Again, I apologize in advance. This time because this chapter, to me, is very boring. I stopped writing five times before I had finished the second page even and this was the first time I got writer's block. Or the chapter where I got it multiple times to be honest. I dislike having to put this up since it's dull, but I tried to rewrite some interesting-ness into it somehow. And chapters like this have to happen from time to time anyway in most stories I read, so here we go. I think this is the only one of its type at least.
For the rest of the day after Akuma left, Kurishimi and Julia helped Chad study for the Pokémon Trainer's test. Chad learned a lot from the girls and the booklet he'd been given to study was a big help as well. He learned about evolution, type matchups, special abilities, and even some Pokémon from world legends. He got a lot of studying done and wanted to do even more but Kurishimi eventually convinced him to get some sleep. Julia left when it got dark but said she would come back to wish him luck before he took the test.
The next morning she was waiting outside the Pokémon Center for the pair and walked with them to the testing area. On the way Kurishimi and Julia asked Chad various questions from the night before. Chad still missed a few, but got the majority of the answers correct. Kurishimi even gave him some questions he hadn't studied for and he surprisingly got a few of those correct as well. At the testing area a supervisor came to take Chad to the testing room by himself while Kurishimi and Julia waited for him in the main hall.
In the testing room Chad saw a handful of other students who were also taking the test. The rules for the test were explained and paper tests were handed to each participant. Chad did well in the first half, but slowed down in the later sections. He hadn't been able to finish studying all the available material in such a short time however; leaving him to guess at the proper answers during the latter half. In the last ten minutes he had to rush through the final questions and even then there were a few that he left blank. When the tests were collected the students were given a second test where they were supposed to answer questions based on their own opinions. Chad enjoyed this part of the test since there seemed to be no wrong answers, but they later became more difficult as well when it got into a trainer's personal relationships with their Pokémon. Once again Chad was struggling for the answers, but still managed to finish the test before time was up and even had time to add some final thoughts to any answers he felt were incomplete. When those tests were finally collected they were taken outside for a practical exam. There they were instructed on how to handle and care for Pokémon of different types while their tests were being graded. It wasn't counted for their test scores, but provided the upcoming trainers with a feel for all 17 Pokémon types. Chad found that he especially enjoyed the rock, steel, and ground types, but had a problem understanding ghosts and dragons so he spent more time with these two instead of his preferences.
After the group had been outside for a short time he noticed Kurishimi and Julia were watching him from the door. He waved them over and told them how he felt about the exam before introducing them to the Pokémon he was becoming familiar with.
"This Pokémon's a dragon type named Dratini and this ghost type is named Shuppet," he told them. Dratini was a blue serpentine Pokémon with eyes as its only facial feature, and Shuppet was a black floating head slightly smaller than Misdreavus with only eyes and a head horn. "I don't understand these two like I do the other Pokémon types, so I'm going to spend more time with them than I do with the others. I heard that dragons are really rare though and I don't know how you could hit a ghost with a pokéball so I don't think I can catch them."
"Well in that case you should ask Akuma about ghosts," Kurishimi said as she started petting Dratini. "I know Akuma's caught a few ghost types so there must be a way. Besides, I'm sure that since they're Pokémon they've got to be catchable. All Pokémon can be caught with a pokéball."
"All Pokémon? Are you sure?"
"I can't think of a reason why one wouldn't be."
"Well I've heard about some really, really powerful Pokémon that are supposedly the strongest Pokémon alive. They were even around before other Pokémon existed."
Julia, who was sitting on the grass with a long eared dog-like creature on her lap named Eevee, perked up at the sound of those words. "What kind of Pokémon are they? Can there really be Pokémon like that?" she asked with genuine interest.
"Well I don't know if they're still alive to be honest," Chad admitted. "But I don't think you could catch a Pokémon like them in a regular pokéball."
Kurishimi was silent in thought and had stopped petting Dratini so it went back to Chad for attention.
"What's wrong Kurishimi?" Chad asked her as Dratini jumped in his face for more attention.
Kurishimi pulled out her pokédex and started to search through the data. Finally she stopped and read through what she'd found, and then turned the dex so Chad and Julia could see the picture. It was a pink Pokémon appearing like a cat with a long tail and long feet that stood erect. Kurishimi pushed a button so the pokédex would read back the information audibly.
"Mew, the New Specie Pokémon. So rare, it is said to be a mirage by experts. Only a few people worldwide have seen it. Experts believe it may be the ancestor of all Pokémon."
