Sorry for the delay with this chapter; life happened.
-/- Viridian: Part One -/-
Transcript from the ONBS' interview, published in the Orren Times.
-/-/-
"There are people in my life I'd do anything for. Eripi one of them."
-/-/-
"You'd think with all the stalls about there wouldn't be as many lines," Erin grumbled as she set the drinks down on the picnic table. Even this far back from the Falls, they could still hear the water's rushing roar as it cascaded over rocks and into the first pool that would lead out to the lake itself, then eventually to underground rivers.
The lakeside buzzed with all manner of activities, from jumping castles to school groups on a field trip to near everything under the suns. Yet the lake itself was strictly off-limits for many reasons during the spring months, most of them related to the area's aquatic pokemon. Eva had yet to catch a glimpse of the fabled kingdra, but she had seen a poliwrath and what she thought to be a slowbro before Erin had returned.
"No worries, mate," Eva said with a grin as she pulled her ramune towards herself. Erin grinned, visibly relieved as she sat down; her drink, from the smell of the open glass, was a sweet, yuzu based tea in a tall glass, complete with curly straw.
"So, now we've had a quick squizz at the Falls, who do you think you'll do first?"
"Huh?" Eva paused in her task of pulling open the plastic from around the ramune top. Though, she wasn't sure she'd call the hour-long sightseeing hike and pokemon captures at the top of the Falls' quick'. Especially not the teiru or spearow captures.
"Y-You know," the older said with a small, nervous laugh and Eva mentally sighed, even as she made a 'go on' hum. Three days away from Ms. Sakuran's stranglehold should have left Erin feeling safer, not jumpier. Weird. "Like, Sakaki-san or Takeshi-san?"
Eva didn't even have to think. "I'm not sure."
"What do you mean?" Erin asked in confusion. "You're always sure!"
"Not always." Eva shrugged and hummed a bit as she used her palm to push the yellow opener down, the glass marble tinking against the glass after a second or so. "Both'd be easy enough, right?"
Erin shrugged a little, uncertain. "I guess so...?"
"It's not like high-level tiers," Eva continued on easily. "Where things like tanks and sweepers really come into play, is it?"
"I don't think so?" Erin said with a small frown, hands tight around her drink. "Though, Takeshi-san is known for his rock-hard defence."
"Yeah," Eva nodded with a pleased hum. "And even if it is a baby, Kinasut is no joke."
Onix never were.
"I..." Erin started, only to glance away.
"Eripi?" Eva prompted after several seconds of silence.
"I think..." Erin swallowed. "Kinasut's why I think I'll pass him and Sakaki-san first, you know?"
Eva could guess why Erin'd make such a choice when it came to Brock; Giovanni on the other hand... "Ah? Why Sakaki-san?"
"Seil." The girl said. "I don't-"
"It's ok." She offered her friend a reassuring smile. "Seil is hard."
More like a menace of a gligar, but at least it wasn't the gliscor the man had. That thing was downright cruel and Eva was convinced the thing was only just battle legal, given how bloodthirsty it seemed. Ironic, given the man also had a persian and it was by all accounts as tame and mild as any meowth.
"True, and... and I've been thinking and..." Erin swallowed again, shoulders hunched. "It's ok if I don't follow the plan mother set out for me, yeah?"
"Well, yeah?" Eva said, tone calm. As much as it was a clear no-brainer, the fact Erin was even asking...
"I... I'm going to..." Erin's voice shook.
"Yeah?" Eva encouraged with a small smile.
Erin inhaled sharply, relaxed her hands, straightened, then continued with a determined nod. "I'm going to challenge Surge-san first. I- I know I can, and mother wouldn't like it, but I'm... I'm not her!"
"Of course not. You're kinder, for one," Eva said honestly, pride in her voice. "You're gonna be the best normal-type trainer out there, right?"
"I am!" Erin said with a small but determined nod. "And I'll get all my badges with a pure mono-team!"
