Chapter 2: What to do?


I slowly woke up from my slumber. I didn't feel like my whole body was broken anymore, so that was a good sign

I slowly stood still and sat on the sofa, trying to adjust my sight to the light. A bright new day seemed to be awaiting for me.

Ironic. I was feeling exactly the opposite of the day. It was bright and cheerful, I was gloomy and pesimistic.

The sound of a door opening behind me revealed really tired looking someone trying her best to not fall asleep right where she was standing.

"G'morning, Ember! You look ready to start the day, huh?"

She looked at me annoyed, but didn't reply.

"Gotta be honest, kinda forgot you were here. Thought it had been just a dream"

"Woah! Thank you for that! Next time could you tell me to shut my mouth like a regular person?"

She snickered and grabbed some apples from the kitchen. This time, it was one for each. She sat next to me and handed me one.

"Eat. You will need it, trust me"

I grabbed it and did as I was told. I was hopping that she would tell me what she had in store for me, but guess she just forgot.

"So, what do I do while you work?"

She took the last bite of the apple and looked at me.

"Oh yeah. So if what you told me is true, you don't know anything about defending yourself, do you?"

I shook my head.

"Can't even hurt a fly"

"Exactly. Even though I don't like battling, the recent amount of criminal activity requieres you to at least know how to use basic attacks. So what do you do? I can't train you, but I have a friend that works at the local dojo that owes me a favor"

"So you are telling me that I am going to train?"

She nodded.

"That's cool, I guess. I need to know how to defend myself, and the 'Get transformed into a Pokémon' pack doesn't include self defense classes, so that's good. But shouldn't I help you at work? If you are going to be spending money on me, I need to at least help you"

"Don't worry about the money, my boss will understand. You focus on learning some moves"

I nodded and I stood up. Miraculously, I managed not to fall immediately. I tried taking a step and even though it was hard, I didn't fall!

I took another step. And another. And so on. I finally learnt to walk! Can't believe I said that.

"It's like seeing a kid taking his first steps..."

I ignored her comment and kept walking. Little by little, I managed to walk like if I was born in this body.

"Yes! I can finally walk! Now you won't need to carry me anymore"

"I was not going to, anyway. Now, come on. I'll take you to the dojo"

She stood up and walked towards the door, opened it, and gestured me to go out. I did so, and got outside.

To say the least, the town didn't look at all like it did yesterday. Now, lots of Pokémon populated the streets. Some were probably going to work too. Others, which were mostly kids with their moms and dads, were going to school.

"This place is far more lively than yesterday! Where did all of these inhabitants come from?"

"Due to the criminal activity, there is a curfew to ensure that people are safe. It's not a strict law, but most of the residents here follow it because they fear of something happening to them. Myself? I usually don't skip the curfew, but I don't always follow it either. I'm at my house an hour late at most"

"Damn...Are there that many criminals?"

"Unfortunately, yes. We don't know why, but recently, there has been a lot of thieves appearing, and the explorer teams are full of work"

"Explorer teams?"

"It's late now. I'll tell you later, unless Kit tells you first. Now lets go! If I'm late, I won't hear the end of it from my boss!"

With that, we marched towards the dojo, passing Pokémon after Pokémon. There were small Pokémon, big Pokémon, young Pokémon, old Pokémon...you name it!

After some time, we arrived at what looked like the main plaza of the city. A fountain was present and some older looking residents were sitting on the benches.

"This is the plaza. It connects with the whole town. To the left, it's the exit to the town and important buildings, like the town hall. To the right, all the markets, shops and of course, the dojo. And behind us, the residential areas, and some small businesses, like the shop were I work. So lets go to the right"

I nodded and continued. Soon after we turned, we could see all the places Ember was taking about. There were bars, and also a casino. There were shops and shops, but the one with the two Kecleon running it was the most crowded one.

We continued forward and then Ember stopped and turned to her right.

"Here you have it! The dojo!"

It was a building taller than the ones around it, with a darker color too. It also had something that looked like a bull skull above the entrance. There was also a sign, which, of course, I couldn't read.

"'Marowak dojo. The best place to toughen up your battling skills'. You know I won't be here everytime to read things for you?"

"Yep. Better take advantage of it while it lasts"

We entered the dojo and we were greeted by a Marowak receptionist looking at some papers. He immediately looked at us and left the papers on the table.

