Author's Note: Anything within parentheses means heavy emphasis, stronger than italics or bold.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Bluer Skies Chapter 1

Newcomer

I'm finally leaving this village. It's boring and the Pokémon here aren't strong. My classmates don't understand. They can't keep playing around and expect to get anywhere.

To be fair, some of them have evolved, but that doesn't do much to change the power gap between us. With how much they boast, you'd think they're amazing; I still win the fights, they're just bigger, and only slightly stronger.

(They're nothing to me.)

I don't need them. I can get much stronger much faster this way, without having to take care of anyone else.

I can do this on my own. The dreams - nightmares - have been showing up for around 2 years now. I don't know why they come only to me, they just… do. And it's never just about me. There's always someone, and they're almost always dead.

I'm scared.

(Why does this have to happen to just me?)

I'd usually wake up just before the sun rises, to look at the sunrise. The sun's peaceful and bright. It doesn't care who I am, what I do, or whatever's in those nightmares. It makes me feel better. Then I'd train. Hitting or slashing things also makes me feel better, but not as much as watching a sunrise.

Today I chose to wake up before that. It's an important day, after all.

"The dock's just ahead. Are you ready?" The Kommo-o showed up earlier than I expected, so maybe waking up earlier than usual was a good thing.

The dock is busy, much busier than my home village. Pokémon walk everywhere, bumping into each other, but they don't seem to care. It's like that's what they do every day. Most of them look like they could be in the water, with only a few looking like they don't like being in the water.

"Hey, kid, move outta the way!" A Blastoise shouts, before going around me.

"What was the point of saying that if you're not just gonna do it anyways?!" I yell back, annoyed at this flip-floppy behavior. It's like he wanted to push me outta the way, then decided not to, and decided to yell at me because I was in the way, which makes it sound like he wanted to push me outta the way…

Now I see he's avoiding other Pokémon in his way, which means he didn't need to shout at me in the first place!

Weird. Maybe this is just what he and the other Pokémon here do.

(There's no point in wondering about these things! I should just answer the Kommo-o's question.)

I shake my head a bit to get out the jitters. "...There's nothing I care about in my village. Of course I'm ready!" I flash him a determined look.

The Kommo-o eyes me weirdly.

"You paused. Are you sure you're ready? You don't have any friends?"

I try not to look at him but end up looking anyway. He doesn't look any different from pictures of Kommo-os I've seen before. Other than him turning his right arm away from me whenever I look, he doesn't look too suspicious. "...Well... yeah, I have a friend. But I don't need her to slow my training down. I'm ready."

He frowns, and I'm not sure whether it's disappointment or awkwardness on his face. "Training? I didn't say I was going to train you. I only said I'd let you come join the guild after we sail there. That's the reason we're here at the docks and not already at the guild - it'll take a boat ride before we even get anywhere near it."

"Oh..."

I guess he feels bad, because he sounds like he does, even if he doesn't look like it. "Alright, I guess I could train you a bit…" He looks around for no reason, as if a fight would really be the worst thing to do here. I've already seen shopkeepers fight with their potential customers, and I just got here, so this can't possibly be an issue. "Um, while we're waiting for the boat to get here, I'd like to test you."

"Test me? What's there to test?"

He raises a claw at me and grimaces. I guess now he's disappointed. "First, don't act so cocky. Second, I have no idea how strong you are. Third, I need to see what moves you know. You can start by hitting me, as hard as you can."

I take a few steps back, almost bumping into more Pokémon... who are still walking around me.

(I thought they were supposed to live in the water, not literally act like they're water!)

"Are ya sure this is okay?"

He shrugs. "If they're already going around you, it means they don't really mind in the first place."

I ready myself, gathering up all of my energy. "Okay! Here I come!"

(I have to show him my full power! I can't hold back now, not after all I've done!)

The same Blastoise from before glares at me. A Buizel looks about ready to smack me with an apple she's carrying. I don't care, I could probably win against her for all I know. I run up to the Kommo-o really, really fast and slam a foreleg into him - no effect. He doesn't even budge.

(He should've at least moved a bit!)

"And you're the strongest out of your entire village?" He says it like he's not impressed, looking ahead of himself like I'm not here. I'm confused.

(What's going on?)

"Uh… yeah? Is that supposed to be an insult?!"

"Not to you it isn't. That strike was great, considering how young you seem to be. Do you know any moves?" He still doesn't look at me.

I nod my head vigorously. Now I can show him what I can do! "I… think so? Does this count?"

