Bump. "I hate this old van," I muttered to myself. Bump. We were moving cities again; this is around the tenth time. Bump. My dad was gone, and my mom worked odd jobs to keep what little we had. We lived in a van, and traveled around Unova. I am fifteen, and the closest I've ever come to a pokemon is running into a seeing-eye poochyena in a supermarket. My mom didn't even have the money to buy a pokeball. Not even a measly pokeball. Bump. We were going to visit my aunt Elesa. She was a gym leader, the very thing I aspired to be. But I didn't even have a pokemon. All I had was a bag from when my dad was a trainer. I had one other thing, an egg. But when dad died, she sold it. I never even knew what it was. Screech! We stopped, and I looked out my window to see a large Ferris wheel. "Don't get into trouble while I talk to your aunt, or else." She was as cold and distant as the day dad was killed. She got out, and entered the theme park. I got out to look around the city.
Nimbasa was big, so I didn't venture very far. I sat on the steps of a place called "Battle Subway," and watched people walk their pokemon in and out of the building. One in particular stood out, though. He was much older than anyone else there, old enough to have his hair graying. He stopped short, and looked in my direction. I looked away, pretending to not have been watching. I could hear his footsteps coming toward me. "Hey there, kid, mind if I sit down?" I answered, not even looking at him. "Guess not, go ahead." He sat beside me, and clicked open a small red device. "I know this might seem a bit weird, but can I see your pokemon?" I bit my lip to hide the whimpers that came with the tears I was holding back. "N-No."
"Oh. Can I ask why not?" this guy needed to go away. "I-I don't have any," I said as I stood to leave. "None at all? Well then, I just might be able to help!" I stopped. "Y-you could?" he grinned ear to ear. "Let me introduce myself. I am Professor Cedric Juniper, and I study all pokemon! I was just on my way to the forest to heal a wounded pokemon someone told me about. You wouldn't by chance have any spare time, would you?" I looked at the park, and back to this Cedric person. "I'm Nagiro, and I guess I have some time," I said, wiping the tears from my eyes. "Great! Let's get going, Nagiro!" he led me to the east of the city, and into a small forest.
…
Within a half hour, we could hear the pained breathing of something a few feet away, and we found it. We both stopped, looking at something amazing. "Professor, what is that one?" a large gray fox with a red mane was sitting down, hunched over a smaller version of it.
"The big one is Zoroark, and the small one is Zorua." Hearing voices, the large one looked at us and growled, giving us a look at the smaller one. "My god, it's nearly dead!" he reached into the bag he had under his arm, and pulled out a roll of bandages. I looked at the small one in shock. It was covered in gashes, bruises, and blood. Its front paws were in awkward directions, limp from being broken. Its neck was the worst, with a large hole in its windpipe. It wheezed, bringing back its guardian's attention.
The professor approached it, and slowly reached for the Zorua. He grabbed it and laid it in his lap while applying the bandages; the Zoroark giving protest in the form of growling and eyeing the Zorua the whole time. The professor stopped wrapping the bandages around its neck, leaving the area in silence.
Wait, there was silence. The panting of the Zorua had stopped. Tears started pouring down both the Zoroark's and the professor's faces. It was dead. I had heard about death, and felt its aftershocks. But I had never witnessed the life leave something's body. I clenched my fists and jaw out of rage.
"Who the hell would do something like that?" the Zoroark looked at me, and shimmered away, leaving a boy my age with black hair and glasses. "That's…that's the boy who told me this pokemon was hurt," the professor said. The Zoroark reappeared, sat on its knees, and cried.
"Do you have a pokeball I can use, professor?" He pointed to his bag. "In there, it's a luxury ball." I pulled out the shiny black and white ball, and walked over to the Zoroark. I squatted down in front of it, and brought myself to talk.
"Hey Zoroark. I know that you might not understand a word that I'm saying, but I know how you feel. I know how it feels to lose someone you love, and want to get whoever did it back for what they did. My dad was killed a couple of years ago. The people that did it claimed that the world needed more land, and the killed him to get to what they needed to do it. And neither of us can get back at the people who did these things without teaming up. So whadya' say, want to be friends?" it looked at me, with tears still flowing freely.
