Chapter 5

Inside a Mind. And a Half. If only the Logical Half is Working, Does it Count as a Full Mind?

Ria knew a number of things.

She knew that all living beings radiated Aura, which was a mixture of emotion and life energy. She knew this at a instinctual level, that she chose not to question. She knew that the only things that didn't radiate Aura were things like pebbles, the place Miss sleeps in, the stuff inside it, and things like detached leaves in winter.

She also knew that it is impossible for anything sentient to not have any Aura. In some cases, they can have next to none, or difficult to see Aura, but it was there. It was feelable, if in a weird way (imagine your brain directly touching something. It was like that.)

Nothing short of Arceus or Giratina could even attempt to tell her that her belief that she was the defender of her friends was unnecessary, or, Myths forbid, inaccurate. Most of her friends and the other Pokemon she met didn't have much power, leaving her to be the defender of them. Except Winny, but to be honest, they scare her; it's almost as if they WANT to get hurt for some reason...

And, finally, she knew that this... thing that looks like Miss is nothing short of a mistake that would scare even the 2 aforementioned Legendaries. It smiled, but it experienced no joy or pride. It frowned, but had no sorrow or disappointment. It sighs, but was without frustration or disturbance. It walked, thought, and did things, but it did not live. It tried to, by absorbing the ambient Aura around it, but as soon as it tried to imbue him with life it was burnt by some terrible curse.

As such, Ria labeled it as the only thing her young mind could: a monster. Something that should only exist in the tales that...used to tell her. And so, she began to think she would need to fight it off. She watched him to make sure it wouldn't do anything dangerous before she was ready to fight it off. And then, she had readied the technique that she knew would be able to drive the Thing away: a strike powered by her Aura.

What she didn't expect was for the thing to become alive for a moment. And for it's eyes to get this... terrible, weird look. As if it was staring at something that also didn't exist. Or maybe even Arceus himself. If it was the latter, good. Maybe it'll get fixed.

She also didn't expect Miss to panic at the monster Fainting. That made no sense at all.

The moment I managed to regain control over my anything, I felt metaphysically obligated to tell Mira "I told you so". As soon as I saw the rampant terror and pain in her face, however, I decided to tell the Kingdom Hearts to go fuck themselves and instead decided to try and reassure her.

"Hey, it's okay, I didn't get hurt. I'm still alive."

I did not expect for her to get mad(right?) throttle me.

"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO NOT MAKE ME WORRY!?"

Is this what harem anime protagonists go through on a daily basis?

"You did."

"Then why is it that I am 3 inches away from having a breakdown!?"

"I couldn't tell you."

"You just died for a moment! Your pulse stopped for a second! Can you at least show SOME emotion!?"

Ah, yes. The conversation I hoped to NEVER have to deal with.

"...no. I physically cannot."

That got her for a bit.

"Wh- what do you mean you can't?"

"I can only remember what emotion is like. It explains why Ria hates me. Also, good going, strong hit."

The Riolu in question recoiled as if struck. Probably in shock, not expecting me to complement her after getting thrown into hell for a bit.

"...that's it. I am giving you Ria, so that you can go through emotion therapy."

What? No, wait, what? Is- is that even a thing?

"Yes, it is, and you are going to get it."

Oh. I said that out loud.

"And, since a Lucario should be able to help you out even better, let me get you supplies for a journey so you can use your poker face to become champion."

And thus, my journey began.

Nobody Know-tes

The World of Pokemon

And to add onto the nightmare that is proper dietary measurements for pokemon, offspring sometimes show some traits of the parents. While usually this just results in something minor, like a flygon with a garchomp parent having claws that are more sickle shaped and longer, this can lead to entirely new sub-species of pokemon, akin to regional forms. Meaning that you can get utterly blindsided if you're just told the species and not what specific variant thereof.

I pray that dieticians get the pay that they sorely deserve in this World.