A/N

Last chapter seems to have gone down pretty well, so that's neat. Small lore dump and Grimm not living up to his name the best this chapter due to a small amount of lighthearted pranking. Not much to say, about 5k words this time.

Enjoy it if you want.

Professor Oak looks at all the books strewn across his desk, all of them on various International and Johto laws dating back hundreds of years. His eyebrows almost reach his hairline at this point, as he bookmarks and closes the last book he was reading. Leaning backwards and rubbing his chin, he considers the absolute mess he just read.

International law was clearer, having been established much more recently. Non-humans were barred from applying for being an International Trainer, barred from competing in International events as a Trainer, and forbidden from being involved in any international trading of Pokemon. Very clear cut on that front, but their definition of "International event" was a tad strange.

You see, that was their catch all for unofficial tournaments, activities, competitions, etc. It was detailed out like that in a FAQ section on the official site even. They used the terms "International Tournament" or "International League" for their official events, of which Non-humans would not be barred from competing in as a Trainer if they could somehow become one.

Most importantly, however, it makes no mention of any sanctions or restrictions on Pokemon being a Regional Trainer. Possibly due to not wanting to impose any rule over the regions it didn't have to, even if it was a generally understood agreement between every region. Not directly international? No rule.

The laws of Johto were more… vague. Frustratingly so. Multiple different cases where it was an assumed "law of the land" rather than explicitly detailed out. People getting in trouble for hedge funds, tax evasion, Pay Day abuse, Foresight abuse, and every manner of act. But in these cases and laws made afterwards, not once does it ban Pokemon from being trainers. Over the years, bans against Pokemon-owned bank accounts, investments, land ownership, inheritance, insurance, and for some reason sword ownership were all made official.

It could be very easily argued that it was very much so implied that Pokemon can't be Trainers, and that Grimm would be breaking the law as it was understood. On the other hand, there was a strict "Nullum crimen sine lege" enforcement. No matter which side won, it would cause the court case of the century, easily, when it comes out what Grimm is. And Professor Oak was under no assumption that it would stay hidden.

And as for citizenship… Well, it is a good thing indeed that old Professor Oak has one certain 700 year old book on Indigo's laws, which were never struck down upon the Kanto/Johto split and are still in effect to this day.

LINE BREAK

After parting ways with Ash and the gang, I meandered my way back to Azalea Town. Figured I should say goodbye to Nurse Joy and ask her to keep me quiet. I don't think I ever asked her too, so it's on me if she did already, but I was hoping she didn't.

Hmmm… maybe I should tell her to let her family know. I fully expect to get laid up as a result of training, much less fighting, and telling every Nurse Joy I see would be an absolute pain anyways.

Walking down the streets while whistling, I shove my hands in my pockets as I look around. This really is a nice and peaceful place, when Team Rocket isn't causing explosions and the main cast aren't working their unlucky magnets all over the place. I'll actually be a bit sad to see it go, it's technically my birth town in this world. Even though I was born in the forest outside, I'll just go ahead and say it counts.

Man, what a day though. Meet the main cast, learn what moves I actually know, learn I have 3 goddamn Egg Moves, get blown up by Team Rocket, bluff them into backing down, fight my first Pokemon Battle as a trainer, gain the approval of Professor fucking Oak, and get told to head New Bark Town.

And all of this by 7pm. Well, remember I have a horrible sleep schedule so just… consider that to be 10am for me.

I was already done with my day, but also strangely wired up and ready to go. I chalk it down to the oncoming nighttime, since the sun was beginning to set, with a mix of the progress I made today.

After a nice and relaxing walk, I make my way inside the Pokecenter. Nurse Joy wasn't at the front desk again, most likely tending to something in the back again, so I carefully look around and smirked. The reception room was deserted except for me. Everyone staying at the Pokecenter was probably upstairs already or weren't planning on coming back until late.

Changing back into Zorua form, I hop up onto the desk next to the bell. It may be my Zorua nature kicking in, or maybe I was already like this but never had the means, but I have really noticed an uptick in my desire to prank people. And I was going to take this opportunity to scratch that particular itch.

Loudly dinging the bell once, I throw up my invisibility illusion and stifle a snicker. After a minute or so, Nurse Joy comes out of the back room with a big smile. "Hello, how- Oh, they left?" She says with a confused voice. The moment her back was turned, I dropped the illusion. It was hard to stabilize once I moved, so it was easier to drop it entirely and start from scratch.

