Chapter 11

"Is this stuff even edible? I mean, yeah it looks nice, but does it taste good?" Nina stared down into the simple black bowl that was filled with a large helping of thick and spicy but slightly sweet smelling curry. On top of the sauce was a portion of rice and some yummy looking fried Tonkatsu, pork cutlet, sliced into sections and topped with mayonnaise. She poked at the pork tentatively with her chopsticks.

"Oh C'mon, it's not gonna jump out and bite you, just try it!"

"I dunno. . . here Chewy, you try it."

She held up the bowl and a slice of pork and rice dabbed lightly in curry and mayonnaise towards the yellow rodents mouth, but he shook his head and pushed it back in her direction, insisting for her to taste it instead.

"Piikachuu. Pika-Pi."

Feeling affronted, Ryan scowled at their reluctance to try his food, he decided to get the others to taste it, there was always Sawyer and Ivysaur.

"Fine! You guys don't have to eat my Tonkatsu curry! Ivysaur won't let me down, right buddy?" Ryan turned to glance at his starter Pokémon, and the brown haired boy nearly fell over when he saw the Seed Pokémon sniff the bowl set before him curiously before pushing it with his paw towards Sawyer, who gave the grass type a sheepish grin and muttered she wasn't really all that hungry.

"You guys are killing my self-esteem."

Ryan hung his head and sighed, glancing over to medium sized pot that was filled with his special curry and two smaller pots filled with rice and the fried Tonkatsu. He called it special, because this was the first dish he had ever managed to master under his mother's tutelage when younger. Since his father was usually out traveling around Kanto with Jelly and usually came home at random intervals, every time he came back home, his mother always made a large feast. Ryan had decided after one night, when his dad was actually home and the family was all together, while eating his mother's Tonkatsu, that he wanted to try and make a meal for once. That obviously wasn't the right thing to say in front of his mother, because she took her cooking very seriously and worked the poor boy to the bone in an attempt to teach him, not only the basics of cooking, but also how to emulate her skills.

"No Ryan, you put too much seasoning in this one, throw it out!"

"Now this has too little seasoning!"

"It's too spicy! Try it again!"

"You watered down all the flavor! I'm not letting you off the hook until you get this right! You asked for it and I'm going to teach you."

Ryan shuddered at the small memory of his mother standing over him threateningly with the wooden spoon. There were many sleepless nights and spoon slaps to the back of his hands during his childhood while he was learning how to cook, he thinks in the end however it was all worth it. Lifting his own chopsticks to his mouth, Ryan took a large bite from his own bowl of Tonkatsu curry and rice, smiling widely at the burst of flavor that erupted on his taste buds "Mmm, still as yummy as ever." Today Ryan and Nina were relaxing on an off beaten wooded path near the outskirts of Cerulean City and since it was such a nice day out, Ryan had suggested they have some lunch, this prompted Nina to dig into her bag and pull out one of the left over takeout lunches she had swiped from the Pokémon Center earlier for their departure, but Ryan waved that off and explained that he was going to make them lunch.

This notion was met with a moment of silence and disbelieving stares.

"You can cook?"

"This I've got to see."

"Pikachu."

"Ivysaur. . ."

They saw alright. Not one to back down from a challenge, or step down on a chance to show off his cooking prowess, Ryan displayed his hard earned cooking talent from when he was younger. He brandished a collapsible cooking set from his backpack, which none of the others even knew he had and got to work. Chopping the vegetables and apples, stewing the pork, preparing the roux, breading the pork and making the rice. In under an hour Ryan's Tonkatsu curry and rice was finished and placed in five noodle bowls for the group to share!

Too bad the group was still sketchy and refused to eat it.

Even Ivysaur was nervous about tasting it.

His own partner, turned against him over some Tonkatsu curry!

