Steven had taken her and Absol to a rather nice diner where she was able to get some tasty stew with a side of Sitrus Soda.
"Your Absol looks pretty strong. How long have you had him?" Steven asked curiously.
"Oh. I just met Absol yesterday. You see, I've just started my pokémon journey and I'm on my way to get my first pokémon from Professor Birch. Absol took a liking to me and decided to come along."
"Why did you start so late? Most start when they're 10," Steven asked in a slightly confused manner.
"My parents passed away when I was just a baby and my grandmother fell ill and weak when my 10th birthday came around. I stayed to care for her rather than go out on my journey. She passed away a few months ago and I've finally sorted out my affairs to start my journey like my grandmother wanted me to," Hariel said.
She felt bad for lying, but who would believe her real story? Then again, she could have just said that she had some family issues rather than blurt out her history to a near stranger.
"I see. I'm sorry for your loss," Steven said apologetically. "I know how it feels to lose a loved one. I lost my mother when I was young as well."
Hariel smiled at him. The man had been more genuine with her ever since she had given him the Metagrossite. He most likely had the pokémon it was meant for which was probably why he wanted it so much.
"Have you decided on what you'd like to be?" Steven asked as he sipped his water.
"I'm still deciding…but I think I want to be a trainer, but I don't want to disregard the experience doing contests can give me as well," Hariel answered thoughtfully.
"That's great! It's always wise to experience everything you can," Steven praised, "How old are you?"
"I'm 19."
"Oh? I'm 25 myself. Besides, it's never too late to be a trainer," Steven said kindly, looking a bit more intrigued.
Why? She didn't know. But she did know that Steven felt nothing but both kindness and interest towards her, nothing malicious or shady in the least. The new ability to sense intent and emotion was new…and useful for sure. But all in all, Steven felt trustworthy.
When Steven first saw Hariel, his first thought was beautiful. Not the primped up beauties he usually saw at his father's formal business parties, but the natural kind of beauty that did not need any sort of enhancement. She had long dark hair that fell down to the small of her back in soft waves, fair skin, was a bit on the short side, and had the most enchanting green eyes he had ever seen. She also had the most curious faded scar on her forehead that took the shape of a lightning bolt. The Absol beside her eyed him warily, standing in a way where it would be able to attack him at any moment.
Absol were incredibly loyal to their trainers, and would not follow someone unless they proved themselves to them.
After scanning the stone, Steven couldn't even wrap his head around the fact that the girl had a Metagrossite right in her arms. A beautiful uncut Metagrossite. He very much wanted it, and was tempted to ask the price for it since he had been searching for months for the Mega Stone for his Metagross.
But before he could offer anything, he was surprised by the fact that she was willing to give it to him for just a small tidbit of information that she could have gotten from Professor Birch if she had asked. Though Mega Evolution wasn't too well known at the moment, the Professors of each region at least knew a bit about the subject.
Though it was Professor Sycamore of the Kalos Region that was the leading researcher on the study.
Despite hearing how valuable it was, she just gave it to him.
Clearly there was a lot more to Hariel than it appeared, and he knew just the gift to give in repayment for the Mega Stone.
An Absolite. He had found one a few weeks ago. It would be a good exchange for the Mega Stone she had just given him. He would also throw in a key stone as well, as he doubted that she even had one.
Later he talked over dinner with Hariel, getting to know her more. He mildly gave a small sigh of relief when she revealed herself to be 19. At least he knew that he was attracted to someone legal.
He could sympathize with Hariel, having lost his mother to illness when he was just a child.
"I almost forgot…I found another one of those Mega Stones back in that cave. Do you think you can tell me what it is?" Hariel asked as she opened her pack and pulled out yet another uncut Mega stone.
Steven widened his eyes. She had found two Mega Stones in that cave? How lucky could you get?
He took the stone and ran his scanner over it again, revealing it to be a Gardevoirite.
"It's a Gardevoirite. It's a Mega Stone used to mega evolve a Gardevoir," Steven said and handed the stone back. Other than being put into his vast collection, he had no true use for that particular Mega Stone. "You should hang on to it."