*DING*

I turn invisible again, grinning as Nurse Joy turns around again and looks around for whoever rang the bell. Walking around the desk, she moves towards the reception area and searches around with a bewildered look. Picking up the bell, she looks it over for a moment before setting it down and looking around again.

*DING*

This time I don't bother reapplying the illusion. I tried very hard not to chuckle at her face as she turned around, and only partially succeeded because I could feel my shoulders shaking. And from the look on her face, she recognized my body language very well. Unamused, she stalks up to my position and crosses her arms and taps her foot.

"Thought that was funny, Zorua?" She asks rhetorically, waiting for me to stop snickering internally. Her face wasn't helping matters, but I quickly calmed down and expressed just how funny I found that through my smirk.

Transforming into human form, already sitting on the counter, I leaned my face into one of my hands with the elbow propped on my leg. She looked very surprised at this, considering last time I was kinda awkward in human form and now I had no problems.

"Sorry about that Nurse Joy, I had the opportunity and just had to take it. Not sure why I suddenly felt the need but I did." I explain, enjoying her reaction to my perfect common.

"Zorua, you learned how to talk so fast! And you aren't injured, are you? Last time you came in you were severely injured, I'll have you know." Nurse Joy inquires. Looking over my form in case any injuries translated over. Actually, I'm not sure how that would work. It bears testing, hopefully without a grievous injury.

"Nope, I'm in rude health. And yep, a few days of practice will do that. I'm going by Grimm now by the way, rather liked the sound of it." I say, making sure I answered all her questions.

"Well, if you aren't injured… can you get off my front desk?" Nurse Joy asks, a little bit annoyed with me it seems. Raising my arms in mock surrender, I hop off of the front desk and lower my arms.

"What are you doing back here if you aren't injured? You seemed like you'd never step foot in here if you didn't have to when I offered." She asks. Ah, I was hoping she didn't see through that. It's what I get for trying to sneak something past a medical professional I guess.

"Well, I figured out what I want to do since I'm staying here and I wanted to let you know. First of all, promise to keep this secret except within your family?" I ask, face losing my amused grin in an instant. She blinks and nods at me, looking whiplashed by my turn in mood.

"Alright, well I hope to become a Trainer. Technically speaking, since I've never been captured I can do it so long as I get a sponsorship and citizenship. I have the sponsorship, found a Gym Leader from Kanto, and am leaving for New Bark Town to get the citizenship I need. Wanted to let you know before I left since I'm technically a part of an ongoing investigation. Also, since you would worry until you heard about me from your family. It's okay to tell them, by the way, just express it's not to reach the public or anyone outside your family." I say in one big spiel.

"Wait… you want to become a Pokemon Trainer?" She asks, eyebrows narrowing together.

"Well… it seems like a lot of fun and I'd prefer it to only being a member on someone's team. It's not technically illegal so I'm going for it. Just want to make sure it doesn't get out before my big reveal." I say, regaining my grin and a look in my eyes that spelled trouble for some poor folks who will have to deal with the fallout. Nurse Joy shook her head in exasperation, unsurprised from my antics.

"Well, given your track record in battles I won't bother saying stay safe. Just please be careful." She states, going into worry mode. She really is a nice lady, I hope Azalea Town stays nice and quiet for her sake. She's busy enough with all the newby Trainers that have pulled into town to challenge Bugsy and got dumpstered by his Scyther. Hopefully this place doesn't get mixed up in that Unown business.

I give Nurse Joy a smile and a nod, promising that I'll be careful in my fights. I knew it was a lie, but hey, it made her feel better. Taking my leave, I give her and Chansey a wave before heading off. That was a surprisingly painless goodbye, no one even tried to give me a hug or make small talk on my way out.

It's the little things in life.

LINE BREAK

Another thing to be kind of grateful about being a Pokemon over. I could quite easily live off of the various berries in the wilderness, considering they grew back at freakish rates for the common ones. I went to bed one night, having picked all the Razz Berries in the area, then woke up with the berries already back.

Speaking of Razz Berries, it turns out I love the damn things. Not really sure why, but it certainly is my favorite among all the ones I came by. I was following the path for now, since I needed to work my way through Route 33 and Union Cave before doing anything else. After that, I planned to follow the coast to Cherrygrove City to skip all the bullshit up north. Also hopefully saving me a ton of time in my travel.

There's probably a reason that there's no path there, but I think I'll be fine. My body is much tougher than a human's, but I think maybe not as much as I thought. I still think I wasn't injured much, but Nurse Joy acted like I was about to keel over any second dead when I came in.