Oh well, he wouldn't give up yet. They were going to try his food if it was the last thing he did "C'mon guys, it's really good. See, I managed to finish my bowl." He displayed the empty bowl to the group of four "C'mon Ivysaur, won't you try it? For me buddy?" Ivysaur faltered at Ryan's words and inwardly the boy smirked, perhaps the best way to get to them guys was to get to Ivysaur, if Ivysaur tried it then maybe Nina and the others wouldn't be so cautious. "Ivy." The seed Pokémon grumbled moving its face towards the bowl and taking a small bite of the Tonkatsu.

The others watched as Ivysaur chewed the pork thoughtfully before swallowing.

"So?" Sawyer asked the question that floated around in the rest of their heads, did it taste good? Ivysaur's answer was a slight nod before he practically shoved his face back into the bowl. Seeing Ivysaur chow down like that, then prompted Nina to dig her own chopsticks back into her bowl and grab a small portion of Tonkatsu and rice, dipping it in the curry, she took a bite and her eyes widened in a large teary fashion.

"Wow! It's so yummy."

"Pika?" Chewy swiped a piece of Tonkatsu from Nina's bowl and chewed it slowly before swallowing. His eyes grew wide with tears as well while he cupped his cheeks cooing "Piiikachuu." Seeing the others enjoy the food and not wanting to feel left out, Sawyer swiped some of the food from Ivysaur's bowl and mimicked the others reactions. Ryan grinned and rubbed under his nose smugly "Hehe, toldja it was good."

"Scyther!"

Nina was about to comment on Ryan's smugness, but a screech caught the group off guard, along with the giant green bug Pokémon that came barreling out of the bushes and plowing straight into Ryan, sending both human and Pokémon to the ground in a heap. "Ryan! Are you okay?" Nina stood up and she and the Pokémon quickly peered down at the boy who was sprawled out flat on his back with a Scyther who was roughly his height if not a few inches more and weighing a ton. His eyes had turned into swirls due to the wind being knocked out of him and probably because he smacked against the ground a bit too hard.

Ryan slowly sat up and looked at Nina with crossed eyes, his head lolling back and forth and words slurring as he spoke "Jelly? Since when could you fly?"

"Jelly? Who—"

Instead of responding, Ryan just groaned and fell back against the ground, eyes swirling.

"Scyther! SCYther! Scy!"

"Well, this guy sure can eat." Ryan murmured, finally recovered from the earlier knockout, courtesy of Scyther, whom was now grinning and eating Pokémon food with the others to its heart content "I wonder where this Scyther came from. . ." Nina chewed thoughtfully as she got a second helping of Ryan's curry "who knows, I just want to know why it came barreling into me like that," the brown haired boy frowned and rubbed at the back of his head, which throbbed slightly, and pulled out his Pokédex to scan it.

"Scyther, the Mantis Pokémon. Its claws are sharp as swords, and it is a powerful flyer. This Pokémon is rarely seen by humans and almost never captured."

"Scyther, Scy." Scyther gave Ryan a sheepish apologetic grin.

"Scyther! There you are, I've been looking all over for you!"

"S-Scy!" Scyther froze at the sudden appearance of a young black haired green eyed boy dressed in a kimono, which consisted of dark blue haori with a plain white kosode underneath, dark blue hakama and some wooden geta on his feet that came bounding through the bushes. Resting on his hip was a lethal looking katana. The gang on the other hand blinked at the newcomer.

x-X-x

"So, you're Scyther's trainer?"

"Yes. My name is Ryuuta and Scyther is my partner."

"I'm Nina and this is Ryan, Chewy is my partner and Sawyer and Ivysaur belong to him." She pointed to the other three Pokémon that were gathered around Scyther, eating.

"Ah you guys train Pokémon? Well we're training to become Cut Masters."

"Uh, yeah. Cut Master?" Nina repeated and Ryuuta nodded, taking the bowl of Tonkatsu curry and rice Ryan offered with a thankful smile. He then proceeded to wolf down the food in a matter of seconds, and then held his bowl out for more, Ryan sweat dropped but dutifully refilled the boy's bowl. The only sounds heard throughout the clearing was the light clinking of chopsticks hitting the porcelain bowl Ryuuta was eating out of.