"Alright," Hariel smiled.
"Well in regards to your choice of whether or not to be a trainer or coordinator, the very basics of both requires you to know how to battle with your pokémon. Assuming that Absol is your first pokémon, it'll be his job to protect you when you're travelling to Littleroot town. On the routes between towns and cities, many wild pokémon can attack if you unknowingly get too close or if you entrench onto their territory. Some may even attack you for food," Steven explained.
"Absol isn't really my pokémon. I haven't even officially caught him…" Hariel said sheepishly as Absol tried to nudge one of the pokéballs from her belt free.
"It seems like he very much wants to come with you on your pokémon journey though," Steven said with an amused smile.
With some instruction, Hariel happily caught Absol before letting him back out.
"I prefer him walking by my side," Hariel said and Absol nodding in agreement, nuzzling her side.
"Tomorrow morning, let's try to find out what moves Absol has. That way, you can battle accordingly," Steven suggested.
"Alright! Thank you!" Hariel said gratefully and gave him a smile that warmed him.
After a night in the pokémon center, Hariel and Steven stood on a set up battlefield behind the center.
"Normally, we could just check with a pokedex to see what moves Absol knows, but since you don't have one, then this should be fine. Alright, if Absol can just demonstrate every move he knows, I can identify them accordingly," Steven said and Absol nodded.
With that, Absol attacked and slashed at the ground with a claw covered in a dark shadowy aura with a purple outline.
"Shadow Claw."
A crescent of purple energy.
"Psycho Cut."
Multiple blades of white crescent shaped energy.
"Razor Wind."
Claws that glowed a bright purple.
"Night Slash."
A beam of dark purple circles.
"Dark Pulse."
Enlarged horn with a bright green outline.
"Megahorn."
Shooting out bright blue balls of energy and making them disappear through wormholes in the air. The energy balls later struck a nearby tree, obliterating it.
"Future Sight."
When Absol made no more attempts, they assumed that he had showcased all his abilities.
"Incredible. Your Absol has a wide variety of moves to choose from. That will make battling a bit easier for you. Most wild pokémon don't even have half the number of abilities as yours does, especially when he has had no previous trainer," Steven praised, making Absol straighten up proudly.
Hariel had no doubt that Fate probably set up the meeting between her and Absol. A wild pokémon that strong was rare. Or maybe she was just actually lucky for once. Perhaps even her Absol took to training himself to get stronger like Oliver Wood took Quidditch to the extremes, driving her and her teammates crazy when they had to wake up in the wee hours of the morning for practice.
"But one of the great things about Absol is that they can learn a wide variety of moves of different types," Steven said, "When you get your pokédex from Professor Birch, it can tell you more about what kind of moves your Absol can learn and give you an idea of what would work best. Of course, although having a variety of moves are helpful, what really counts is how you use them. In this aspect, Coordinators go to great lengths to make their moves look beautiful and unique, creating combos that most trainers wouldn't even think of."
"Wow, that's pretty cool. You're one awesome pokémon, Absol," Hariel smiled, petting the Dark Type's head gently, making him purr.
"If you give me your PokéNav, I can set the coordinates for Littleroot town. It'll help prevent you from getting lost," Steven said and Hariel handed over the yellow device.
With a few presses of a button, Steven handed the PokéNav back.
"Mr. Stone? There is a phone call for you," Nurse Joy said, peeking from the back door of the Pokémon Center.
"Thank you," Steven said before turning back to Hariel. "I wish you luck, Hariel. I hope we meet again soon."
Hariel nodded with a smile.
After leaving the Pokémon Center, she headed towards the PokéMart. After seeing the prices of various drinks and snacks, she knew that she wouldn't have to worry about money for a very long time…if at all.
