I Don't Own Pokemon
I was currently sitting down with my team, having already feed them all when I woke up a few hours later. The current arrangement was Luxray sitting to the right of me, Pidgeotto on my left, Eevee on my shoulder, Misdreavus in my hair, and Charmander in front of me.
While I did enjoy having all of my team with me, didn't mean I wasn't a little antsy about getting back on the road. It was almost seven and the kid, Jonathan, still hadn't woken up. I was sorely tempted to leave or at the very least throw some water at him, and actually had to stop Misdreavus from doing so when I voiced my second opinion.
Still after a while I heard a rustling from his tent and before long he emerged from inside. I gave him a look, he just looked back at me, then to my team before muttering to himself.
"Oh come on, that's just not fair" I raised an eyebrow at him letting him know I heard that. He had the decency to look embarrassed before clarifying.
"You just look to perfect. Like you slept in a proper hotel room or something, not in a forest, heck, I don't think I can even see a hair out of place, that just isn't fair" I would hope no hair was out of place, it an illusion after all, but still I got what he meant. He looked like he didn't get a good sleep, his short hair was somehow was all over the place, and the clothes he was wearing had some dirt marks on it.
"Trust me, being this perfect, is something that takes experience. Getting use to waking up early and walking for hours at a time, over time you get use to it, and your body adjusts to it fast enough" I had no clue if any of that was true, I honesty didn't have to deal with a body that tired out easy. Still he did snort disbelievingly but nodded nonetheless.
"So what's the plan for today?" I already knew his plan, it was to follow me. It was a little annoying, but most of that wore off yesterday after talking to him for a bit, didn't mean it was all gone, just most of it.
"Today? Well properly just a bunch more walking, we're close by to Celadon, if we're lucky we might be able to get their by night fall. After that? I'm planning on challenging the Gym there" He nodded as he seemed to think over what I told him before saying.
"Alright then! Let's get going then" And with that his hyperness showed it's head. I didn't however get up, instead I just pointed to his still setup tent. I grinned as I watched him blush before moving backwards to start taking it down. While he was doing that I stood up, and grabbed my bag. Before asking around my team about who wanted to be returned.
I didn't get any volunteers like always, Misdreavus jumped into my shadow which told me her answer, while the others just refused, in the normal way. Watching as Pidgeotto flew up into the air while making sure to tell him to make sure he could always see me. While Eevee and Charmander hopped onto Luxray's back.
Something he liked to do with his improved size was to give rides to members of the team, I thought it was adorable. Looking over to Jonathan, I noted he was almost done. Giving Luxray a rub on the head while I waited. After another moment he was ready and so we all went off. He only lasted about two minutes later was when he asked.
"Is their a reason why your entire team is out?" I looked over at him before saying.
"I can't have all of them out when I'm in the cities, and towns so while I travel like this I like to have them all out. It's a great way to starve off boredom from just walking for hours on end and it lets my team have plenty of free time to have fun" He took a moment to take that in before pulling the only pokeball of his belt and sent out his Poliwag.
I don't think the little water type enjoyed being sent out in front of Luxray, if it diving behind Jonathan's leg says anything. I gave the two of them an amused look, I might be a bit bias but I could never see Luxray as anything but my overly joyful cat son. Though their reactions did remind me that he is in fact a massive electric lion.
"I think it's scared of you Luxray" My Son just gave me a confused look before looking at Poliwag, tilting his head before giving the Water Type a happy smile. It seemed to make the poliwag panic even more, to which Luxray and I both gave each other a confused look. Ok so maybe I still didn't really understand it as much as I thought.
After a bit of convincing on Jonathan's part to Poliwag and a bit of reassuring for Luxray that he wasn't scary on my part, we were once again off. It wasn't as fun as it normally was with the extra company but it did add a variable that I didn't really know was missing.
Turns out being around and discovering yourself to being a Pokemon yourself, made it that so that it appeared I was beginning to develop some bad habits that I made sure to break. Like almost dropping into pokespeech every time I wanted to join into my teams conversation, or the fact that I was becoming aware that the word human was starting to bleed into my speaking while I talked.
It was the little things like that, which let me know I was slipping in keeping everything divided between Kyu the 'human', and the real Kyu the Pokemon. Without any proper or consistent human interaction the two were starting to bleed over and that would just cause trouble.
So even if it hurt I didn't as much as I wanted to my teams conversations, and made sure to review everything I said before I said it. And I got to say, I forgot how annoying it was to use masks. By hour two, I was half convinced that it would just be better to announce myself to the world and just deal with the damage it caused, than to have to be so distant to my friends.
Thankfully I had plenty of time to think about it, as we had a long day ahead of us. And by the mid day point I decided that I would ask my team about their opinions. Really I didn't really mind telling people, it was more of a not wanting the attention thing, and if it did come out the attention would just as heavily be on my team as well, so I wanted to make sure they were fine with it.
