*Since I forgot to put it in earlier chapters, please regard this as a trifold disclaimer:

While the expansive world of Pokémon will forever be part of my life, I do not own anything beside my own ideas.

Additionally, the next couple of chapters will be slowpaced to set up the story. From then on, we'll speed up a bit, but I like my details, my interactions and my fluff, so this one won't ever be fast-paced.*

~David~

That was an honest to Arceus Mythical... I never would have thought... That... I was speechless.

"That kind of potential... Isn't that only seen in Legendaries and Mythicals?" I asked Thomas, and he nodded. "That's exactly what she is, a Mythical. A Magearna to be exact. She's a really friendly one as long as you don't attack her or hers."

I looked at her. As far as I knew from my past life, only the core called Soul-Heart was actually a pokémon. One of the few synthetic ones. The rest, her body, was only decoration.

I watched her curiously and she reciprocated. {His potential for aura is adequate. Not the best, certainly, but definitely in the upper third. The way his aura flows in instinctive intricate patterns, however, is most curious. I could feel myself being judged even though I had countermeasures in place. Curious indeed...}

Telepathy.

Also: She could actually feel me using Potential Judge on her, that meant, that other Legendaries and Mythicals could probably perceive the ability too. Talented aura specialists such as Lucario and Togekiss too.

It's good, that I learned of that fact now, and not in a situation, where I was in danger. At least I didn't think I was in danger right now. Probably... Maybe?

Joan and Thomas were both silent, with Joan looking somewhat subdued. He looked at me with a complicated expression, but then he sighed, seemingly coming to a decision.

"You are smart enough to understand, that you are in danger. Not from me, couldn't care less about any abilities you may have, really. But there are an uncountable number of people out there, who'd love to exploit the crap out of you if this was somehow spread to the public.

Others would fear your potential and decide to end you before you'd be a danger to their plans. Luckily for you, most of the real powerhouses don't actually care about stuff like that. Some would even joyfully anticipate your quick growth, as being strong with only a couple of people matching you can be boring. Fresh blood is welcome in those echelons.

My original plan was a hands-off approach because I didn't want to stifle your path by restricting you too much. This changes things somewhat, though, as you'll have to be ready just in case.

I'll take you under my wings officially, this will give you a decent layer of security and a bit of authority, that exceeds your actual rank, but I won't just hand everything over to you.

You'll have more opportunities, but you will have to earn your ressources. You'll have to fight for those chances, to not let them slip away."

He grabbed my shoulder somewhat painfully and his gaze was as sharp as it's ever been when he caught my eyes with his.

"Grow quickly and tread carefully. Your life depends on it, and Joan's too, since she's way too attached to let you go through this alone. A single misstep and it's over. Potential does not guarantee survival. Strength doesn't either, but you'll have better chances at least."

He sighed and looked tired all of a sudden. "Damn, so much time squandered and so much paperwork still to do, more now even." He glared at me. "You better make sure not to die, otherwise all that paperwork will have been filed for naught."

Honestly, I was pretty overwhelmed. Everything was happening a bit too quickly. It's only my second day in trainer life and I couldn't seem to be able to catch a break.

What pissed me off a bit was, that lacking knowledge and carelessness seemed to be the main cause. Up to this moment, the developments were positive at least, but everything could have gone south way too quickly for my tastes.

What if Magearna had been more volatile, reacting to the appraisal in a violent way? What if instead of explaining everything somewhat patiently and taking me under his wings, Thomas decided it wasn't worth it and washed his hands off me or worse, killed me and be done with it?

That was another point. I trusted him and Joan. Way too quickly. But my gut and instincts screamed at me, that they were trustworthy. Which was suspicious on it's own.

Even in my past life, I was a good judge of character, but in this one? When I looked at people, I could feel an instant aversion to some, discomfort when close to others or the urge to trust, to like them, with some very few.

It was, why I avoided making all that many connections in the orphanage. Those irrational feelings scared me. With Joan, the feeling of trust and like was the strongest I've ever felt, even more so than with the Matron, Alicia Soilwright.

And then, along came Zubat. Instant connection, even though I tried to deny it. She felt like family. By now, my conclusion was, that my aura was judging people and pokémon subconsciously even when inactive.