"Wow, you must have been really hungry." Nina noted and Ryan snorted, muttering dryly into his own bowl "starved looks more like it," this earned him an elbow to the side and the boy winced slightly before Nina continued "So, what's a Cut master?" Ryuuta just noisily finished his fifth helping and gulped down two entire bottles of water before responding. He wiped his mouth and a satisfied noise and then clasped his hands together in front of him and bowed his head slightly, causing his ponytail to fall over his shoulder "I am sorry for my rudeness. Thank you for the wonderful meal, I haven't eaten anything that good in days."

"But, to answer your previous question, a Cut master is someone who has mastered the art of cutting."

"Art of cutting?"

"Cutting is classified as art? What a lousy sounding art."

"Ryan!"

"Ouch! What? What'd I say?" Nina just glared at him and the boy stuck his tongue out at her in response, rubbing at his abused ear that Nina had just pulled. Ryuuta just continued speaking as though what transpired between Nina and Ryan didn't happen. "The art of cutting is when you become one with your blade and are able to cut down any obstacle in your way!" Ryuuta then faltered "or at least, that's what I think it is. The actual true art of cutting is a very vague concept and people tend to take it any way they want to." Ryuuta stood and then clenched his fist determinedly "That's why I think to be a true cut master, we have to be one with our weapons and be able to strike down any obstacle that stands in our way!"

"Scyther!" the Mantis Pokémon moved to stand beside its trainer and gave a determined cry as well, mimicking the boys pose.

"So, basically you guys are training to get stronger to be able to cut stuff down and then once you're able to do that, you're going to try and cut even tougher stuff down?"

"Mhm."

"Scy!"

"Sounds extremely redundant to me."

At Ryan's comment, both Ryuuta and Scyther fell down "w-well when you put it like that. . ." Ryuuta gave a sheepish laugh before sitting upright in a cross legged position "we were actually in the middle of training, but then Scyther had ran off."

"Ran off?"

"Mhm. We were just doing the same training routine in our training area as always. . ."

"Okay Scyther, let's try it again! Cut!" Ryuuta pointed at one of the nearby straw dummies with his katana.

"Scyther!" Scyther flew at the training dummy and slashed at it with its scythes, naturally the straw stood no chance against the razor sharp edges of Scyther's hand blades, but this was nothing new, they had been slicing and dicing up straw and sometimes log dummies for weeks now it was time for something a bit more tougher than pieces of wood and bound together straw dummies.

"Scy?" Scyther blinked curiously at the new test dummy, it was a metal contraption shaped in the form of a person. Ryuuta tapped the metal with his katana and it made a dull sound "this is pure reinforced steel Scyther and in order for us to truly master the Cut move, we'll have to be able to cut down steel. Once we cut through that, we can cut through anything."

"Scyther?"

"Yeah, steel is one of the most hardest substances around, if we can cut through this, we'd be the strongest duo ever! Even Steel type Pokémon won't stand a chance!" He grinned widely at his partner "so, what do you say buddy, ready to train?" Scyther nodded and gave Ryuuta a determined look, flexing its scythes "Scyther!"

"We'd train for hours on end, slashing and hacking away at the steel, but it'd never even get so much as a tiny noticeable scratch. It was always the same routine, we'd eat, sleep, wake up and then train, but the other day something happened."

"Scyther. . ." Scyther glared at the metal contraption that served as a testing dummy, for the past two hours now it had been slashing away, trying to put even the tiniest of cuts in it, but the metal wouldn't bend to the Mantis Pokémons will. Hidden behind the trees, Ryuuta watched as his Pokémon continued to hack and slash away at the dummy with determined fire in its eyes.

"Scy-ther! Scyther! Scy! Ther. . ."