Then she found what she was looking for. Apparently at the back of the PokéMart, you could refill drink capsules. You just inserted your capsule, and the machine would gauge how much liquid was left (with the use of the liquid meter on the side) in the capsule and refill accordingly. Then the machine would print out a small ticket with the price you owed for the drink. There were various drink dispensers. There was one for water, Moo Moo Milk, various types of soda, sports drinks, iced tea, berry juice, and lemonade.
She quickly inserted her capsules for the Milk and water dispensers and took the tickets. She then decided to have another look around. There were sections where you could buy pokéballs, medicines, snacks, pokémon food, individually bottled drinks, magazines and newspapers, and vitamins.
She picked up a few pokéballs, vitamins, some snacks and candy, a proper food and water dish for Absol, and a few more capsules and large storage containers. Despite the fact that Fate had already stocked her up nicely with medicine, she decided that buying a few more bottles of Full Restore wouldn't ago amiss. They maybe be expensive to an average person, but to her 3000 yen was pretty much pocket change. Then she picked up some human medicines as well. Painkillers, antibiotics, bruise salves, cooling spray, medical tape, and bandages.
When it came to the pokémon food, they sold them in containers in accordance to type. Each pokémon type required a different diet of various vitamins and minerals. The store bought pokémon food was generalized and Steven had told her that top trainers either make their own special blend of pokémon food or buy them from reputable breeders. He himself wasn't a very good cook, so he bought his pokémon food from a breeder who was a good friend of his. One had to have exemplary knowledge about pokémon nutrition in order to create top quality food, even then it was another battle altogether to make a blend that also tasted good.
The store bought pokémon food was more for convenience to trainers and easily accessible to beginners, who generally would have no idea on how to start making their own pokémon food. Since she was a beginner herself, she decided to buy a couple containers of the Dark Type pokémon food.
Hariel herself was a good cook, and she liked cooking. She vowed to make her own pokémon food and after paying for her purchases, she headed straight to the bookstore with Absol hot on her heels.
"Hello there dearie, are you looking for something specific?" a kind elderly man asked. Hariel looked to his nameplate that read "Richard" and nodded.
"I'm looking for a book on Absol," Hariel requested. A recipe book for pokémon food was unnecessary because within her miscellaneous capsule, Fate had packed a lot of different recipe books. Last night before bed, she had skimmed them briefly. If anything, at least she was much more prepared this time around than when she was running blind trying to defeat Voldemort.
Fate had given her many different recipe books as she most likely knew about her love of cooking.
"Of course," Richard said with a smile and helped her find the requested book. The book about Absol as a bit thinner than she thought, only maybe 20-30 pages at most? It covered the basic dietary needs, grooming, interesting facts, and even a moveset list.
Along with the book on Absol, she picked up two thick hard covered journals to keep her notes and self-altered recipes in.
After paying for her books, she left to the electronics store, where she picked up a pokéblock machine and a pokémon food pellet machine. Each of them were portable sized and kept in her Camping and Cooking supplies capsule. The ones used for mass production were much too big to carry around and generally were only used by breeders, professors, specialized food shops, and other pokémon caretakers.
She also picked up a charger that could either gather sunlight or use an electric pokémon's electricity to power up her devices.
Now that her shopping was complete, it was time to head off.
As she walked through the forest on route to Oldale Town, she felt something watching her. Whatever it was, she could feel anger.
"Luxray!" a dark blue cat-like pokémon pounced out of the tall grass.
And it did not look happy. She could feel the anger and resentment rolling off the pokémon.
What could have happened to that pokémon to make it feel that way?
"I see. Are you looking for a battle?" Hariel asked and as a reply, it charged at her with a bright yellow electric aura.
Before she could put up a shield, Absol fired a Dark Pulse at the pokémon, hitting the electric type directly and blowing it off course.
"Luxray!" the pokémon snarled and directed its ire at Absol, who glared back at the pokémon who dared to try and harm his trainer.
"I suppose this will be our first battle. We can figure out why Luxray is so angry later," Hariel said, looking resolute.
This would be her first pokémon battle and she wasn't going to prove herself to Absol as a weak trainer.