Since it was part of myself, I'd trust it to some degree. I'd still probe and confirm, though. Whom I got close to was my decision, not my aura's. While all of that went through my head, giving me a killer headache, no sound was heard from the other occupants of the room.

I had the distinct impression, that Thomas could somewhat understand what was going on in my head, but he stayed silent, hand still enclosing my shoulder, though with a lighter grip. It felt nice in a way, anchoring me in reality while my thoughts were a maelstrom.

After coming to my decision, they cleared up somewhat. "I'll be in your care and I won't grow to be an arrogant and conceited prick. Instead I'll try to emulate you, becoming an emotionally unavailable tsundere who cares way too much."

Magearna's musical giggle echoed through the room when she heard that, while Thomas looked like indignation personified for a moment and then grumbled, while crossing his arms. "Cheeky brat..."

{I like him.}

Thomas threw her a dirty glare. "Of course you would, he's just as cheeky as you are. Don't think I've forgotten or forgiven what you've done with Scar's tailfeather."

While those two were bickering, I made my way to Joan. She was silent all the while, which worried me somewhat. "Everything ok?" I asked her, but she didn't answer.

Now, that I was closer to her, I could see, that she was trembling slightly, droplets of sweat slowly making their way down her face.

She looked as if she was carrying something heavy... Oh, was it the pressure?

She really struggled with that. I tried to perceive it actively and yes, it was there, but it somehow interacted with my aura and flowed around me.

Could I help her with that? I grabbed her hand and tried to direct my aura to shield her. It worked, kinda. Instead of shielding her, it flowed through her body and returned to me after completing the 'circle'.

It did help, though, since she started to breathe easier and the shaking stopped. She even opened her eyes and gave me a grateful glance but she still looked pretty tired.

Thomas, who saw what happened, asked. "Joan, why didn't you tell me, that you developed your Dark Affinity to the next level? I'd have left you out of this if I knew."

A bit of energy seemed to flow back into the woman as she lightly glared at the man. "That's exactly the reason. I knew this would go differently than you expected, so I wanted to be here to support the little dude. I just didn't expect it to be that bad, so he ended up being my crutch instead."

She finished with a wry smile in my direction. At the confused look I must have been sporting, Thomas clarified. "Specialists oftentimes develop an affinity for the energy of their chosen types. This can be intentionally built upon. It has advantages and disadvantages, though the former mostly outweigh the latter.

In this case, Magearna is a Steel/Fairy type. Her Fairy type energy is extremely potent and since fairy is a weakness of dark types..."

He didn't finish the sentence, but he didn't have to. Fairy type energy from a Mythical would surely fuck up most dark types. I looked at Joan with a grateful smile.

"You knew about Magearna, didn't you?" She looked as if she wanted to say something. Instead, she sighed, took a breath and simply nodded.

"He introduced her to me after I worked with him for a couple of months. I've reached Level 2 Affinity since then, so her energy has a stronger effect than anticipated."

She shrugged. "I like her well enough, but I really hope I'll never be close to her when she cuts loose."

I nodded. Being close-by when a Mythical or it's equivalent cuts loose was a good way to commit suicide most of the time.

"Well, thank you for measuring my potential, Magearna. It's strange to be on the other side of being judged for a change, but it was an interesting experience. It was also a pleasure getting to know you!"

Magearna, who had started to tinker with some of the automatons after verbally/telepathically destroying Thomas, answered cheerfully.

{Much the same, young David, much the same. I do hope you will visit from time to time. I would like to read deeper into those intricate flowing aura patterns sometime in the future if you would not mind.}

I thought for a moment before tentatively saying. "I'm not comfortable with letting a stranger read what is basically the way my soul moves. That's rather intimate. So how about getting to know each other first, before discussing this further?"

She hummed a strange, metallic sound before agreeing. {It could be seen as an intimate thing I suppose. Very well, we will learn from each other before discussing this.}

She then turned her attention to Thomas

{I would like to request to stay here for today and tomorrow. I want to try some things that may or may not implode the dimension within the pokéball, should I try them there.}

I wasn't quite sure if she was actually serious, but at this moment, I was afraid to ask. "Let's go back." Thomas decisively turned around and called out Metagross again. "We are ready to return, Big Brain. Teleport us,please."