Scyther paused for a moment to catch its breath and then went back to attacking the metal decoy, Ryuuta moved out from behind the trees and watched with worried eyes as the Scyther relentlessly attacked the decoy to no avail. It would be 10 minutes later when he decided that it was time for Scyther to just stop for a bit, it looked to be overworking itself "C'mon Scyther, maybe you should rest." Ryuuta placed a hand on Scyther's shoulder, but the green Pokémon just tensed under his grip and growled loudly, then lashed out at Ryuuta, whirling around angrily with its scythes poised and slashing at the boy, Ryuuta bought up his arm in defense and cried out when the blade sliced through the sleeve of his arm and pierced the skin. He gasped and then looked up at his Pokémon with wide eyes "Scyther, what's gotten into you?"

"S-Scy. . ." Scyther's eyes widened and it stared down at its scythes in horror, and then looked back at Ryuuta, who gave it a confused expression, cradling his injured and bleeding arm "S-Scyther. . ." Scyther began to slowly back away from Ryuuta and the boy extended his non injured hand "hey, wait a min— Scyther wait!" Turning its back on its trainer Scyther fled into the trees, disappearing out of sight.

"That was the last time I saw Scyther, until now."

"So, you guys were training and Scyther lashed out at you?"

"Yeah and I have no clue why." Ryuuta raised his left arm and lowered the sleeve, revealing a fresh wrap and bandage, Nina gasped softly at the wound and Ryan's eyes narrowed "The cut luckily didn't go too deep and missed the bone, but it does hurt when I move my arm too much, I haven't be able to practice my own sword cutting techniques because of it. . ." The three trainers shared a moment of silence before looking at the Mantis Pokémon and saw it was gazing down at its scythes with an upset expression. "Hey Scyther, don't look so glum. I know it was an accident and you didn't mean to strike me on purpose." Ryuuta stood and moved to stand beside his Pokemon, but Scyther noticed this movement and cautiously took a step back, causing Ryuuta's eyes to widen questioningly "S-Scyther?"

"S-Scy. . ." Scyther shook its head and took another step backwards, before looking down at its scythes again.

"Whoa, your Scyther's really bummed out about this."

"I know," Ryuuta sighed at Nina's words "what am I gonna do?"

"Make it feel better, duh." Ryan scoffed with a roll of his eyes.

"Easier said than done."

"No worries, we'll help!" Nina offered with a smile and Ryan raised an eyebrow and his tone turned disbelieving "we will?" Nina elbowed him once again in the side and he scowled at her, rubbing at his poor abused torso "don't be rude Ryan! Of course we'll help!" The brunette sighed "of course we will. . ."

x-X-x

"Okay, now the first step to solving the problem is admitting you have a problem!" Seated Indian style directly in front of Scyther, was a far too happy to be normal, Nina and in her hands was her sketchbook and pencil with Sawyer perched on her shoulder, due to Nina asking the mouse to play translator. Her glasses shined as she stared evenly at the mantis Pokémon while questioning it and in return, Scyther gazed warily at her "Scy. . ."

"Nina, this isn't therapy, we're just trying to cheer Scyther up, not listen to its life story." From his spot on the sidelines, he was cleaning his dishes and repacking up his collapsible kitchenware since Ryuuta had practically devoured the entire pot of curry, Ryan rolled his eyes while giving Nina an exasperated expression. "Oh hush Ryan, I don't see you doing anything, so let me do it my way!" She huffed lightly at the brunette and then turned back to Scyther "so Scyther, why are you so upset? Is it because you feel like your lashing out on Ryuuta is the reason why he got hurt and that's why you ran away? Or is it something else?"

"S-Scyther Scy. . . Scyther, scy scy!"

"I see. . ." Nina murmured scribbling into her sketchbook while Sawyer translated into her ear "so that's why you ran away."

"Scy." Scyther nodded.

