Innocent Aims

Part I: Capture and Release

Chapter 5: Coach

In the park set aside for this event, the atmosphere was energetic, as the area was full of excited trainers and their pokemon alike. Many chose to let a few of their pokemon outside of their pokeballs, even in cases where I sure it wasn't something they'd normally do. To let them get exercise or enjoy the fresh air, they said, or the less used but more often true excuse, to show them off. Well, if they really wanted to show their opponents their hand, that was their business, not mine. I merely remained annoyed at how all of the powerful creatures meandering created obstacles for everyone around. But mostly everyone I'd invited were talented trainers that knew how to control their pokemon, so I wasn't too worried.

Not that the park was only filled with people that I'd invited. There were many onlookers, come here for various reasons. Family of participants, professional researchers that knew Grandpa, fans, and various other onlookers helped to crowd the area. It wasn't enough constantly greeted by participating trainers -- they all knew me to some extent, after all -- but others that I didn't even recognize stopped me to praise me for my ideas and accomplishments, thank me for hosting, or just say hello for no reason at all. I couldn't save a breath without replying.

And I was absolutely miserable. Not that I'd gotten in over my head... I just happened to be in a very crowded pool, perhaps with spots of acid here and there. Many people I'd invited to come didn't especially like me. Some even thought of me as arrogant, as I'd overheard several times. Others probably even held a grudge, as ugly as it was even to them.

I didn't care. I had no problem with just not caring about their perceptions of me. That is, one on one. But I had to admit, having all of them in one place and dealing with them one after another like this left me with an awful distaste. I soon became exhausted, even early on in the day. If it were anyone else's event, I just wouldn't be there. But unfortunately, I'd dug this hole for myself. So I put on the pleasant face and happily greeted everyone at the same time as making sure everything was running smoothly.

Luckily, much of that responsibility had been transferred to my grandpa's always eager to be helpful lab assistant, Tracey. He followed my planning instructions well and thankfully became the one who really moved things along for this event. But despite Tracey keeping his normal, pleasant, polite disposition, I could see him starting to buckle under the pressure. His polite nods took just a little bit longer, and he would become visibly confused, his expression changing completely as multiple people called to him at once. I stepped in several times to ease the pressure, or maybe just avoid others by looking busy by helping Tracey handed out schedules and repeated various information.

Eventually I was able to take a break as the crowd thinned out. I went to a stand of one of the various vendors I'd invited to the event and bought a bottle of water. Gulping it down, I looked at the schedule and saw a popular gym leader was competing at the moment. Due to the lack of locations with adequate audience protection in place, a lot of matches were at least semi-private. This one was held at Pallet Town's brand new rental stadium. I imagined that many spectators were there, and even more crowded outside hoping to watch. If it gave me a brief moment alone, good, I considered.

Then I wondered if Satoshi might be in that audience. I hadn't seen him at all, which was of course the reason I wanted this event to happen in the first place. Admitting this to myself left me feeling absolutely pathetic, but even that emotion still couldn't mask the disappointment I felt. I might even head over there, maybe just to check... Even though seeing him in the crowd wasn't really what I wanted, and then my short break would definitely be over... But still....

While I was weighing the options I heard a thump as a table fell over. It was Satoshi, without his trademark pikachu, even. I stared as he looked at the toppled fold-out table ahead of him, pausing the moment before he picked it back up, struggling to fix the umbrella. Well, looks like I didn't have to head back over to the madness after all.

Though the pikachu was gone, Brock was still nearby. He prattled on about something. I didn't hear him, I hardly heard Satoshi's reply, other than his firm insistence that he had no time. He continued to struggle with the handle as I walked closer to him. "I can't go back home for dinner now! And I can't go see that battle, either! I'm gonna eat here, then I'll go get my pokemon, then I'll go to my next battle..."

I came up to him wordlessly. As he saw me, his expression changed from mildly annoyed to surprised. I put my hand over his, and he soon let go of the umbrella. I easily opened it, then sat down in one of the fold out chairs beside the table. "Headed to your next battle, huh?" I said. Round one was over, and everyone should have had their first battle already.

"Yeah..." Satoshi said.