"I think this is one of those legendary Pokémon," Kurishimi said. "I saw it once at Mount Moon. I didn't know what it was then, but I looked through my pokédex that night in order to find out. Akuma saw it too when it healed me from the effects of a poison sting attack."
"It doesn't look very strong," Chad said in disbelief. "Are you sure that little thing is a legendary Pokémon?"
Kurishimi pressed the button for additional information so the 'dex would explain further details. "It was thought to be extinct until recently when more and more people have seen it. Its DNA is said to contain the genetic code of ALL Pokémon so it can use all techniques at will."
"Works for me," Julia said with a nod.
"Yeah, I'm convinced now," Chad said in agreement. "I've only seen pictures of it before but I didn't know much about it. So if you saw it then I guess it wasn't a mirage after all and it's living right here in Kanto too."
"That's right. Akuma was too shocked to move and I could barely turn my head as I was. I wanted to try catching it, but it got away before I was fully healed. Now I'm glad I didn't get the chance because I'm sure my Pokémon would have been completely destroyed from the battle or whatever you'd call the willing massacre I might've subjected my Pokémon to having. I wouldn't have been able to catch my Ekans that day if they'd all been beaten that badly. Do you know of any other Pokémon legends, Chad?"
"Oh yeah! I know another one that might be in the Kanto region too! I saw a blue and silver Pokémon that was shaped really long like a stretched bullet with tailfins that went through my front yard one morning."
Kurishimi searched her pokédex quickly as Chad gave her the information, but couldn't find any entries. "I'm sorry Chad, but I'm not finding any Pokémon like that. It could be a new discovery though. You might have found something interesting."
"That or he was still groggy and saw an Altaria or something," Julia said.
Kurishimi quickly found Altaria's entry in her pokédex and showed the picture to Chad.
"No, the one I saw was much longer and didn't have any feathers. It was really awesome to look at and it flew away so fast I couldn't follow it."
"Have you seen any rare Pokémon Julia?" Kurishimi asked.
"Can you find a picture of Lugia?" the younger girl requested.
Kurishimi did her routine again and found a picture of a majestic silvery white Pokémon that looked to be a cross between a bird and a dragon. "Is this it?" she asked the younger girl.
"Yep. I haven't seen it personally, but I think it looks pretty."
"Way to kill the momentum, Julia," Chad groaned as Kurishimi shook her head with a light smile.
Just then the test instructor approached the group and told them it was time to display the test results. Chad suddenly felt nervous and didn't stand up until Kurishimi and Julia started dragging him toward the door. When they got inside they quickly searched the displayed scores for Chad's name and found that he'd passed the test with an above average score. The group happily ran to get Chad's new identification. Chad received a silver blue trainer's ID card with his name and trainer identification number printed on it. He was disappointed that he'd not gotten a high enough score for a pokédex like Kurishimi had, but was happy to be recognized as an official trainer anyway.
After receiving his license Kurishimi had him create a Pokémon storage system account. Chad had already planned to have his Pokémon automatically transferred when he exceeded his limit so he wouldn't be overwhelmed by carrying too many Pokémon at once. After he finished setting up his account and personalized the system to his preferences, Kurishimi took him outside again to a small clearing on the grass.
"Okay Chad, now that all the official and boring stuff is over I'm going to see how much you actually know with a friendly battle," she told him.
"What? But you're a lot more experienced than I am!" Chad said in a panic.
"Don't worry, I'm going to use Pokémon that I recently caught and haven't trained much. We'll do a double battle too so you can learn how to think faster."
"What's a double battle?"
"A double battle is when two people use two Pokémon at a time to battle each other," Julia explained. "As long as both trainers agree to the terms, the Pokémon League in every region has authorized double battles as an official way of battling. It also lets younger Pokémon get in some battle practice with a veteran if they need the experience."
"Okay, let's do it!" Chad said with a nod.
Kurishimi threw two of her pokéballs and Ekans and Abra appeared in front of her. Chad looked at the two as he tried to figure out his own strategy, then released Nidoran and Wooper, the second of which started bouncing up and down after it appeared.
Chad sighed. "Are you going to do this every time, little blue?" he asked, to which Wooper spun around while it bounced and chanted its name in a sing-song voice.
"I guess an energetic Pokémon is a healthy one anyway," Kurishimi said with a raised eyebrow. "Is Little Blue going to be Wooper's nickname?"
"Huh? No, I just called it that. I never understood why some people nickname their Pokémon."
"It's for when trainers feel a closer bond with their Pokémon and they want to give it a special name," Julia told him. "For instance I want to call my new Pikachu Jelly Bean."