"Well. . . you know, you could always try it again Scyther, running away isn't going to solve your problem."

"Scyther! Scy scyther!" Scyther furiously shook its head no and Ryuuta gaped from his spot beside Ryan, eyes widening in disbelief "she. . . she's actually conversing with him! How's she able to understand what Scyther's saying?" Finally finished packing up all his things, Ryan was now sitting down leaned back against a tree, idly scratching behind Ivysaur's ears as the Seed Pokémon curled up comfortably on his lap, eying the scene with interest and Chewy was dozing off near his hip, sprawled on his stomach. "It's because of Sawyer." He explained, gaze flickering to Nina and Scyther, the orange haired girl was currently trying to get her point across and the Mantis Pokémon was stubbornly refusing, with fierce head shakes "for some reason, she's able to talk." A gentle breeze wafted through the air and Ivysaur sighed, feeling relaxed as the wind tickled the leaves on his back "Ivy. . ."

"A talking Rattata, that's. . . new."

"Heh, that's the same thing I said." He smirked before glancing at Ryuuta, who despite his disbelieving tone, looked extremely worried. His eyes had a restless look in them and unconsciously his fingers clenched and unclenched around the hem of his kimono, Ryan's gazed softened as he spoke.

"This is really killing you, isn't it?"

"Mhm, this is the first time I've seen Scyther in nearly a week, after he ran away I wouldn't stop looking for him. I. . . I was scared," he admitted, running his good hand through his hair "I didn't know if he was alright, or if I did something stupid to make him run away. I didn't even care that he attacked me, or that I couldn't practice or that he nearly cleaved my arm off, y'know, I just wanted to see Scyther again. . . he's my partner." Ryuuta smiled slightly before continuing "I was so happy when I stumbled upon him today, but he seemed so. . . so nervous earlier, like he was afraid he might attack me again or something."

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Ryan placed a hand on Ryuuta's shoulder "I think, you guys need to talk." Startled, Ryuuta stared at Ryan with wide eyes "talk, b-But you saw Scyther, he won't let me come near him!" Ryan scoffed with roll of his eyes "then lock him in a corner him and make him listen! You guys aren't going to make any progress if you two keep avoiding the problem."

Ryuuta opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it and narrowed his eyes "I'm not going to force Scyther to do anything he doesn't want to do." He explained calmly to Ryan "so, if Scyther doesn't want to talk to me, then so be it. I can wait until he's ready."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

"Alright then, I hope you'll forgive me for what I'm about to do then."

"Huh?"

"Ivysaur, Sleep Powder!"

"Ivy!"

"H-Hey, what are you. . ." Ryuuta trailed off slowly as his eyes began to droop and he fell face first onto the forest floor, knocked out cold. Startled by the sudden change of events, Nina looked at Ryan with wide confused eyes "Ryan, what's going on?" She watched as the boy kept the front of his hoodie protecting his nose and mouth and practically ignored her question before pointing at Scyther, who was just as lost and confused as she "I'll explain later when I wake you up, now, Sleep Powder again Ivysaur!"

"Ivy!" Ivysaur complied with a nod and the leaves on his back shook gently before they released a sparkling blue powder that filled the air, Nina, Sawyer and Scyther then followed Ryuuta's example and dropped like sacks to the floor, snoring loudly. Once he was sure the powder had dispersed from the air, Ryan lowered the front of his hoodie and sighed "alright, now that we've sold that problem, we need to find some rope. You think Nina might be weird enough to have some rope stashed in her bag?"

"Ivy?" Ivysaur blinked up in confusion at his grinning face.

"You know, because girls are. . ." he trailed off laughing weakly before shaking his head and sighing "oh never mind, she'd probably kill me if I went digging through her stuff anyway. Just start looking for some vines or something to tie these guys up with." Nodding Ivysaur parted ways with Ryan and went about searching through the forest for some thick vines.

"Mnnn. . ."

"Rise and shine sleepy head."