Metagross's nickname was Big Brain? I mean, I've done worse in the games, honestly. A rather immature moment from my past life, that included a Snorlax named 'Yo Mama' wearing a Burn Heal, came to my mind as Metagross collected the energy to transport us.

Back in the office, Thomas immediately started talking. "I confirmed some suspicions. The first one is, that you unintentionally raised your Aura Affinity to Level 1.

Basically: Type Affinities give very specific boosts and abilities. Aura Affinity gives an allround boost and some pretty useful abilities on later Levels. People with active Aura are usually also better received by pokémon, which makes them great peace brokers if a champion rank or above pokémon starts to behave in an unusual way."

This man was a fount of information. He also spouted some dangerous things. Champion rank... And above? Are there wild pokémon out there, that surpass monsters, who can go head to head against minor Legendaries?

He seemed to have read my expression and answered the unasked question. "They are exceedingly rare, but there are pokémon out there, that far surpassed their species limits.

For example: Deep within Mt. Moon, there is a place, that houses a giant meteorite. Close to that meteorite, there lives a clan of the clefairy line. The leader of that clan was proven to be more than 700 years old.

Technically, it is a Clefable, but in reality, it's prowess is so far above it's species, that you can't even begin to compare them. Several years ago, there was an incident with Team Rocket. You've heard of them?"

At my nod, he continued. "They invaded Mt. Moon to take the meteorite and all those high potential pokémon. They had with them a minor Legendary to ensure success, the Fire/Steel type Heatran.

The league got wind of those plans and sent forces to support the clan, since they lived peacefully within the mountain and occassionally even guided lost trainers back on the main path.

As they reached the mountain, the first thing they noticed was, that there was a ridiculous amount of fairy type energy in the air. The deeper they went, the thicker the blanket of energy.

When they arrived at the corners of the territory, what they found was a massacre. Corpses of pokémon and humans alike Laying around, sometimes even smashed to pieces."

Joan took the chance as he paused and threw in. "You do know, that he's 10 years old, right? Isn't that a bit too... Gory for children?"

Thomas blinked as if he'd not even considered that, but then shook his head.

"If he wants to work for, and later on with, me, he needs to be able to stomach something like that."

He nodded to himself as if he was satisfied with his justification.

He then proceeded to continue telling the story. "Fairy type energy was wafting around in such thickness, that you could see it without any tools. The air felt pink, was what many later told when asked about the experience.

In the middle of the carnage, Clefable sat on the carcass of Heatran, waiting for the League team. All it said was: You are late."

Holy shit. How did Heatran die that quickly? Maybe it had Focus Blast or it may even have learned something like Earth Power. Pokémon were not entirely limited to their move pools, especially Aberrants and ancient monsters that refused to die.

"Later, when they were allowed to take samples from Heatran, the amount of fairy type energy, that saturated the carcass was measured to be the highest in modern times.

This includes samples from living mono type fairies of the champion rank, by the way.

The other curious thing was, that there wasn't an ounce of his natural typing to be found. The fairy type energy literally purged it's body of it's natural typing."

... I don't think I want to meet that Clefable. That's a quadruple resistance with both fire and steel resisting fairy.

"For a whole year, the fairy type energy persistently permeated Mt. Moon, creating a hotspot for fairy type migration.

In the deeper parts, there were even major type aberrations occuring. That was the only time Onix was more favoured with the female gender if compared to the male, since the fairy typing expressed itself with a drastic colour change to hot pink."

While the story started out scary, this was outright terrifying. This Clefable changed the natural terrain of an entire mountain without even trying.

~Thomas~

Seeing David in a pensive mood instead of laughing about that last comment was gratifying.

It was no laughing matter after all. Numerous natural treasures were destroyed because they were overloaded with an incompatible energy type.

An immeasurable amount of pokémon was genetically unstable before the populations either fled the mountain or adapted. An entire eco system in imbalance, because of a single pokémon, that didn't even try very hard.

And he understood. At 10 years of age, he understood. Even I had fairy type poisoning for more than two weeks, and I had reached the plateau of the fourth Level in Steel Type Affinity at that time.

That affliction threw me back to Level 3 and not just past the threshold, no, I had to fight like a madman to not fall down to Level 2.

For a time, I was bitter and hopeless.

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, though, as what was left of my accumulated steel energy was refined to extreme purity.