"Wait- For real?" Eva knew it was possible; one of the more famous cases in the past few years was that of Satoshi Tajiri. Hailing from the Saffron sub-region, he'd almost swept the Kanto League last year with his pure water-type team, only stalling out against Clair's Kingdra in what was still one of the better caught on camera underwater fights.
"Yeah," Erin said with a grin. "Teiru learn 'Skecchi'-"
"Wait, they can?" Brown eyes tracked to the loveball on Erin's belt, next to Sen'i's pokeball and the one that held her doduo. Said eevee rested under the table, while the teiru and doduo would need some work before they were allowed out like that. But wild-caught always took more work than pre-trained. "I thought they followed mostly eipamu rules?"
"They do a bit, but they're more closely related to dōburu," Erin said brightly. "It's like with the Ferrese magifikat; they all share a common ancestor but branched out to fill different niches."
"Huh, ok." Eva said, trusting that Erin knew what she was talking about when it came to normal-types, even if she wasn't that convinced teiru were related to smeargle. They looked more like aipom after all. Maybe it was convergent evolution, like cacturne and maractus in some respects. "But I thought dōburu needed tails to sketch?"
"They don't actually need to use it," Erin said with a shrug and sip from the drink. "From the studies I've read, it's more the motion made when they copy something, and from vids on the 'tube, it's true. You can chop a tail off and they'll still know how to 'Skecchi'."
"Uh... Ok?" Eva blinked, taken aback by how nonchalant Erin seemed when it came to maimed pokemon. That was weird and unsettling.
"Hey Rotom, pull up the tailess dōburu video," Erin ordered. Eva noted she had yet to name the beige-gray phone. Poor thing, but not everyone came up with a name like they did with pokemon.
"Ozzahy," the rotomi said as it zipped from Erin's pocket and spun to face Eva. Within seconds, the video played out on screen.
Eva watched, fascinated as a half-tailed smeargle bound out into the tennis court of a field, only for the semi-bipedal monster to pull up short, clearly reacting to a trainer off-screen. Suddenly, the entire screen seemed to shake as it took on purple and orange hues; both shaking and colouration lasted for several seconds, and throughout it all, the smeargle stood still, transfixed on whatever it was watching. The tail twitched side to side, keeping time as the pokemon reared up on its hind legs, raised a paw to the left shoulder, and slashed the air in an upwards diagonal. It abruptly took a sharp angle downwards then swept out as the pokemon took on a faint pink glow.
"Did it lose it in an accident?" Eva asked when the video ended without revealing the 'Sketched' move.
"No," Erin said blankly as the rotom powered phone hovered by her shoulder. "There was something wrong with the tip they couldn't fix, so..."
"Oh," Eva said, not sure what to think on that or why if it was just the tip half a tail had been taken off. But not her pokemon, and she got the feeling Erin didn't want to talk about the details. She would later learn the pokemon had suffered from repeated, chronic infections within the pigment-producing glands that ran half the tail; removal of half the tail had been the kindest thing to do. "You plan on getting one?"
"If I can..." Erin said simply as she poked the ice with her straw.
Eva cocked her head. "Eripi?"
"They're not... native to Kanto, and the ones in the 'Zones are... hard to find and even then..." She trailed off with a sad shrug. It spoke volumes of what she thought her chances of finding and keeping one from any of the Safari Zones within Kanto was. Never mind as to what Ms. Sakuran would think about the scruffy, so-called 'sketching pokemon'. "I'd have to travel to Johto, or buy from a breeder..."
"Ah..." Eva nodded in understanding even as she made a mental note to check out as many of the Zones as possible. Erin deserved to be happy and true to herself, not stuffed in a box of what her mother thought best. "But the teiru works, too, right?"
"Yeah! And if I do my cards right-"
"You'll get a Giga Impact by your second badge?" It was possible given the move tutoring industry.
Erin grinned. "Y-Yeah! Or um. Destruction Beam."
Eva blinked -that was aiming high- and cocked her head to the side. "Why not a move machine?"
Erin near choked on her drink. "Those cost- TM 15 alone is-"
"About 5500 coins from a Game Corner-"
"I am not gambling!" Erin cut in.