"R-Ryan, what are you. . ." rousing from her unplanned slumber, Nina rubbed at her eyes and blinked up at Ryan, who was standing over grinning "nice to see you're awake princess, now do me a favor and wake prince charming and Scyther over there." Swiping at her eyes once more, Nina's eyes widened in shock when she saw Scyther and Ryuuta tied up with a thick length of vine, the greenery was wound repeatedly around their arms and torso, locking the limbs tightly in place to keep from any movement.

"Ryan. . . what's going on?" She narrowed her eyes at the boy as he waved half of a small capsule under the noses of Chewy and Sawyer, causing them to dazedly awaken from their slumber "why are Scyther and Ryuuta tied up?" Ryan glanced back at Nina and tossed her one of the capsule he'd used to rouse the Pokémon awake, she caught it wordlessly and recognized them as smelling salts.

"Because if I don't do this now, these two would never solve their problem and we'd be stuck here forever trying to play the makeup game."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I said," he mumbled " for whatever reason Scyther ran away after attacking Ryuuta and—"

"Scyther ran away because he was scared, he lashed out on Ryuuta and he was angry for being unable to cut the dummy in half, he didn't mean to attack him on purpose but he was just so frustrated with himself that he let his anger pull through."

"Right. . . anyway, Ryuuta refuses to grow a spine and talk to Scyther, because he's afraid he'll just run away and be all shy again and basically he said he'll wait as long as he has to until Scyther feels ready to confront him and frankly, I don't have time for this, because I have a feeling, you'd stay here and continue to play doctor and I'd never be able to get my next badge."

Feeling offended at his words, Nina growled "I can't believe you'd actually think that I. . . I'd never! You— I— ooh. . ." Ryan just waved a hand dismissively at her attempt to form a comeback "yeah, yeah, we can save it for later. Just wake the sleeping twosome up now, the sooner we get this over with, the quicker we can leave." Huffing loudly, she turned on her heel and went over to the sleeping Scyther and Ryuuta, snapping open the smelling salt capsule and running both halves under the respective sleeper's noses. Ryuuta was the first to wake up.

"Nng. . . huh?" Blinking Ryuuta sat up, however when he moved to lift his arm, he noticed that he was currently tied up and instantly began to struggle in his bonds, but then stopped and winced because of his injury "h-hey! What's the big idea!" His eyes trailed over to Ryan, who stood a few feet away, watching with an unreadable expression "why'd you tie me up! I demand an explanation!" In response, Ryan gave Ryuuta a flat stare, causing the dark haired youth to bristle slightly before he went back to wriggling in his bonds, though being extremely cautious of his wound. "Untie me this instant or I'll—"

"Only if you work things out with Scyther. . ."

"Eh?"

"I'll only untie you, if you patch things up with Scyther."

"But Scyther won't listen!"

"Well then, it's a good thing I tied him up too huh?" Grinning, Ryan pointed slightly behind Ryuuta and the boy craned his head to see what he was pointing at. An expression of shock was etched on his face as he found his Scyther had been bound tightly with vine as well "Scyther?" The Mantis Pokémon lifted its head at the sound of its name being called and it glanced at Ryuuta, posture stiffening in the bonds "S-Scy?"

"Untie Scyther right now!"

"No dice. Not until you two can talk your problems out without either of you trying to avoid it." Ryan slid his eyes over to Scyther who was flexing its arms and twisting its appendages at an angle in an attempt to slice the vines and get free "I wouldn't do that if I were you Scyther," Ryan warned, his eyes narrowing "the second you break free, you'll only be knocked out again by Ivysaur's Sleep Powder and we'll just tie you up again," he shrugged before turning his back on the bug and the boy and stating simply "or I could have Ivysaur Poison Powder you into submission, either way I'm going to get you two to talk to one another, so your choice." While Scyther and Ryuuta exchanged nervous glances behind Ryan's back, Nina was talking to the now confused Chewy and Sawyer.