Really not sure what that's about, but I'm hoping it's just her being overprotective of Pokemon and overreacting.

It was pretty relaxing, journeying like this. I can see why so many people are doing it in this world, even though I'm not even sharing this journey with my Pokemon. I wonder what kind of a team I should go for, anyways? Focus on a type or be a generalist is my main question, and I need to figure it out before I reach New Bark Town.

Man, the canopy is always wonderful when I look up no matter what time it is. In the day, sunlight trickles in through the canopy. At night, like it is now, you can see the stars shine clearly in every gap. The minimal amount of light pollution nearby was wonderful, and made the sky extremely clear.

I pop another Razz berry into my mouth as I stop and stare for a little while, only to have my comfortable solitude interrupted by a voice yelling at me from a distance away. Looking towards the sound with a raised eyebrow, I was greeted with the sight of a kid running away from a flock of Murkrow and a single Honchkrow.

I accept that this sort of stuff will be a part of my life now, due to Ash's luck rubbing off on me and not my own luck obviously, and start walking to the kid sprinting for his life.

"Hey, what did you do to piss off their Boss?" I yell out, knowing that groups of Murkrow and Honchkrow are essentially run like a mafia. The kid ignores me and tries to blow past me, only for me to snag the back of his jacket and yank him towards me. It was probably jarring for him, in more ways than one, but I didn't feel like being left to deal with a large murder of crows looking to live up to the name.

"I asked you a question, you know. Also, you aren't outrunning those birds. They hold grudges." I say in a bored tone, making sure he stays in place. He struggled against me for a moment, before spinning around to look at me.

"The hell Man? They're gonna kill me, let me go!" He says desperately, but I wasn't having any of it.

"You aren't dumping this problem on my lap, now stand there quietly and tell me what you did." The murder of crows was fast approaching, and I really wanted to have a basis on the situation before trying to deal with them. Unfortunately, the kid didn't tell me anything before the crows started circling overhead.

"Oi, I'd like to talk to someone here. Either a representative or the leader. Don't worry, I can understand Dark Type Pokemon." I request the group above me. Technically true, but not the whole picture here. No reason for this random passerby I am holding… accountable? Yeah, that sounds nicer than saying I'm holding him here against his will.

After a few moments, a larger than average Murkrow separates from the flock and lands in front of me. It gives the kid a major stink eye, before turning at looking at me.

"Okay, so this guy isn't telling me what happened and I'd really like to get this resolved and be on my way. Mind giving me a run down?" I ask diplomatically, shaking the kid a little bit at the first part.

"Kaw, this guy took somethin' of the Donna's. The Donna wants it back, or else everyone we see gets their wings clipped." The Murkrow says pointedly, holding his head aloft. I figured that's just their way of saying killed, and sigh heavily. Turning to the guy in question, I give him a dead state.

"The Murkrow here says you took something belonging to the Honchkrow up there. And also, that if he doesn't get it back they'll go on a killing spree in the area. The hell made you think pissing off a Dark Type of all things was a good idea?" I inquire, letting go of my grip on him. I figured if he runs with the entire murder circling overhead he was dumb enough to deserve what he got.

Thankfully, he did not in fact run. But his pale and sweating face, mixed with his common glances at the sky above him, made his feelings on his position clear.

"Look, I didn't know it belonged to anything! It was just a cool black stone I saw sitting in the forest!" The guys says, pleading between both me and the Murkrow. I felt my stomach drop a bit at this, surely no one can be stupid enough to steal an evolution stone from the Pokemon it corresponds to. Absolutely not, I refuse to believe it.

Sadly, reality reasserts itself around me as the kid reaches into his backpack and pulls out the object in question. Yep, that was a Dusk Stone alright. My opinion of the poor kid in front of me hits just about rock bottom at this point, and I snatch the stone from his hand.

Oh holy hell, that's strange. I can physically feel the darkness inside the stone, with it somehow pulsing against my hand hard enough to cause a small reverb and my hand to shake slightly. I eye the Honchkrow, who suddenly looks extremely interested in me. Or, more likely, what I am now holding. I turn to the Murkrow still standing there, and place the stone on the ground. I pull myself, and Idiot Prime on second thought, away from the stone in question by a good 10 feet.

"Go ahead and tell the Donna that they can come down and retrieve the stone. I'll make sure no trouble happens." I say steadily, making sure not to show any perceived weakness. I felt like if I did, the rapport would collapse. The crow nodded and spread his wings, taking off into the air and rejoining the flock.