"You won your first won, then? Probably should have been simple, considering half of that trainer's pokemon are water type."

"She didn't use any of those," Satoshi said, seeming to start to sulk again. "But yeah, I won! And I heard about you winning, too."

"Also not really a surprise. I've beaten everyone here before... Except you, of course."

Satoshi grinned with excitement. "You'll be able to... I mean, maybe you'll be able to. Tracey showed me the whole schedule, and if I win two more matches, we'll face each other again already!"

I'd known that before he said so, of course. I'd planned for it myself. As if I'd leave it to Satoshi's current talents to meet me at the end of everything. No, I'd face him early on, to make sure I actually could meet him here. It would be kind of weird if it was the first round, but the fourth round was enough of a coincidence, and enough insurance to make sure all of this work hadn't been for nothing. "Yeah, so you're a possible competitor for me in the fourth round. I think I did notice that."

"Possible?!" Satoshi repeated.

"Yeah, possible. You don't think everyone here's going to be as much of a pushover as that girl you just faced, do you?"

"No, I know everyone here tries hard. No one's a pushover," Satoshi insisted. "But even if it's a challenge, I'll definitely make it. I don't know if I'm completely ready to face you, but me and my pokemon trained hard for this. I won't let them down."

I smiled. So, he'd gotten beyond completely avoiding me now. Well, it was a start. "Let me see just how easy it will be for you," I said. I pulled his folded schedule out of his hands. "Oh, the next guy's another easy win, lucky you... And in the third round..." I stopped reading, raising my eyebrows. This hadn't been what I'd planned. I know Tracey had begun to make changes with the established schedule upon the request of some participants and for various other reasons. The next person I'd be facing was even unknown to me. But that hadn't bothered me, I'd just let him move ahead with his edits, since it hadn't affected anything I'd cared about, after all. But this could be a problem.

"What? What is it?!" Satoshi demanded an explanation for my silence.

I set down the schedule and took a moment before speaking. "Um, yeah, your third opponent would be AJ, and he's not going to fall for any of your crap, you know."

"What do you mean by that?!" Satoshi demanded.

"It's just AJ's extremely talented and dedicated. He's not just any small town trainer. Everything he does is extremely calculated. He's a few steps ahead of you before you even begin, even for people who actually do plan a strategy."

"I know," Satoshi said quickly. "Um, yeah, I know. He beat me before."

I raised an eyebrow, stifling a grin. I could imagine AJ's no-nonsense powerful style of battling going up against him. Of course Satoshi would have lost. "So, I guess I'll be going up against him again instead of you, then?"

"No! I hadn't been a trainer long when I fought him. I didn't have that many pokemon. But now I have Squirtle, I have Bulbasaur, and I have other pokemon that can definitely beat Sandshrew. I know a lot more now."

"So you've been studying your basic type alignments, huh? So you know a little more than you did at first, about your opponent and battling in general. And yeah, that sandshrew is his most common choice while battling," I thought more, recalling more details of my battle. AJ was way beyond any newbie's level. I'd had to think fast and move quickly to beat him. Satoshi having studied and trained a little more wouldn't mean much, especially since his opponent would have only progressed even farther. "He can probably still cream you easily."

"What makes you so sure? I could beat you, and you beat him!" Satoshi shouted.

I paused and thought for a moment. AJ wouldn't have let any of the nonsense I had let go happen in that battle. He would have had no hesitations about his sandshrew after Satoshi had made it painfully obvious that he was using his pikachu. Without teasing or conversation at all, he would have quickly and calmly taken out that pikachu, showing mercy only when pikachu was too disabled to battle, claiming his victory without a second thought. "AJ's not me," I said simply. Actually, I often held a similar attitude to AJ's while battling, and could even get more ruthless than him if the situation called for it. Not that I wanted to get into explaining any of that. "He's somewhat similar to me, though. He also held the title of 'undefeated' for a while."

"Lost it, though," Satoshi muttered.

"Yeah, but he had it in the first place for a reason," I said. "And he's not going to play around with you like I did. He'll knock you out of the running pretty quickly. Everything about him is far above your level."

"There's still a chance," Satoshi said. "I'm not going to give up. I can win."