"What's going on, why are…" Sawyer paused to paw at her eyes, while Chewy released a yawn "they all tied up?"

"Ryan is trying to get these two to make up, so we can move on," she answered folding her arms "personally, I think he's going about this the wrong way and my way was much less demanding."

"So," Ryan whirled back around and glanced at Ryuuta and Scyther "will you two talk to each other like a normal trainer and Pokémon, or do I have to resort to underhanded persuasion tactics?"

Ryuuta scowled slightly, before sighing and dropping his head in defeat "No. I… I'll talk to Scyther." Ryan's eyes lit up and a grin stretched widely on his face "great! Now get to it." He made a shooing motion with his hands and Ryuuta gave the boy a cautious stare before looking at Scyther. "Hey... um Scyther," he began awkwardly "I'm sorry." Scyther snapped his head up at Ryuuta and its eyes widened at the apology "Scy?" Ryuuta took a deep breath and then exhaled it in one large huff. "I don't know why you attacked me… or why you got angry, but whatever the reason is for…" he glanced away sadly "I'm sorry. I don't know why you got scared and ran away, but you know I don't really care about all that. I'm just happy you're okay an-and if you hate me then I'm fine with that too," he admitted softly "I just… I just missed you Scyther and you had me so worried when you ran off. I couldn't sleep for the first couple of night you were gone and I even stopped eating for a bit, but then I realized starving myself and becoming sleep deprived wouldn't help me find you."

He laughed bitterly at these words "so, when I finally saw you today, I was so happy! You were safe and all was well again, but..." he trailed off slightly and lowered his gaze before speaking up again "but then I saw the way you looked at me, like you were scared and… and it made me feel horrible, because I was the reason you looked like that… so, I-I understand if you hate me Scyther." Ryuuta turned his gaze towards Scyther and the bug Pokémon's eyes were wide "S-Scyther! Scyther scy, scyther scy!" Scyther shook its head furiously in its bonds and met Ryuuta's gaze with watery eyes "scyther scyther scyther scy scy!"

"Hey, what's Scyther saying?" Nina asked, glancing at Sawyer, who began to translate for all the humans present "Scyther is saying, that he doesn't hate Ryuuta and admits that he was afraid he attacked him and he ran away because he thought Ryuuta would hate him, he was blinded by his anger from not being able to slice up the training dummy and then ran after that." Once Sawyer had finished translating, Ryuuta gave Scyther a solemn look and he opened his mouth to speak, "Scyther, I didn't—" but Ryan cut him off.

"So... all of this is basically just one big misunderstanding because Scyther was being a coward?" Ryan folded his arms across his chest and scowled, while Nina frowned. "That's not a nice thing to say Ryan."

"I'm just calling it like I see it," the brunette scoffed with a nonchalant shrug "this could have all been avoided if Scyther grew a spine."

"Ryan!"

"I'm just saying," he began while raising his hands defensively and glancing away from the scolding glare Nina was giving him "if Scyther hadn't run away, none of this would've happened and—"

"Scyther isn't a coward!" Ryuuta spoke up from the spot where he sat, anger clearly radiating off his features as he defended his Pokémon "He's strong and loyal and trustworthy!"

Ryan however, seemed to disagree.

"Tch, if Scyther were really loyal and trustworthy he wouldn't have attacked you and bolted after doing so."

"What'd you say—" Ryuuta grit his teeth, wincing slightly, and rose to his feet, somehow managing not to fall due to the inability to use his arms at the moment.

"Calm down Ryuuta," Nina said, raising a hand to the glaring young man and then turned back to Ryan "and what's gotten into you, why are you being so… so mean!"