"You don't have to?" Eva said with a blink or three, nonplussed by the reaction when it was well known drunk gamblers shared coins with just about anyone.
"Eva, even if I get them from um, drunks, it's still gambling."
"True, I guess..." Eva didn't really see what was wrong with it, but each to her own. "You can buy them from Tamamushi's departo for around ten thousand?"
"That's... still a lot." Erin said, chewing her lip as she poked the ice again. "And prize money..."
"Adds up quickly," Eva said firmly. "You remember the jun we spent as trainers with mum's pokemon, yeah?"
"Yeah?" Erin frowned.
"We started with what? two thousand?"
"No, it was three. I remember it because mother put it in a red envelope with blue bow. It actually looked pretty for once," Erin retorted with a huff.
"We finished the week with thirty thousand, yea?"
"You did. I was at forty-five," Erin said with a giggle before sinking down into herself. "But mum took-"
"Doesn't matter," Eva said, cutting the other girl off before unpleasant memories could surface. Gods on a wing, Ms. Sakuran would never again touch Erin's money or make her feel lesser or like she wasn't good enough. "The point is, you earned it."
"I did," Erin confirmed with a nod.
"Yea, so if we go looking for it, prize money adds up quickly, plus there's the fortnightly stipend we get..." Eva finished firmly.
"True, and that's what, eighty-thousand?" Erin asked, and when Eva nodded, she continued on. "Both are eaten just as quickly by heals and 'balls, and the like-"
Eva shook her head. "For me, yeah. You can afford to save."
"Eva?" Erin cocked her head.
"I plan on getting eight this season," Eva said as she leaned back in her chair, recycled plastic creaking under her weight.
Erin's eyes bugged out. "Eight? are you- that's insane!-"
"Yeah, but I know he'll be aiming for it like the overachieving wanker he is," Eva said sourly as a deep scowl wrought its way across her face.
"EVA!" Erin scolded. "Don't be rude."
"'S not that rude," Eva grumbled darkly. "And he is a wanker; he made himself my Rival without asking!"
"True..." Erin said as she wrinkled her nose. "At least you only have to wait a year..."
"Yeah, then I'm ousting him. No one likes a boy who thinks he can do whatever; it's bossy."
"It is, yeah," Erin agreed as she fished out a smaller ice cube and crunched down on it.
Eva shot her a look, but all that got a grin from the ice-eating weirdo of a girl. "But, yeah, I'm gonna go for eight, so I won't have much money spare, but you can-"
"No." Erin shook her head having finished the ice cube. "I don't want a cold reputation because I battled for the sake of money. I'm not that kind of person."
"Don't let anyone push you into it, either," Eva said seriously enough that she saw Erin's swallow. But she meant it; it was one thing to get a rep for battle, but an entirely different thing to be known to battle just for the cash it brought in. "Even your mother."
"Ok, I won't-...!" The words ended in a squeak when the eevee jumped up onto her lap with what sounded like a mewled whine as its tail wag-flicked from side to side.
Eva laughed as Erin blinked down at her Starter. "See? Even Sen'i agrees with me."
"Yeah... I guess?" Erin said as she pet the grey-coloured eevee with a small smile, and Eva once again bit her tongue to keep the curses from it. Like everything Ms. Sakuran had ever promised Erin, it'd turned out to be an imitation. Sen'i was no shinier than the next eevee. If anything, she was an unwanted pokemon sold for cheap, but at least she was Erin's now. Something almost seemed to sparkle in the grey fur under Erin's hands. The girl startled and blinked, but it was already gone and Erin's shoulders slumped a little. There then not. A trick of the eye and brain as it looked for something that wasn't even there. Sen'i wasn't shiny, but that didn't mean she wasn't perfect just the way she was. "Anyway. If I go with Surge-san first... We can take him down, right?"
"Of course! His first's his oricorio and shinx, Sunray and Arclight," Eva said with only a small hesitation on the names. "His next lot has one of the 'chu in it. One of One-Eye's pups, Limdu, I think, so you know it'll have 'egg moves'."