Less than a minute later, a much larger than average Honchkrow lands in front of us and inspects the stone. After a moment, it picks it up in its wing and brings it closer. And let me tell you, I had so many questions as to how the hell a wing functions like that but I wasn't about to ask.

After a few tense seconds, it nods in satisfaction and gives a nod to the murder before turning back to me. I think this one is a female, actually, it has a smaller crest than I think the other Honchkrow I saw one night in the woods when I was in Azalea Town. Makes sense why her title was "Donna" instead of "Don".

"You've done me a service, by stopping that thief and returning my property with no issue as an outsider. In return, I'll do you a service as well. One of mine will accompany you on your journey and protect you. In the future, however, we want you to act as someone who can… settle our disputes with humans. Don't worry, we can find you." The Honchkrow said in an authoritative tone, not even letting me protest the addition if I was so inclined. I really didn't care enough to stop anyone from traveling with me if they wanted, even if it was on orders.

I nodded in acquiescence to the terms and looked up at the flock to see who was coming down. It was the same Murkrow as before, surprisingly. I guess the Donna wasn't kidding around about the protection part, since I get the feeling that it was a very strong Murkrow, if inexperienced. He alights on my shoulder, but a lodge no complaints. Not like they are heavy Pokemon.

"Minor request, just don't kill the man here. It'll cause more problems than it's worth for everyone involved. Just rough him up, shake him down, whatever." I say neutrally, dipping my head slightly and leaving the situation behind. I hear a noise of agreement from the Donna and that's good enough for me.

"H-Hey wait! Don't just leave me here, you asshole, help me out against these birds!" The man yells out, and the Murkrow on my shoulder ruffles his feathers angrily. Not sure on whose behalf, mine or his flocks, but it's appreciated. I make a "stand down" gesture towards the crow and turn back.

"What do you want me to do? I'm not a Trainer and I own no Pokemon. I've talked down the murder of crows, you so dumbly pissed off I might add, from killing you." I respond, slightly aggravated. I mean, come on. He looks like he's about 16 or so, he shouldn't really be asking for help fighting a flock over 100 strong from someone who looks 11 or 12 or so. I'm not as helpless as I'm making myself out to be, obviously, but I have no reason to even attempt to scare off the crows.

The teenager shouts obscenities at me as I leave, but I happily ignore him. It may have been a mistake but he took the stone and ran, like a dumbass, from the flock of very angry, very vicious Dark/Flying Type Pokemon. He almost managed to drag me into his mess with him, but I managed to distance myself from him and earn the favor of the Donna. This situation is no longer my problem, and I am so out of here with a new travelling partner.

Or, well, bodyguard I guess. He seems more interested in glaring at any passing Zubat or Rattata that got within a 50 foot radius of me rather than talking, which is honestly fine by me. Also, I can finally see the cliff that leads up to the Union Cave entrance which has my mood even higher than it was before.

"So, you have a name Murkrow?" I asked conversationally as the ground slowly raised and was no longer level. His chest puffs out proudly at this question.

"I was given the name Alonso by the Donna." He says with pure pride in this. I suppose most Pokemon never get names in the wild, so getting one in a group of 100 was a big deal. Which begs the question… why was such an important Murkrow sent with me? You know what, nevermind. Alonso is with me and obviously not leaving so I'm not going to bother caring unless it suddenly becomes a problem.

"Oh, just to let you know Alonso, I'm not actually a human by the way. I'm a Zorua whose human illusion is tangible." I say out of the blue as we climb the hill, watching for his reaction out of the corner of my eye. It didn't disappoint.

He suddenly squawked and nearly fell off of my shoulder, having to flap his wings to balance himself again.

"...say what now?" He asks, looking at me in that expression of confusion and shock I have so come to love. It's going to be so hard not doing that to everyone I talk to. I scooch him off of my shoulder, to his protest, and change back into my Zorua form. Alonso just looks at me as if I shouldn't exist.

"See? 100% Pokemon here, no human bits at all. I'm going to become a Trainer and prank the world by having a Pokemon be the best Trainer." I say with a shit-eating grin before changing back.

"Oh, yeah, you can call me Grimm. I hope we can be a wonderful team. Would you happen to be interested in being a part of the group that helps me take this league by storm?" I ask, letting him land on my shoulder again as I give him a sharp toothy grin.

"I would be honored Grimm, so long as I get a nice good view of everyone's face when you do it." Alonso says, matching my grin.

I have the feeling that this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship based around viciousness and pranking.

Wonderful.

I wonder how Growlithe was doing?