"Absol, fire a Dark Pulse and then use Razor Wind!" Hariel ordered. She knew that Razor Wind was a wide ranged attack and that Dark Pulse was more concentrated. It wouldn't hurt to cover her bases just in case Luxray managed to dodge.
And she was right, Dark Pulse missed, but Razor Wind with its wide range still managed to hit.
Luxray shook off the damage and fired out what looked to be a several bolts of electricity spread out in all directions.
"Absol dodge and counter with Psycho Cut!" Hariel ordered.
Absol managed to jump out of the way in time and the electric attack struck the ground where the Dark Type once was, creating a small crater. With a swing of his horn, Absol sent a crescent blade of psychic energy at the opponent. It hit and sent Luxray flying into a tree with a crash.
"While it's down, get in there and use Megahorn!" Hariel commanded, hoping that it would be enough to take down the pokémon.
She didn't think that wild pokémon were this tough! And people still allowed their 10 year old children to come out here on their own?!
Absol charged in with his enlarged horn and slammed Luxray into the tree again, snapping the tree in half. Absol then jumped back with an elegant flip and landed before her.
That's a bit overkill, Hariel thought with a wince. Damn, pokémon were seriously powerful.
Once it got back up with a wince, Luxray's fangs then glowed with a bright electric aura. Before Hariel could tell her Absol to dodge, Luxray moved even faster than before and bit into Absol's side.
"Absol!" Hariel cried out in fear.
Absol winced but shook Luxray off, looking even more determined than before.
"Let's try to finish this up, Megahorn one more time!" Hariel ordered.
"Absol!" Absol barked and his horn enlarged again.
The Dark Type dashed over and slammed the other with his horn, throwing the pokémon back once again. Now the both of them were looking a bit tired. Luxray took quite a beating, and Absol looked a bit tired from the battle, not to mention the damage he had taken from the attack Luxray managed to land on him.
"Lux!" Luxray then launched a cluster of sparkling golden stars at Absol.
"Use Razor Wind, then charge in with Shadow Claw!" Hariel commanded.
Absol fired off the Razor Wind, causing the attack to clash and cancel out the cluster of stars, creating an explosion of smoke before he charged right through the smoke with Shadow Claw, swiping at Luxray's side.
But Luxray turned chomped down on Absol's front paw with bright blue fangs, immediately freezing the limb over.
Absol cried out in pain.
"Dark Pulse, point blank!" Hariel gritted her teeth.
She wanted this battle to be over so she could tend to Absol.
Absol shot his Dark Pulse right in Luxray's face, separating his fangs from his limb and blowing him back. At this point Luxray swayed slightly in place but it still wanted to battle. Absol looked at his trainer with worry before turning back to Luxray. Clearly this pokémon was much tougher than they thought. Either it was like Absol or it once had a trainer.
"Luxray's special ability must be Rivalry," a voice said.
Hariel turned to see that it was Steven.
"Rivalry?" Hariel asked.
"Yes. Pokémon have special abilities that can aid them in battle. Rivalry is a special ability that raises the attack of a pokémon when they are facing an opponent of the same gender," Steven informed.
"No wonder this guy just won't quit," Hariel muttered, "He's worn down! Absol, use Future Sight then Night Slash!"
Absol did as told before charging in with glowing purple claws.
Luxray dodged the attack and released multiple bolts of electrical energy, causing his own body and the surrounding area to glow bright yellow.
"That's Electric Terrain! It increases the power of Electric Type moves within the area by 50%. You better finish this up quickly. Absol can take major damage from Luxray if he manages to get hit by any electrical attacks," Steven warned.
"Right. Absol, Psycho Cut, rapid fire!" Hariel ordered, praying that Absol could even follow such an order.
As it turned out, he could. Absol fired Psycho Cut, one after another at Luxray. Luxray tried to dodge, but could not dodge them all. Then Luxray flared out his dark mane and let loose a blinding flash of light, blinding Absol.
With Absol blind, he was vulnerable until his eyes recovered. Luxray took that time to fire another mass of electricity at Absol, hitting the other directly. Absol cried out in pain and nearly slumped to the ground from the pain.