"Ember! Welcome! Long time no seen. Coming to train? And who's your friend?"

"Hi Nash. This is Jake. He is the one that is going to train. Kit owes me a favor, so I wanted to know if he could train him? He lost his memory and he forgot how to fight, so he needs a start from the basics"

"Lost his memory? I'm so sorry to hear that, Jake"

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure I didn't know a lot about fighting before I lost my memory anyway"

"Well then, if you wait here, I'll go get Kit"

Saying that, Nash stood up and walked through a door the probably leads to the training grounds.

"That Nash guy, is he the owner of the dojo?"

Ember nodded

"Yes. This dojo has been handed down from generation to generation since the day that it was built"

"Amazing! Do you think I can fight, though? I'm not too sure about it..."

"Hey, if there is someone that can teach you how to fight, that's Kit. That fox has some serious battling skills. No one knows where he got them from"

"I hope you are right..."

As if spoken to existance, Nash came back followed by a Zoroark closely behind. I guessed that was Kit. He immediately looked at Ember, surprised to see her here.

"Ember? Is that you? Hey girl! Where were ya at? It has been a long time since I saw you!"

He then looked at me, and then back at her.

"Never told me you got a boyfriend! What's his name?"

I think we both got a bit red at that.

"Shut up Kit! He's not my boyfriend! He's just a friend!"

"It always starts the same way~"

Nash cleared his throat and Kit closed his mouth.

"He's also your new trainee, so don't be rude to him" said Nash.

"Excuse me?"

"Remember that favor you owe mee?~"

"Oh, so this is your favor? Thank Arceus. I thought I had to drink tea with you or something like that"

She got even redder

"Shut up!"

He snickered and looked at me

"What's your name, boy?"

"I'm Jake. Nice to meet you!"

"Same. I'm Kit, but your girlfriend has probably told you that already"

"She's not-!"

Nash cleared his throat even louder and Kit rolled his eyes.

"Alright, so how much do you know about fighting?"

"Ummm...is 'I have no idea how to throw a punch' a level? Because that's where I'm at"

"So a complete rookie, huh? You did good at bringing him to me. I'll take that skill out of you in a pinch!"

"Alright, so we are even then" Ember said. "I gotta go. Work sucks, but I can't do anything about it. I'll come back at my lunch break. See ya Jake, Kit and Nash!"

"Bye!" I said.

"Goodbye!" said Nash.

"See ya!" said Kit.

Ember walked out of the door and went off to work.

"Well, Jake. Time to start. Follow me"

"Sure"

I followed Kit through the same door Nash went through and I saw what there was behind. Lots of ring-like arenas were scattered all around the building's area. Some of them were being used by some Pokémon, and some of them were empty.

"We will take this one"

We stopped in front of one if the rings and got inside the circle, each of one in opposite sides of it.

"Alright, so we will get straight to the point" He took a battle stance. "I want you to hit me"

"What?!"

"Yes. I want to see what you are capable of. Come on, I have taken more severe beatdowns that the ones I will ever take here, so don't worry"

"Uh..."

How to do it?! Do I just go and punch him? It can't be that easy. But he said he wanted to see what I could do, and I can't do anything!

I looked at my paws and took notice of the small spikes on the back of each one.

Built in knifes, huh? Guess this can come on handy. Come on, just go and punch him, not a big deal

"Jake! Come on, we don't have the whole day!"

I readied myself and ran towards him with my fist clenched. But just as I was about to hit him, he dissapeared in a cloud of crimson mist.

"What?! Hey, no fair!"

Suddenly, I got punched at my back and I fell forward. Kit suddenly appearing behind me from thin air.

"Seriously?! A straight line and a clearly predictable punch? And you didn't know I was going behind you? Can't you see me using your aura thing?"

I got up, feeling a bit dizzy from the fall, but I quickly shook it away.

"Aura what?"

"You know! The thing your species can do! Don't tell me you can't do that either!"

Aura thing? Oh yeah! Lucario and Riolu can do that! But I can't.

"Alright, I won't tell you"

"What?! How old are you?"

"Uhh...about to be 19"

"AND YOU CAN'T DO THE AURA THING?!"

I winced

"No"

"This is going to be harder than I thought..."

He began thinking about what to do. I hated being seen like a complete rookie that doesn't even have the signature ability of his species, but Ember told me not to tell anyone about my condition.