"I'm not being mean, I'm being truthful. Scyther is a weakling and a coward, he can't even slice up a metal dummy, I bet they suck at battling too." Nina gaped and her eyes widened "Ryan! How could you say something like that?" Ryan just grunted in response and then waved his hand, it assumed to be some sort of signal, because Ivysaur's bulb began to glow and a small rush of leaves shot at the bound Scyther and Ryuuta, slicing cleanly through their bonds, allowing them freedom. Nina turned her wide gaze to Ryuuta and Scyther and glanced at one another briefly before glaring at Ryan.

"Scyther is not weak!"

"Sure he's not."

"You'll see," Ryuuta growled, clenching his fist at his sides "the next time we meet Ryan, me and Scyther are going to kick your butt!"

"Oh yeah?" He asked, raising an eyebrow "and how are you going to do that?"

"When we master our Cut technique, you better be prepared, because we won't lose!"

"Heh," Ryan smirked condescendingly while narrowing his eyes at Ryuuta and Scyther "try not to run away when I floor your sorry butts alright?" Somehow, Ryuuta's glare got even darker at Ryan's words and he turned towards Scyther "c'mon Scyther we've gotta get going, so we can show this jerk whose boss."

"Scy!"

"Hey – wait! Ryuuta! – don't…" Nina had attempted to stop the boy from storming away, but she trailed off when his figure and Scyther's disappeared beyond the tree lined area. Growling, she whirled around and glared at Ryan, getting ready to demand an explanation, but faltered slightly upon noticing his smug grin "w-what are you so smug about? You just chased them off! Why are you such a jerk?" he winked at the glaring Nina in response "all according to plan," at her confused expression he elaborated "just think about it Nina. At the rate those two were going we were in for some long overly drawn out confession that I really don't have time for, so to speed things up abit I got them angry. They completely forgot about feeling sorry for one another and got angry at me and decided to go and train, so they can prove me wrong and show me Scyther isn't the weakling coward I said he was." Nina gave Ryan a disbelieving stare "and all of this was a part of your brilliant plan?" Ryan nodded "yeah," he then grinned "pretty cool huh, we totally had you guys fooled. Right Ivysaur?"

"Ivy!"

"Wait, Ivysaur was in on this too?"

"Yeah, I started plotting while you guys were still asleep."

". . ."

"Hey, what's with that face? You look constipated or somethin'."

"It's nothing, and Ryan…"

"Yeah?"

"Please don't do that again, I hate being left in the dark."

". . ."

x-X-x

"SCYther!" Scyther's scythes came together harshly in a downward slash at the metal humanoid looking training dummy.

"Great job buddy! Keep it up, you're doing great!"

"Scy!"

Once again, Ryuuta and Scyther found themselves at their training grounds, with Ryuuta watching as his partner relentlessly slashed at the metal contraption, their previous misunderstanding forgotten as they started up training again "Just you wait Ryan, don't underestimate us. As soon as Scyther can cut through that metal and my arm gets better, we're coming after you!" Ryuuta's eyes narrowed and then his fist clenched "just you wait," his eyes slid over to Scyther, who was slashing away determinedly at the metal test dummy "we'll be stronger than ever the next time we meet."

"Scyther!"

Ugh, I hate how I ended this, but my brain farted and I couldn't think of anything else :/

Alright, so I'm 11 chapters in. This is good, its progress. Now, I'm in need of a Beta, this will be my first time ever requesting for one, so I'm new at this. I want someone who will tell me what I need to know and tell me what I'm doing wrong, I want someone who can give me the nitty gritty and wont sugar coat their words, harsh criticism is probably the best kind, so long as it helps my writing rather than hinder it. I'm looking for a Beta, because personally I believe this could be better than it already is, alot better actually, but I have no clue how to make it that way on my own. So, if anyone is interested in being my Beta, I'd appreciate it greatly. Just leave a review or PM me and we can work something out I guess, I'll have you know though if you plan on BETAing me, I hope you're patient, my updates are sporadic and sometimes I'm just lazy and it takes me a while to write and then there's the occasional block period I get into but yeah if interested we can discuss my writing flaws over PM or what have you.