"Well, you'd be a real wimp to just give up, so of course you can't do that. And yeah, there's always a chance, however small," I said. Satoshi seemed a bit discouraged, and I saw his attention was starting to falter as he began to look all around the grounded. "Satoshi, listen. To increase that chance, maybe you can just rethink how you're doing things," I suggested.

"Rethink what?" he asked.

"I'm not sure. Maybe you do have a good plan for beating AJ. Maybe it could just use a little fine tuning. Maybe it could be a group project. It's still your battle, of course. But why don't you work with someone to get a different perspective on things, like, um, a coach. Think you'd be more prepared then?"

"A coach? Like Brock?" Satoshi looked around for his friend, but Brock had wandered off much earlier. "Yeah, Brock's already like my coach."

"He has been since AJ beat you, I'm guessing?"

"Yeah, since before then. For a really long time."

"And despite his help, you still lost. Maybe you could try something different this time around? Maybe try working with someone else?"

"Maybe," Satoshi said. He still looked bored. "But who else would want to help me?" he asked.

Wow. He really didn't get what I was getting at. I hoped he wouldn't outright reject me as he'd done before. "Me," I said.

"You?" Satoshi seemed momentarily surprised at the suggestion, and then appeared thoughtful. "But... I'm supposed to battle you."

"No, this time you're supposed to battle AJ. You'll only get to face me if you beat him. But until then... In the day before then... Why don't you let me help you?"

"Huh. A day. And then I'd fight AJ. Um, yeah. Okay," Satoshi said. I could tell by his tone that he still had some reservations, but I was happy he'd accepted just the same.

At that moment, Brock came and plopped down a tray on the table. "Come on, if we take only three minutes to eat, then we can definitely make it to... Oh, hello, Shigeru," he said.

"Hey Brock, Gary's going coach me for now, okay? Before we battle, I mean."

"Really? Good idea there. You really should get input from as many experts as you can. Nice of you, Gar- Shigeru. And since you'll be helping him out, I'll be free to get input from other experts... Like Erika..." Brock had a disconnected, dreamy expression as he stared beyond us. "I'll just go and get started with that now. Later!"

Brock darted off and I stared after him, bewildered. And I'd thought the scene in Satoshi's kitchen had been weird. The former Boulder City gym leader, who I'd only seen as a serious person, certainly had some eccentric sides to him. I wondered how many other different faces he had, and how many other people that I'd met had such different sides in different settings.

"Hey, you want to eat? I think Brock left his dinner here," Satoshi said.

I turned back to him. Well, the trainer in front of me didn't really have any other sides, he was as blunt and clueless as ever. I liked that about him. I was glad to know where I stood with him, as a rival, not a friend, even if I wanted to change that. And it seemed like he was actually starting to change his mind now. Maybe now things would start to be different.

"What is it, Gary? Are you going to eat this or not?"

"I'll pass," I said. "I have to check on some things. Why don't you meet me in front of Grandpa's ranch after your next battle?"

"Yeah! My next match... I've gotta hurry." Satoshi was now completely distracted. I wondered if he'd actually forgotten.

"So then, you'll meet me there?" I asked.

"Yeah, uh huh, right after my next match." Satoshi was now quickly stuffing his food down. "I'm gonna win this one... I'm pretty sure I'm gonna win! So don't worry Gary, I'll meet you after that!"

I waved and walked away. I got the feeling that he was talking himself into his upcoming victory, but I was already positive of it. If only Tracey hadn't changed things around, then there would have been three definite victories for him. Oh well, this had just opened the doors to a different opportunity for me. Maybe it wouldn't even matter if we got to face each other. The battle itself wasn't at all important to me, anyway.

But Satoshi stressing over his next round reminded me that it was time to start thinking of my own next match, one that would start in only an hour. I opened up the schedule again, looking at the unfamiliar name. Who could this person be? I had a set list of those who were invited, and no one else should have been there. It could have been someone sent in another's place, maybe someone uninvited with a grudge against me who'd changed their names for fear of blacklisting. Either way, I wasn't too worried. I put the schedule back into my pocket and went to check on how things were going with Tracey.