LINE BREAK

Growlithe really enjoyed fighting and battling. He loved doing it with his teammates, even though he has yet to win versus Totodile and the other teammate is a freshly added Eevee that he always won against easily. He also loved doing it against wild Pokemon and other trainer's Pokemon.

It was a lot of fun working and traveling with his Trainer too! He was pretty strict and harsh in training and battles, but the rest of the time he let all of them do what they wanted so long as they didn't stray too far.

They were training in preparation for someone called "Whitney" in a place called Goldenrod. Something about her being the 'destroyer of newby Trainers' or whatever his Trainer called her. It didn't matter what she had! He would beat them up and win and prove how strong he was!

It was too bad Zorua didn't come with him, he kinda missed his first friend and companion. Even if said companion did tune everything out and occasionally walk into a tree, he also never said anything mean like a lot of Pokemon did before so it was fine.

Zorua was a bit weird, what with his plan of trying to be a Trainer and pranking the world, but he does want Zorua to succeed. Oh! Maybe one day he could battle Zorua! That would make everything better, and it would be fun to fight his first friend and see how strong he got.

Hmmm… Zorua likes to play tricks though with what he heard from Totodile. Okay, in that case he just needs to learn how to pay attention to everything and not get tricked.

Another fool-proof plan from Growlithe. Any further planning was interrupted by his Trainer calling a start to today's training.

With a happy bound, Growlithe threw himself into training with all his heart and ability.

LINE BREAK

I'm sure he's fine, Growlithe is too upbeat to get down and sad even if he was beaten into the ground 1000 times in a battle. Although, if I don't do any training soon he might end up stronger than me before I know it. Now… how am I going to get into a ton of Pokemon battles without getting caught, spotted, identified, and all the while doing my own Gym Challenge?

Only fight wild pokemon? Swear the Gym Leaders to secrecy? Wait, no that won't work. All Gym Battles are recorded without fail.

Maybe I should just moonlight as a criminal or vigilante and pick fights with Team Rocket? No one really cares what happens to them since they are violent criminals. And to clarify, I do mean Team Rocket as a whole and not the Terrific Terrible Trio of Twits that are sure to bother me in the future.

In case you can't tell, I don't like them at all.

Alonso and I are having no problems making our way through Union Cave. It's a lot easier when darkness just seems like dim light to you and you have a Murkrow glaring away at any of the Zubat that dare see what's going on. No being accosted in a cave? Wonderful.

Especially since I don't think I'll ever be able to use a Repel. Even if I'm in human form I guarantee it'll still work, because that's just how the world works. Even if by some miracle it doesn't work, I don't want to subject any of my Pokemon to smelling that trash on me. I smelled it a couple times and it was just awful.

Also, I'm not going to put my Pokemon in their Pokeballs basically… ever really. Unless it's absolutely required or they request it they stay out. It's both an intimidation factor and a great team bonding exercise. Intimidation, because I technically count as a Pokemon on the team. I refuse to show myself early on, so everyone will see the 6 Pokeballs on my waist but never see the last member of my team. Gives the impression that I just don't even need to show them because I won't use them.

Team bonding because it just means more interacting for everyone, that one's just pure and simple.

In any case, I'm pretty happy I technically have my first Pokemon without even being a Trainer yet. Sadly, all we can do right now is practice moves without sparring or fighting the wild Pokemon wandering about.

Hopefully I figure something out soon, because I finally learned how to use Dark Pulse over the past few days and I really want an excuse to use it on someone in a way that won't involve my discovery or possible death due to lack of medical aid.

A/N

First team member has joined, and without anyone getting hurt. Well, without anyone that mattered getting hurt. He'll be fiiiiine.

But yeah, welcome Alonso to the team. His first Pokemon and starter is a Murkrow, given as a bodyguard by the Donna. Instead of being spiteful, however, Alonso seems rather on board with the idea.

Got a little look into an Oak continuation of the last chapter and a more in depth law dump, and you also get a nice look into how Growlithe is doing. He's a little confused, but he's got the spirit.

I will admit, I'm handwaving most of the actual move training until he actually gets started on his journey. Right now it's more about his travels there than it is about his growth in power. He doesn't want to get into any real fights, because last time he thought he was fine but Nurse Joy acted like he was about to collapse and die. He is hoping it's an overreaction but he doesn't want to chance fighting until he can be sure he'll get medical aid of some sort.

You may bring up potions, and I shall respond: With what money?

Anyways, yeah I had fun writing this chapter.

Peace,

-Taldor