Chad looked away from his Wooper and stared at the other girl. "Jelly Bean?" he echoed in disbelief.
"What's wrong with calling my Pikachu Jelly Bean?" Julia asked with a pouty face.
"Lemon I can understand, but Pikachu looks nothing like a jelly bean. I'd go with Zap-Rat."
"Lemon is a wonderful name!" Julia said as she started to bounce up and down like Wooper which got the Pokémon to dance even more excitedly. "Instead of Jelly Bean I'm going to call it Lemon because Chad suggested it himself!"
Chad made a weird face before looking back to the battle. He saw Kurishimi making a face he couldn't read. "What do you want?" he asked in a voice that sounded very much like Akuma's.
"Nothing at all," Kurishimi said with an equally confusing tone. "Actually while I'm thinking of it, I believe Akuma has a nickname for at least one of his Pokémon too. He calls him 'Big Red' which, now that I think about it, is very similar to what you just called your Wooper. Though he switches between nickname and species name a lot so I don't know whether that counts as an official nickname."
"Are we talking about Charizard now? I don't remember ever hearing him use that name before."
"No, it's a different Pokémon and probably his meanest."
Julia yelped in surprise. "You mean that mean guy at the Pokémon center last night has a Charizard and a Pokémon even meaner? That's scary!"
"What's the big deal about Charizard?" Chad asked.
"Charizard don't like to obey their trainers," Julia told him with a frightened expression. "They're often known to even attack their trainers with their flamethrower attack. I can't imagine a Pokémon meaner than that..."
"Can we please start our battle now?" Kurishimi asked. "Our Pokémon are getting bored with themselves."
"Wooper looks just fine to me," Chad said, motioning to his still dancing Pokémon. "Why weren't you that excited when I caught you earlier? Anyway, yes I'm ready, though your Abra looks like it's gone to sleep."
"It always does that. Let's start this thing already! Ekans, attack Wooper with a bite attack. Abra… do something!" Ekans moved towards Wooper who had finally stopped dancing when it heard Ekans approaching.
"Wooper, um… use water gun, and Nidoran, you tackle Ekans!"
Nidoran ran towards Ekans as Wooper fired a water gun. At Kurishimi's command Ekans slid backward disrupting Nidoran's aim and instead of hitting Ekans it ran into the water gun spray. Abra hadn't even twitched.
"Okay, so double battles are a little more complex than I thought," Chad said to himself. "Nidoran, use horn attack on Ekans, Wooper fire your water gun at Abra."
This round turned out to be more successful. Nidoran drove its horn into Ekans' side and Wooper's water gun didn't come close to Nidoran this time. For that matter it didn't even come close to Abra. The psychic Pokémon teleported away from the water gun before it struck and reappeared a few feet away. While Kurishimi praised her Pokémon's good senses Chad concentrated his attacks on Ekans instead and left Abra for later since it hadn't shown itself to be any real threat yet. Nidoran pressed the attack while Wooper provided ranged support as needed with its water gun. Ekans was overwhelmed by the two on one assault while Abra sat peacefully off to the side. Kurishimi hurriedly pulled out her pokédex and did a faster search on Abra to find a way for it to help out while managing to still give orders to Ekans. Chad saw that he was winning and cheered his Pokémon on to which Julia joined in. Kurishimi rushed through Abra's attacks as best she could with divided attention, but found nothing more than she had before other than teleportation. Finally Ekans successfully struck Nidoran with a bite attack and when Nidoran flinched away from the attack Ekans wrapped itself around the smaller Pokémon and squeezed it tightly. Wooper helped out with another water gun which seemed to begin working, but Ekans quickly recovered from the hit and bit Nidoran while it was wrapped up. The best Nidoran could do was kick and struggle since every attack it knew required free mobility. Eventually Wooper couldn't fire its water gun since Nidoran might be hit as well and Abra would just teleport away. Now on the winning side and having time to think, Kurishimi ordered Abra to teleport above Wooper. When Abra reappeared it crashed into Wooper with a force equal to a body slam, but considering the way Abra moaned afterwards it seemed like there had been some recoil damage as well. Now at point blank range, Chad quickly commanded a water gun attack from his Wooper that successfully struck Abra briefly before the other Pokémon could teleport away. After Abra teleported to safety the rest of the water gun attack even kept going to spray Chad in the face comically. Meanwhile Nidoran was on its last breath as Ekans continued to squeeze even tighter. The tides changed, Kurishimi was going to win this battle unless something happened, which it did.