Erin's nose wrinkled slightly as she considered it. "Hmm... Rotom."
"Mizztrezz?" The mechanical, AI-driven voice intoned as it hovered next to Erin, who pushed it to lay flat on the table so they both could see, even if Eva also had her rotom, Roro, out just to make it easier on Erin.
"Pull up the stats for Surge's first team," Erin hummed ordered as she flicked open her 'dex. "And-"
"I beg your pardons, but might I request a moment of your time?" Came accented, near-perfect Yamatan.
As one, the pair turned to face the owner and found a young standing near the table, a strange, white-masked darkish coloured, blue cheeked rodent of some sort sitting on his shoulder. Roldenki, Eva thought, or something out of the Islands at least. Like the boy, and were it not for the Orange Island accent, they'd have thought him from the Imperial House given the court formal language used. He certainly looked it in the sharp vest and slacks and she'd eat her badge case if the pair of adults behind him weren't bodyguards.
"Sure?" Erin asked, blinking up at him.
"Would that ībui be for sale?"
"What- No! Sen'i's my Starter!" Erin spluttered as she curled around the eevee protectively. "Knock off shiny or not-"
"Knock off?" the boy asked in confusion.
"Yeah, fake shiny. You know, something breeders sell at a loss?" Eva retorted with a scowl, hand not quite on a pokeball, but close enough she could grab it if this boy was as dumb as he seemed.
"I... see." the young man's face took on a strange look. One Eva didn't like. Her hand rested on the 'ball and the adults shifted. Eva glared at them -she wouldn't attack, but she would defend herself if required- while the boy continued on, oblivious to the threat; imperial stock or not used to being out in the real world. Typical noble boy then. "When you breed her, I would be happy to stud my Miai to her for the chance at another like her."
"I- Um-" Erin started, eyes wide.
"I would, naturally, be happy to reimburse you handsomely for the chance and you may of course keep any pup not like her-"
Eva growled, brushed a reassuring hand over Erin's, and then snapped at the boy, if only to shut him up. "Gods of the Four, you're worse than a sheltered Imperial Princess! Don't you mean if? and who are you anyway?"
"I am Ayanokoji," the boy said with a huff, apparently offended someone wouldn't have instantly recognised him. Eva dismissed him even harder as she snatched up her phone and thumbed the option to look up the name. Roro was on its game. This Ayanokoji was clearly some self-important idiot boy not yet put in his place. Honestly, Satoru was slightly better than this; at least he got hints about when to shut up and look pretty. This boy was probably a few years older, but nowhere near as socially trained in the art of 'keeping a mouth shut'. Her option only furthered with what else Ayanokoji said. "Of course the eevee would be bred."
Oh, so he came from that mindset, too? More strikes against him.
"I was thinking of spaying her," Erin glowered as she found her confidence, eyes little more than slits of green. "She's not even worth breeding."
The boy boggled at them.
"Eripi?" Eva said tapping her friend on the shoulder then holding Roro up for the other girl to see. On the screen was the page for the Ayanokoji clan from the Orange Islands and a quick skim had confirmed what Eva'd thought: some self-important noble brat of a boy who didn't know his place or how to take hints. Erin glanced wide-eyed at Eva, who nodded.
"S-Spaying?" the boy said, apparently having found his tongue.
"Yeah," Erin said with a frown. "She's mine, so I can do it if I want."
"I'll buy her off you-"
"I told you, she's my Starter!" Erin snapped, and Eva had to take a sip to hide her smirk as grim determination writ itself across Erin's face. It was one thing to ask if a pokemon was for sale, but to ask again after learning it was the Starter... Well, the boy was either stupid, or that much of a self-important bastard. Stupid, Eva decided -with smart guards who looked bored, but Eva could see the hint of a smirk on one's face- when Ayanokoji opened his mouth to protest, and Erin's determination morphed into something hard and steely, even as she clung to the pokemon in question. "She's not for sale or breeding or whatever! She's going to be an eevee forever because I like her like that and no one will change that!"