Ah, good old times.

"Now, storytime's over. That Clefable and others like it are called Guardians. They protect their chosen habitats with a ferocity, that oftentimes belies it's species.

They are rarely aggressive as long as you don't intrude without communicating with them first." I let that sink in and started the paperwork for the ownership permit of the Zubat.

Their battle against that idiot Mongus, who was a ground type specialist at the advanced level and a sore looser at the Champion Level, was impressive. Of course it wasn't flashy. They simply didn't have the moveset or bodily fitness to be flashy.

What was impressive was his analytical gaze, his trust in a pokémon he only just met and the way he made up small strategies on the fly.

If his tactical mind was honed, he could become one of the better battlers out there, even if he had a subpar team. That wouldn't happen if he survived long enough.

That Weedle was going to be a monster. If developed carefully, the Zubat too. My well honed instincts were telling me, that this Zubat had the potential to surpass most of his species. Which made zero sense at green potential.

But there was something... It failed to learn the move Absorb, even after being shown multiple times. I had never seen something like that from a Zubat. At the time, I didn't really think about it, but it was suspicious, especially since at green potential, a move like Absorb should be a doozy to learn if it was in the species' movepool.

If he managed to unearth whatever it was, that made this Zubat special... Few knew, but I had a soft spot for Aberrants of all kind. Even the seemingly useless ones.

And then there was himself. What he didn't know was, that Magearna judged him by standards from 500 years ago, when aura users were, not quite abundant, but more regularly seen and had better techniques to increase it's quantity and quality.

Well, if he ever learns of this, it won't be through me. He'll put in more effort if he thinks he's subpar at best.

Signing the permit in the name of the League, I slapped it against his forehead, earning an indignant cry. "Congratulations. With this piece of paper, the League signs over complete ownership for one Zubat to the individual David Noname. Banzai, Banzai."

I told him this with an inflectionless tone of voice. It seemed as if my humour went unappreciated, however, as all I got was a yawn from David and a hastily scribbled 4,5/10 on a piece of paper from Joan, who stagewhispered to David. "That's with the Big Boss Bonus..."

...That one actually hurts.

~David~

After Thomas threw us out, I had a good laugh with Joan before we split ways. She still had paperwork to do and I had to unpack and make my room into My Room.

I released Zubat and Weedle to tell them the good news of making Zubat officially ours, and celebrated the whole thing with the complete shop food set for Weedle and a Nutricapsule plus my blood for Zubat.

My system warned me, that using food from the shop for Zubat will have worse effects than the blood of an active aura user, namely mine.

I then placed Weedle in the hood again on her own wish, while Zubat once again rode my shoulder. After walking the way two times, I remembered how to reach our home. Is it wrong of me, that I want to keep saying that?

Anyways, after reaching our house, I unlocked it with the key she handed me before we split with the words 'That one's yours, don't loose it.'. Made me feel all tingly inside. Maybe it's an allergy?

"I'm home!" I shouted to no one in particular, but it elicited a screech with roughly the same meaning from Zubat and a slight wiggle from Weedle in the hood.

I removed my shoes, as I didn't want to unnecessarily dirty the floor, grabbed the box with my belongings, that was somehow easier to lift than the evening before and hurried up into the attic.

Once there, the first thing I did was to hang my 'Lance's shocked face' poster. After taking in the genuine confusion and shock on the usually fierce face for a moment, as I always did when I saw it, I started to put my stuff away.

I didn't possess all that much, since I was on the frugal side of spending habits in my past life and it definitely carried over. What I did possess was treasured by me, though.

The poster of course. Several outfits of my preference, mostly jeans, monocoloured shirts and hoodies. A small figurine of Nidoking, one of my all time favourites, that I'd definitely wanted in my team and a small wallet, that had a strange portal-like pattern on it.

When I saw it in the market, the portal looked familiar, but by Arceus, I couldn't remember from where.

My stash of cash was an important possession too, but I wasn't really materially inclined, so it's priority was only as high as my need for money at the moment. Since the shop function basically ate money, it's priority increased by several folds, though.

Finally, my collection of notebooks. My thoughts and analyses of the past five league seasons. I had in them the professional reports too, with comments and thoughts of my own.

Reading through those at a later time might give me an old but new perspective, since we change every moment we are alive.