Hariel bit her lip before an idea came to her when Luxray charged in glowing bright electric yellow again.
"Absol! Use your horn to sense where he is and dodge!"
Absol gritted his teeth and did as ordered, using his sensitive horn to feel out his opponent's whereabouts.
Steven widened his eyes in amazement. He'd never seen that done before, and thanks to that brilliant command, Absol was able to dodge Luxray's multiple attempts to use Wild Charge. Hariel must be a prodigy at battling considering she lasted this long against an experienced Luxray. He was quite a powerhouse; a shame that his previous trainer could not tame him properly.
When Wild Charge wasn't working, Luxray decided to switch tactics and his tail glowed brightly and gained a metallic sheen. He swung his tail at Absol but the other was still able to dodge.
On Luxray's 2th attempt at attacking Absol with his metallic tail, the wormholes appeared around him and barraged him from all directions with concentrated psychic energy. Even though Absol was hit too from being within the same vicinity, as a Dark Type, he was immune to Psychic attacks.
"Quick, as Luxray is now weak from Future Sight, use a pokéball!" Steven urged.
Hariel did as told and threw a pokéball at the heavily injured pokémon. Luxray got sucked in, and struggled inside the pokéball. After a few suspenseful moments, Luxray was officially caught.
"Excellent work! That pokémon was much, much stronger than any other wild pokémon in the area," Steven said as Hariel picked up the pokéball with awe. "I had been asked to deal with the problem not long after you left by Nurse Joy. Apparently that Luxray had been abandoned by his trainer for disobedience and aggression a few days ago and had been attacking every trainer it saw since. It was quite a problem. I was going to catch it and deal with it myself, but then I saw you doing so well battling him with Absol. You did very well for a beginner trainer. It seems you have a knack for it."
Hariel blushed slightly at the praise.
"Normally for a beginner trainer, an aggressive Luxray like that would not be compatible at all. But I feel like you'll be able to handle it just fine," Steven said with a smile before turning to the Disaster Pokémon. "And you Absol were excellent. You responded very well to Hariel's commands. I look forward to battling you one day as well."
Absol nodded to him before wincing in pain. His front right paw was still iced over.
"But perhaps a quick trip to the pokémon center is due," Steven said with concern.
"Right," Hariel said before returning Absol to his pokéball for easy transportation, "Thank you Absol, you're a great partner!"
The pokéball wiggled in response, making Hariel smile.
After saying goodbye to Steven and during her wait at the pokémon center, Hariel decided to get a head start on the Pokémon food book that she had gotten. It had recipes for various types of pokémon food depending on type. They were all great bases depending on what types of flavors her pokémon liked best.
The recipe books Fate had packed for her had been very insightful. There was a book on Pokémon food pellets, Pokéblock, PokéPuffs, and Poffins. What she gathered was that generally, anything a human can eat a pokémon can eat as well. So if she decided to make stew for her pokémon, she would be able to feed it to them without major consequence.
Then a thought came to her. If this world's pokémon were her world's animals, did that mean the people ate pokémon? Pokémon eating other pokémon wasn't really a shock, it seemed like a natural order of things, but she could not in good conscience eat something that was so intelligent. It would be like eating dog steak or dolphin fish sticks…just…no.
She supposed that it wouldn't be too hard to go vegetarian. Eggs, nuts, and tofu were all excellent sources of protein and various vegetables had protein in it as well. She could make it work.
She thanked Fate for once for giving her other recipe books than just the pokémon related ones. With a quick browse, she sighed in relief that all of them were vegetarian.
That meddling bitch.
This time, she was thankful for her interference, but she hoped that Fate wouldn't make a habit out of it. She was supposed to be getting a new start dammit! One where she would be free to do as she pleased.
"Ms. Evans? Your pokémon are ready," Nurse Joy said kindly.
"Thank you!" Hariel said with relief when she spotted Absol walking beside Nurse Joy without an injury in sight.
After retrieving Luxray's ball, she went on her way.