As if to further get the point across, Erin parted the pokemon's fur to show off the everstone collar.
"I... Of course," he said after a second or two, clearly not happy, though neither Eva or Erin particularly cared what a boy thought. "I did not mean to imply any offence unto you."
"It's ok," Erin said awkwardly; from another region and a boy or not, he was a noble and it was only right to show some sort of respect. At least he wasn't Kazoku. "Um. Good luck with your search?"
"Thank you," he said stiffly with an equally stiff bow before he turned, motioned to the guards to follow, and headed off in the general direction of one of the teleport areas.
"Well, that was weird," Erin started once she was sure the boy was gone.
"Yeah - stuck up bastard, too, but no worries, right?" Eva said with a nod of agreement.
"Yeah..." Erin looked down at Sen'i, then back up at Eva, uncertainty in her face and voice. "Do... you think...?"
"Yeah, nah," Eva said with an eyeroll. "He's not Kazoku and Sen'i's just a knock off shiny."
"One that's mine," Erin said as she ran fingers through the pokemon's fur with a small, happy smile. "So... you were saying about Surge?"
"Oh, yeah, the stats- Roro?" Eva said, attention now on her rotomi as it reopened the page that listed Surge's team and its stats. "Pull up yours too."
"Ok..." Erin said as she did as told. She stared at the page, Sunray and Arclight's images staring back at her alongside almost incomprehensible numbers. "I... I think I'm gonna have to match levels if I want a chance..."
"A bit, yeah," Eva said after she finished the ramune. "You're only, what, level six or seven right now and everyone knows pokemon build levels fast under ten, so..."
"Well, levels are just a marker of how strong or mature it is, right?" Erin asked, and at Eva's nod, she continued on. "But didn't the vet say there's also visual markers?"
Eva nodded as she tapped Roro's screen in thought. "Yeah. Like, your dōdō; it's half the size they are before they're considered grown, and by thirteen, it'll be close to that."
"That's true," Erin agreed and pointed to the picture of the yellow oricorio perched on a rock. "And Sunray's full-grown, yeah?"
"It is, yeah. Apparently, he let it grow to adult before training it for battle," Eva said, mouth twisted in thought as she stared at the numbers on the screen. "But I don't think that's a good idea... Hey, gimme its' ball."
"Huh?"
"My 'dex can do stat projections so you can get an idea," Eva said by way of explanation. "Not just the typical stuff most 'dex do, either."
"You got researcher's?" Erin boggled as she unhooked the 'ball from her belt.
"I guess? Or an experimental build," Eva shrugged at the end, not bothered in the slightest. "That or I poked it enough and figured out how to hack the settings."
"Probably just the settings. Not everyone has to know everything about pokemon, you know that right?" Erin said with a small, amused headshake as she handed the tennis-ball-sized red and white object over.
"I know I know, but the more you can use the 'dex, the easier it is, even for just pets?" Or so Eva thought as she held the pokeball up to the scanner on the front. A few button presses and a muttered command to Roro, and the projected stats flashed up as a holographic projection from the blue 'crystal' on the upper left-hand corner of the machine. Alongside the lines of text came a rotating of the twin-headed bird, courtesy of Roro and the internet.
"I have no idea what any of the numbers even mean," Erin said as she poked the line that read 'HP: 35 ((0,0) 33 - (31,255) 46)', finger going through the projected light. "You think it could be useful? Seeing these, I mean."
"Probably. Unlike your other two, dōdō don't do good against electric-types, so... you'll want to train it to fourteen, maybe fifteen."
"Fifteen? But that's... getting arrogant when it comes to badge battles..."
"If you tell the Gym, it'll be fine," Eva said firmly, echoing what her mother had told her once about how Gym Leaders and the League liked to do things so they were as fair a test as possible. "But I'd stick to fourteen as high as you go anyway."
"True... Anyway, the numbers?" Erin asked as she took her pokeball back.
"Just projections. So, like, you see the HP, yeah?" Eva pointed to the same line.
"I do, and that's the aggregated number based on, uh, training and age, and how tough the species is, right? And the uh, potentials it has?"