As Nidoran began to succumb to the suffocation it suddenly flashed brightly and its body glowed with a bright shining light. Ekans released its grip and backed away leaving Nidoran to collapse to the ground. Chad panicked as the glow became brighter and Nidoran's form warped into a larger mass with more pronounced features. When the glow dimmed, Nidoran had changed dramatically into a more vicious looking Pokémon with more pronounced fangs and strong legs. Otherwise it looked very much like the Nidoran from a moment ago, but obviously it wasn't.
Kurishimi pointed her pokédex at the once-Nidoran and pushed the audio button for Chad to hear. "Nidorino: the poison pin Pokémon. Its front horn is harder than diamond and secretes a powerful poison. If it senses hostility the barbs on its back bristle up and it challenges its opponent ferociously."
"Hey Chad, your Nidoran evolved," Kurishimi told him, "and I don't think Ekans can wrap it as well anymore."
Now it was Chad's turn to imitate Wooper who was, unsurprisingly, dancing once again. "Nidoran… wait, Nidorino now, use your horn attack on Ekans again!"
Nidorino slammed its horn into Ekans who was still waiting for an order from Kurishimi and knocked it out instantly. Then both Chad's Pokémon turned to face the Abra and charged it. While Wooper technically wasn't a physical attacker it seemed to be caught up in the moment and was imitating Nidorino.
"Abra, if you've got any ideas I'd say you should use them now!" Kurishimi called out frantically.
Abra reacted to its trainer's call, but not in the way anyone expected. Its left hand flashed yellow while its right hand shone a light blue. As Nidorino and Wooper came within range Abra hit Nidorino with its left and Wooper with the right. Nidorino fell backwards as electricity arced across its body and between the barbs on its back. Wooper bounced away and was knocked silly. It tried to stand up straight but eventually fell over.
"Um, what just happened here?" Julia asked after a moment of silence.
"I have no clue," Kurishimi said. "It certainly wasn't a teleport attack. What did you do, Abra?"
"Rahhhhhh. Abra, Abra," it said with a raspy voice.
"I didn't get a word of that," Kurishimi said. She checked her pokédex and looked through Abra's possible attack list again. "Wait, here's something. Abra can learn an electric attack called thunderpunch if it has certain parents. That might be the attack that hit Nidorino. I don't know what the other one was though." She put Abra back in its pokéball and Chad did the same with his Pokémon. "Anyway, that was a good practice battle and you have a Nidorino now Chad. We should go back inside the testing area now so you can get your new Pokémon."
"What new Pokémon? I didn't know anything about that," Chad said in confusion.
Julia beat Kurishimi to the explanation again. "When people successfully pass their trainer's test to receive their license they are also issued a basic starter Pokémon from that region. Even if you already have Pokémon with you it's like a tradition to give a Pokémon to trainers that can be very easily tamed and raised. That way you always have a reliable Pokémon to fall back on for support. In most cases they become that trainer's best friend as well."
"I was asked to keep you occupied for a while since the Pokémon weren't ready yet," Kurishimi admitted. "I thought that I could figure out your strengths easiest by a simple battle and we could get our weaker Pokémon some training as well."
"I hope there's a good Pokémon waiting for me in there," Chad said thoughtfully. "What did you get as your first Pokémon, Kurishimi?"
"A family friend gave me an Eevee that ended up evolving into Vaporeon. Since Eevee are sometimes offered in cities as a starter Pokémon when the traditional Pokémon are unavailable I didn't have any need to choose one."
"I got Squirtle as my first Pokémon," Julia cut in. "It's so cute and fun to play with!"
"I know, I was there when we battled," Chad reminded her. "What about Akuma?"
Kurishimi thought for a moment. "Well I don't know if he got his license in the Kanto region, but if he did then he would've gotten a Charmander. I can't imagine how that must've worked out for him since they're so difficult to train and even more so after evolution. If he didn't get Charmander then his Infernape may have evolved from the Sinnoh region's fire type starter, Chimchar. I don't know if he has any other Pokémon that could be considered regional starters so I suppose he prefers the fire types."
"Are there any other Pokemon or just those two?"
Kurishimi opened her pokédex again and showed Chad a picture of a blue four legged Pokémon with a plant bulb growing out of its back. "This one is named Bulbasaur. It's a grass type Pokémon that's very calm and easy to train. I think that was Akuma's last choice if I know him as well as I think."
Chad rubbed his nose as he considered the trio then nodded decisively. "Okay, I know which one I want now. Let's go get my new Pokémon."