Turns out none of them really cared, I figured that out, after sneaking a few words in to the team, in an embarrassing show of skill that I might have gotten from my time in high school. But that's besides the point, turns out I couldn't just make them the ones to make the decision. I was, in their words 'The trainer, so your choice'.
We were currently eating lunch, well my team and Jonathan and his Poliwag were. I actually wasn't that hunger, probably just nerves, something that really bugged me to be honest. Oh well, if I got hungry later then it would just be my fault, and I could just get some food out of my bag so I didn't really mind skipping the meal. Not like it would be the first time in my life.
I wasn't really sure, now that the decision was back to being on my shoulder's why I had such a problem with it. I knew I didn't give a damn about what people would think, I never cared about what they think. So I knew that wasn't it, Maybe it was some part of me that still didn't really except that I wasn't human anymore.
And once I reveled that fact to the world, I knew I wouldn't go back to pretending. I don't like thinking of myself as coward, but I'm plenty aware that I don't like the unexpected. And if I went down this route, then the only thing I can see for myself is even more unexpectedness, something I wasn't really sure I wanted to deal with.
Then again, I also was ware that if I just held off and never said anything, it would come out eventually. I like to think of myself as being a pretty good actor, and a even better at lying. But even with that, I knew I was going to make mistakes eventually. Quick and short manipulation are easy, long game stuff as always been a headache.
And to put it simply, this would be a stupidly long game lie, I mean, it would be something that I would have to do for the rest of my life, and I was well aware that I couldn't manage that. So why couldn't I just say screw it, it wasn't even something I had to say, if anything no one would question it most of the time.
Hell it would basically the same as telling someone what sexual preference I had expect like ten times rarer, and I never even cared when I did that, besides I mean when's the last time someone asked other person if they were actually human. Whatever I'll think more on this later. It's not like I don't have anything but time to think on this.
A little while later, about ten minutes to be fore specific, while we all were packing up our stuff, when I heard a voice from behind us call out.
"Hey you guys! I want to challenge one of you to a battle" Oh a challenge I haven't had that happen in a while, I wonder why? Looking over to the girl over my shoulder I turned around and noticed that she seemed to slow down a little when, Luxray and most of my team on his back walked out from behind me, moving to my side.
"Eh, um, which one of you owns those three?" Owns? I did't like her already. Still I answered nonetheless, even if it was with a little snarl, but no one seemed to notice.
"Those three are apart of my team, the other two are around here somewhere" Pidgeotto had already flown up into the air and Misdreavus, I was pretty sure was taking a nap in my shadow. After I told her that, she then pointed at Johnathan, and said.
"Alright then, I challenge you!" I looked over at him, he seemed to be shocked. While I was letting him get over that I looked up at the sky and noted that that we spent a little to long on lunch. My fault, as I was distracted in my own mind. The battle will have to the a short one then. I made a shooing motion to the girl, to get her move back a little more, as I made my way to the middle of them.
"Ok, I have a schedule to follow, and since I'm the referee here, I get to make the rules. This will be a one-on-one battle, and if both you fail to defeat the other in...let's say five minutes, then you both lose. Agreed?" That broke Johnathan out of his mind as he gave me a nod, and after looking to the girl she also gave me a nod.
"Alright then, both of you send out your Pokemon, and try to make this quick...Begin!" I stepped back as the girl released a nidoran, female if I remembered the two color differences right between the two genders. I really was planning on just counting to three hundred before calling the battle, but as I watched I noted I was watching more intently then I thought I would.
"Poliwag! Water Gun then Bubble, and Body Slam" The poor little guy was confused about what to do with so many orders. While I also liked using strings of commands in battle, if the Pokemon could keep up or track then it would just hurt you. I had to specifically train most of the team to be able to keep up with my fast talking mid-battle.
"Nidoran, dodge, then Double Kick it away" She was a bit to defensive, reacting only when she needed to, I couldn't tell if it was because she was trying to tire out Poliwag, or just couldn't think of anything else. If it was the first one the it was smart, if it was the other then well, She wouldn't last long if he switched up moves.
The battle seemed to drag on in places and while I was interested in watching, I still made sure to keep an eye on the time and once the five minutes had past, I called out to the two trainers and the tired Pokemon.
"Alright, times up. You both are equally good and/or bad, take that how you wish, now if you don't mind I need to get a move on" With that I turned and felt a smile creep up on my face as I listened to Johnathan make a panicked sound as he said a few goodbyes before rushing after me.
This was an interesting one as it dealt more heavily on Kyu's thought process, even if it might be a little flawed, about the world knowing he's a Pokemon. Still the last two chapters have mostly just been in between ones before the next Gym battle which, unless I decided I hate what I have written so far that chapter, should be next chapter. So, See ya.