"Basically," Eva agreed; it was a little more than that in truth, though Erin was correct in her summary as what the numbers meant.
"Though why the range on Saki?" Eva mentally filed the doduo's name away as Erin talked. "And what's the 35 mean? Mine doesn't look like that..."
"Probably because I poked around the settings," Eva said, though she couldn't deny her display did look different. Most pokedex, like the ones the class had had basic lessons with over the years, did not show base stats, ranges or the numerical value of the potentials. Yet, even without all the added data points, the numbers were useful guides to pokemon. Not perfect -no system ever was- but given the several millennia of recorded data about pokemon, it was as accurate as could be.
"The range's because it's not registered as mine." At least she thought that was it, but it sounded right. "The 35's the base stat-"
"Huh, so that's its single base data point for its HP then," Erin said, impressed and, Eva was certain, perhaps a touch jealous.
"If you ask me, a dōdō's Speed's more important for Surge anyway, see?"
Eva poked the line that read 'Speed: 75 ((0,0) 26 - (31,255) 39)', then tapped the one next to Sunray that read 'Speed: 93 ((0,0) 29 - (31,255) 41)'.
"So... Out speed?" Erin asked in an effort to hide her confusion. Eva didn't blame her; pokemon training could and did get complicated if one brought numbers into it.
"More reaction time here, as you don't wanna try and outlast him."
"Some people do..." Erin pointed out.
"They have high HP, defence or specs, or grounds and rocks," Eva pointed out in return, not bothering to add that some trainers even specifically trained their pokemon to resist weaknesses as best they could. "At the end, it's up to you, but I think you should probably do some resistance training to help with the electrical weakness-"
"Saki's a flightless-"
"It can leap and I know you've seen the vids of that battle up at the League."
Erin swallowed. "The one where the bird was dead on landing?"
"Yeah." Eva nodded. "No no fault of the trainer when it comes to bad timing, but-"
"I'll do my best. But professionals..." Erin trailed off with an awkward shrug.
"Cost, but you can ask my dad, too." A beat, then: "Or mum."
"True." Erin nodded but Eva could see her friend's heart wasn't into it. Probably because she thought the Iden'no family had already done so much for her, and in a way they had, yet Erin was basically a daughter and sister; part of the family. Not for the first time did Eva wish Ms. Sakuran would fall foul of the gods. Any god if it'd free Erin from the woman's claws. "Anyway, you also have Sen'i and that teiru, so you'll be fine. Plus you're a rookie. He's no cakewalk and he is ex-mil-"
"Orren at that!" Erin pointed out. "You know how they are."
"Yeah, but the point is you'll be fine; he knows how to battle rookies." Most Gym Leaders did, but some were better at it than others. "Plus, I'm only a 'gear away, right?"
"Haha true. Always nice to have a real trainer on hand-"
"Oh come on, you're also a real trainer!" Eva said with a grin. "Don't sell yourself short. Not when you're going to be the best normal-type trainer."
"Ahh... but you know what I mean," Erin said, ducking her head as if that'd hide her from the world. "I'm not really good with the trainer stuff... Not like you."
Eva bit down the scoff. If she was good at being a trainer, she'd have won that match against Satoru, not humiliated herself in front of the whole town. In front of her mum and sister. Instead, she smiled and offered out a hand as she stood. "Easy way to fix that, you know."
"Would any of them be free?" Erin said as she got up, glass in hand, though Eva wondered how much was drink and how much was the ice Erin liked to chew.
Eva glanced skyward, gaged the sun to be about an hour after noon, then shrugged. "At least one. It's not like it's later in the arvo."
"True..." Erin said as she recalled Sen'i. "Ok. Let's go find one and see if we can get some battles, yeah?"
"Or watch some of the more experienced trainers," Eva added as they linked arms. "Hey, think we can find a dragon tamer?"
Erin's face lit up as she all but dragged Eva off toward the areas for streetbattles and souvenirs to send back to Pallet.
-/-/-
"Come to think of it, we never did find a dragon tamer that day."
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