Well, you may not have noticed it, but at that ranch, your brother was at there was one egg that simply wasn't hatching. Could you take your time and look at it?} she asked unusually serious, her ears slightly dropping.

"If I find the time," I said, petting her.

{…to…?} Kitsune asked, somehow managing to speak way earlier than I did. Why is he developing that fast?

"{The stadium,}" I responded, having turned after hearing from Fujita that there was an affected egg at the ranch. Imai had a lot of connections, and I hoped he would know a big pokémon capable of flight, a swellow or pidgeot maybe.

"{Excuse me, do you know where Okubo's manectric is?}" I asked the lady who was selling tickets.

"He should be in the pokécenter of the stadium," she responded, pointing to the side. Walking there, I found him lying there, getting checked on by a nurse.

{Kyoyhoa?} he asked upon recognizing me.

"{Hey, Imai. I wanted to ask if you know any pokémon that could bring me to the ranch in the woods nearby.}"

{I know a few. I'll ask them. Why?}

"{Egg,}" I responded, and his face fell.

{That's, what, two in three days? I don't like that I'm hearing about so many unhatched eggs.}

I shrugged.

"{Well, there should maybe five to ten thousand appear. Per year. This is a big world, and we are bound to find a few of them.}"

{That many?}

"{That was the best-case scenario,}" I deadpanned, before picking up Kitsune again.

"{Well, I'll be going. If you find someone, please tell them to meet me Saturday at my house, as Sunday I'll be checking out a new arena.}"

{Okay, see you around.}

Before I left though, I walked over to him and focused a small amount of my energy into him, then bent down to him, coming really close to his face. I took a look in his eyes, then commented:

"{There, you should feel better now,}" – and pulled away.

{You tease!}

Chuckling, I left and walked home.

"Okay, Imai says he will see if he can get me to the farm. With luck, Kyo can look at it this Saturday."

{Thanks, Adam!}

I chuckled and petted the small pokémon.

"Never change…"

{But I'm the pokémon with the most evolutions!}

Whoops.

"I meant you should always stay true to yourself."

{Oh, okay! I just remembered, by the way – Lino told you to visit the new arena with him, right?}

"You want to come?"

She nodded.

{I want to see if I can use some of your tactics!}

I shrugged.

"You know what? After we visited the arena, I'll talk with you about some of the tactics I like to use. Sounds good?"

She nodded, and I concentrated on Kyoyhoa again. After all, we were currently talking about the woods, and about them, I knew more than enough.

"{Well, would you look at that,}" I commented, grinning at the scene before me.

After having finished what I was doing in the eastern district, I decided to go to the park Imai showed me and picked up another of the berries that tasted so wonderful.

For some weird reason, I had the taste of meat in my mouth, but I dismissed it for the time being. Unluckily though, I was proven wrong when I actually felt myself eating the berry, although just for a second.

While I usually would dismiss such an event as a trick played on my senses, I was quite unsure if I should. After all, I already had two bodies, but I was not Kitsune.

[Mom?]

I blinked. That was the last straw – he did not say that in physical speech, but in psychic. But there was no power used, indicating that the connection was already here.

[Yes?] I hesitantly replied, petting him on my lap.

[More!]

I shook my head.

[No, you can't take more.]

[Why?]

I turned a bit, and she followed my gaze, seeing the other pokémon in the park.

[They want them, too.]

[Oh.]

After that short conversation, I appeared unfazed, but internally, I was freaking out. After all – one just doesn't develop a hive mind without reason.

I decided to visit the alakazam I saw at the arena a few days earlier and ask it about it. As I saw it, it was working there, in turn, meaning, I could find it there.

Maybe Sunday, after I visited the arena Lino wanted to show me. Arenas were open almost all the time, and pokémon don't really care about the day of the week.