Now he looks at me, but I don't see him getting into a defensive stance. Is he really planning on taking my attack head on again?!

I swing my head leaf forward, sending a flurry of sharp leaves his way. He doesn't change his expression, and he just lifts an arm like he's doing morning stretches. He blocks them all and they fall harmlessly to the ground.

(What?! Even that didn't do anything?!)

"No fair! My strongest move and ya block it just like that?!"

He looks confused. "What move is that? It didn't look like Razor Leaf, since there were a lot more leaves… I'd expect you to know that, at least..."

(That doesn't answer my question!)

I scrunch my face up, because I don't think I know either. "I think… my teacher called it… Leaf Storm?"

"Leaf Storm? You hid that you knew Leaf Storm from me?" His jaw looks like it's hanging right off of his face.

I raise an eyebrow. "What's so great about that? It's just a bunch of leaves."

"Well, I don't exactly know how it works. I've just heard it's powerful, for one, and that it looks like what you just did. Second, there's more leaves, so it has a higher chance of hitting your opponent if they don't consider blocking all of them. Finally, it could be used as a shield of sorts against any long-range attacks."

(He really likes explaining things, doesn't he...)

"I'll try it again! And don't block it this time!"

I use Leaf Storm again, and this time, I aim at his chest so all, or at least most, of the leaves hit him. The leaves hit him directly… and then fall to the ground again.

He still doesn't look hurt.

"Hey! This isn't fair! Why'd it do nothing again?!"

"Maybe it got weaker? It looks like Razor Leaf or Leaf Tornado, although Leaf Tornado looks more like, well, a tornado, so it shouldn't have any sort of effect on itself after you've used it. My only guess is that it did something to weaken itself, as contradictory as that seems with the knowledge I have, or maybe to weaken other moves like it that you use."

I scrunch my face up again. "So ya don't have an answer?!"

Now he scrunches his face up. "You're a feisty kid, aren't you?"

"I dunno what that word means! Don't use weird words like that!"

He looks up, his expression changing to something more like a poker face. "Oh, it looks like the boat's here. We should get going. Another thing I forgot to tell you; you don't need to buy any tickets. I already got them for us."

(He didn't answer my question again!)

He leads me towards the end of a dock. Obviously, there's a boat there, and it looks… kinda large. I expected something smaller, like large enough just for us and whoever's sailing us to the guild.

He hands the tickets he was holding somewhere to a… I think he's a Samurott? Maybe the Samurott's the sailor, I dunno.

(I should probably ask the Kommo-o his name if he's gonna train me.)

"What's your name?"

Oh. He asked me. "Aikonita. What's yours?"

He… doesn't even look at me? Is he that focused on the boat, or is he looking at the ocean? "Roanthe. This has been bugging me, but why are your leaves and buds brown? Are you one of those 'shiny' Pokémon?"

I stare into the distance. "Uh… I dunno. I think I was just born this way."

Weird of him to ask that now and not when he first started talking to me, but hey, that's what other Pokémon ask me when I first meet them, so I'm used to it.

We walk onto the boat, where I stare further, across the ocean. The guild must be far away, so far away I can't understand how far away it is.

The boat starts moving. I look back to see the boat's now full, and the Samurott's going to push the boat across the ocean. He must be pretty strong to do that!

(To stop these nightmares, I'll do anything, even if it means leaving my village...)

I'll have to get stronger, stronger than the Samurott, stronger than Roanthe. I need more power, more moves, not to mention more experience. In short… I have a long way to go.

Roanthe pokes at my face. I stare back at him in annoyance. "I was thinking, ya know... I need to get strong fast! You can help with that, right?"

Now he smiles. "Definitely. There's a reason I'm this strong… Maybe someday I'll tell you, or you'll figure out why. You seem smart." He clutches his right arm as a weirdly-colored flame goes up it.

"What's that?" I poke at his right arm with a vine.

"You'll find out eventually." He turns to look out towards the ocean again as I keep blankly staring at his arm.

(I have to take this opportunity now to grow as much as I can, otherwise I won't be able to keep up!)

Aikonita's moveset so far, from her own perspective:

Leaf Storm: A move that I've known since my childhood. For some reason, I've "skipped" Razor Leaf in favor of this move. It looks like it gets weaker the more I use it? Maybe it'll get stronger the more experience I have with it? I don't know how it works, so I'll have to learn about that first.

Characters introduced this chapter:

Aikonita

Species: Chikorita

Gender: Female

Age: 10

Roanthe

Species: Kommo-o

Gender: Male

Age: 22

Next Chapter: First Steps