Our experiences and interactions with the world and the people, by which I count pokémon too, change us, mold us, form us. 'We are different people, all through our lives, and that's ok.' as a wise and crazy doctor once said.

Putting away all the other stuff, I decided, that I'd stash the notebooks within the escritoire. Slightly giddy at the thought of using the marvellous piece of furniture, I made my way over there to search for a good spot.

The, if you want to insult it, desk was made from solid wood, mahogany to be exact, which fit marvellously with the rest of the room. The legs were slightly curved, with the ends being slightly broader, giving it a robust feeling.

Above and below it's surface, that looked used but well kept, which added to it's charm, there were compartments and drawers, allowing for lots of little hiding spaces.

I loved it, really. If this was a pokémon, i'd try to catch it. As if to answer my thoughts, the compartment, that had a heavy lock on it, shook.

Confused for a moment, I came to a conclusion I didn't like one bit: There was most likely a pokémon in there. And the poor dear must be starved, since Joan bought the house weeks ago and didn't open the locked compartment.

My lockpicking skills weren't good at all, being limited to the time I learned to pick a bike lock, since I didn't want to ruin it, after I lost the key.

This lock was an old one, though, so it should be fairly easy to pick? I searched through the house for something to use as a lockpick and found some hairneedles and a thin long needle, that I could use.

With some trepidation, I started to work after taking a deep breath. Panicking wouldn't help at all with a task, that needed a steady hand.

It took me a while, but I managed to pick the lock. When I opened the compartment, I started to resent the previous owner.

Inside was a Gastly, lying besides spectral looking egg shells. What made me furious was, that the whole inside of the compartment, all it's walls, were full with sealing tags.

Those things limited the spread of ghost type energy and could even impede ghost types from entering specific areas. This bastard did the opposite.

He put an egg inside a compartment, that was stuffed with sealing tags on all sides, preventing it's eventual departure after hatching from the egg.

It would have been more humane to simply smash it as what he did would ensure it's slow starvation. The Gastly reacted a bit, but kept lying there as it had probably used up all it's leftover energy with that rattling it did earlier.

It had nearly none of the gas around it, that usually wafted around the pokémon and it's main body was way too small to be healthy.

For a moment, I was at a loss how to help, since I needed at least a minor bond to produce food for any specific pokémon.

But then, a sudden, slightly crazy Idea hatched in my mind.

If they had a steady supply of high quality ghost type supplements, they usually didn't need it, but they had the ability nonetheless. Ghost types had the ability to devour lifeforce. And aura was an expression of life force.

I learned how to direct aura just earlier today. With a plan in mind, I immediately got to work. Closing my eyes to better visualise what I wanted to do, I pulled on my aura, directing it to my hands again.

Then, I slowly approached Gastly with said appendages, as to not startle it. It opened it's weary eyes, devoid of any hope, but didn't react otherwise.

Until I actually made contact with it's body. It's eyes flew wide open when it felt the aura flowing into it's body, while my hands enclosed the minuscule pokémon to bring it closer to my body, making transmitting my aura easier.

Different than with Joan, there was no backflow.

The aura, that I slowly pumped into Gastly got assimilated into it. I had the distinct feeling, that my reserves would refill with some time, though, so I lost nothing.

But even if it was a permanent loss, I'd still do it. This was the equivalent of letting an infant starve after imprisoning it. Absolutely unacceptable. Rarely did I feel as angry as at this very moment, but I buried it deep inside me.

Aura can transmit emotions, that much, I'd already gathered. So I did my best to transmit goodwill, tranquility and, pulling on the emotions, that I harbored for my pokémon, love.

As the Gastly gobbled up what i sent, I could visibly see it's body recover. Though nowhere near what a Gastly should look like, it's main body still inflated a bit and some thin fumes appeared around it as it recovered enough to start producing the poisonous gas, that it's kind was known for.

After sitting there for half an hour, feeding a starving pokémon with what was basically my overflowing life force, I got the definite feedback of saturation from the little one.

And for the first time, since finding it, it actually released a sound, together with a surprise in the form of feedback from it's aura, that it had sent into me. Just the tiniest kernel possible, but it carried with it all the emotion such a young pokémon could possibly feel.

And it came down to basically one thing. Did this ghost just call me mama?