I held up the luxury ball, and it knew what I meant. It gave a sniffle, wiped away its tears, and nodded. "Thank you." I patted it on the head, and took a few steps away. I did like the times I saw it on TV, and tossed it at the pokemon. "Go, pokeball!" the ball clicked open, and a red beam shot out and enveloped the pokemon. The ball closed, sealing the energy and pokemon inside, and fell to the ground. It shook once, twice, thrice. It stopped, and gave a small click, signaling that it had been caught successfully.
I went and picked up the ball, admiring it. "Well, I hate to make light of a dark occasion, but this calls for a bit of a celebration," he reached in his bag, and pulled out the red device from earlier, "this is a Pokedex, it holds information on pokemon. This one is about a quarter full. Use it to tell what moves a pokemon knows, how powerful they are, and the places they can be found. Enjoy it, I know I had fun filling those pages." I took the Pokedex, and held it in my hands. "Thank you. That guy… that guy that told you about Zorua. Where did you see him?"
He answered, not missing a beat. "He was in front of the pokemon center, just south of the Battle Subway. I'll take care of the Zorua; you go whip some sense into that kid." I turned and headed out of the forest, and back into town.
…
I stood in front of the pokemon center, and scanned the crowd for the guy that Zoroark had shown me. I saw him leaning against the side of the building, with a smirk on his face. I walked up to him. "You. Did you tell the Professor about the wounded Zorua?" he looked at me with pure disgust. "Yeah, but what the fuck do you care for? And call me Cheren."
"It's dead. You killed it."
"Pfft. little shit wasn't worth catching. What else was I supposed to do?"
"Leave it alone. But I didn't come here to argue with an arrogant killer. Let's battle." His face went from disgust to anger. "I'm the best! Who are you to challenge me?"
"'What the fuck do I care for?'" I said, mocking him. He threw a pokeball, "Go, Mismagius!" a purple form came from the pokeball, wearing a stone crown on its head. I grabbed mine, and threw it upwards. "Go! Zor-Mismagius?" instead of my Zoroark, a pokemon identical to Cheren's, minus the crown, had come out of the ball. It turned, and gave me a wink.
I pulled out the Pokedex, and checked it. The page for female Zoroark pulled up. 'It's a girl.' I looked it over, and one section caught my attention. 'Ability: Illusion- this pokemon can cast an illusion that tricks anything.' I looked up, noticing a slight distortion around the closer of the two Mismagius. I chuckled, understanding what she had done. I checked her moves. She knew three, 'Shadow Claw,' 'Thief,' and 'Fling'. I closed it, and started things off.
"Okay, Mismagius, let's start with Thief!" she jumped forward, and the illusion gave a full-body tackle to the other. She pulled back just as fast, now wearing the crown. "How dare you! You'll pay dearly for that! Mismagius, Shadow Ball!" a small ball of black pooled in front of the real Mismagius, and shot towards Zoroark. "Jump, now, right over it!" she did as told, and the ball shot past her. I paid no attention to it as it turned and headed for her back until it was too late. "Watch out!" she turned to see the black mass strike her, and her gray body flickered into view. "You pitiful fool, relying on a dirty trick like that!" I ignored the beat down, and gave an order. "Zoroark, Fling!" she grabbed the crown off her head, and threw it at the opponent. It hit square in the face, knocking its target over, and crumbled to pieces. "While its down, Shadow Claw!" her right paw glowed purple, and she charged the downed ghost type. The Mismagius floated back, but it's hat was left with three notches cut out of it. "Mismagius! Blast it back with psychic!" the Mismagius cackled, and its eyes glowed white. Zoroark flinched and turned back to me, looking confused. I gave a shrug. The Mismagius blinked, and turned to Cheren. I took the opportunity to end it. "Zoroark, shadow claw, now!" She dashed at Mismagius, and dug her claw into its back, letting blood loose. The Mismagius fell face forward, and Cheren put it back in its ball.
"I'll take care of you later," he said to it. Then he pulled a wallet from his pocket and handed me some of its contents. I had read in a magazine that the losing trainer paid out 10% of their cash to the winner, so I accepted it. He turned and left, not saying another word.
I looked at the money in my hand, about 70000 yen. I put it in my pocket, and looked to see Zoroark running to me. She was crying again. She came right up to me and gave me a hug, taking me off guard. I hugged her back, understanding how important what we had just done was. "zor…zor…zor…" I cocked my head to look at her snoring on my shoulder. "Hehe, back to your pokeball." I clicked the button, and felt the weight leave my shoulder.