"Alright, so forget fighting. You need to learn to do your aura thing first, or else you probably won't be able to learn any moves"

I nodded

"Good. I don't know how your thing works. All I know is that you have to concentrate a lot, and look at things beyond what your eyes can see. Or something like that. I never understood what my friend told me very well"

"So concentrate on beyond what you can see? And what should I see?"

"According to my friend, you should see blurs of different colors depending on the aura of the 'mon. If you train hard enough, you can even predict what the opponent will do, but lets just settle at the basic"

As he said that, he turned invisible again.

"Alright! Try to use your thing and locate me!" His voice was coming from apparently nowhere.

Alright, just concentrate and relax. You are training, nothing depends on you now. You can do it.

I closed my eyes and tried looking around in the darkness. Nothing. I didn't know what to do. But something in my mind was telling me that I just had to breathe and relax.

I didn't know what I was doing anyway, so I followed what my mind said and calmed down. Somehow, that managed to help me even more.

I couldn't see anything. But after some seconds, I managed to see a grey blur in front of me. But just after that, I fell to the ground, panting.

Kit appeared in front of me. Just where I thought I saw him.

"You ok, bud?"

"I-I saw something! I saw something grey in front of me, and then you appeared in front of me, so that means it was you!"

"Bingo! We are getting somewhere. And it was your first try! Now, you need to optimize yourself better. You need to use less energy to be able to use it longer. If you use use it ten seconds and then become completely exhausted, there is no point in using it!"

"I guess"

"Eat this, and then we continue" He said throwing an oran berry towards me.

I ate it, and instantly felt as if I just woke up.

"I won't ever get used to these berries"

"Yeah, me neither" he extended a claw towards me and helped me stand up.

"Alright..." he turned invisible again "Lets see if we can improve you!"


"Thanks for shopping here, hope to see you again"

"Alright, lunch break everyone!"

Thank Arceus. Finally, time to relax.

"Alright, Agatha, I'll be back in two hours!"

"See you, Ember!"

I picked the food I had prepared beforehand, exited the shop and headed towards the dojo.

Wonder how Jake is doing. And I also wonder how Kit will react when he learns that he has a complete rookie to train.

Lots of workers were going outside to eat their food and go back, and those who weren't were children going back to their homes for lunch.

After some time, I saw the dojo with its signature structure standing out. I entered it and was greeted by Nash about to unpack his lunch.

"Hi Nash!"

"Hi Ember. Going to check up on your friends?"

"Yep. Jake has been training for the whole day, and he must be exhausted. And I also thought that Kit may need to eat sometime"

Nash chuckled and gestured towards the door.

"They have done nothing more than training. They must be exhausted, but I'm sure you are too. Bon apetit, by the way"

"Same"

I entered the door and sure enough, I saw Jake with his eyes closed, seemingly alone. I headed towards him, a bit confused on what he was doing.

"Uhh...Jake?"

No response.

"Jake?"

"Shhh! Don't break my concentration!"

So he was training. But where was Kit?

"Ember, don't freak out just now, but I think Kit's behind you"

I turned my head and saw Kit suddenly appearing from nowhere.

"Well done, Jake! Any progress so far?"

He turned around and opened his eyes, panting a bit.

"Well, I don't black out because of energy usage, so that's good"

He nodded and looked at me

"Hey Ember. Is that lunch? Thank you, girl. But next time you want me to train someone, you could tell me he doesn't even know the basical basics"

"I think he told you he needed a full course..."

He rolled his eyes and sat on the ground. Jake did the same, followed by me. After some silence only interrupted by Jake's slowly steading breathing, I decided to start unpacking lunch.

"How was the day at the shop?" Jake asked me

"Good. I only had to deal with one slight inconvenience in the form of an Umbreon, but it was ok otherwise"

"Man, that sounds tough..." He answered

"Not tougher than being this hungry! Tell me you've brought some of your famous gummi shakes with roasted berry juice..."

I smirked and pulled out exactly that, along with some sandwiches. Kit's mouth was practically watering.

"How else was I gonna thank you? I know that you love thesee~"

He quickly regained his composture and cleared his throat.

"I suppose that they are good? What even is a gummi shake?"

"You'll have to drink it to find out, Jake" I said handing him the one I made with the orange gummi, accompanied with a sandwich

I also gave Kit his shake and a sandwich, which he practically stole from my paws.

Jake drank a bit of his shake and, to say the least, he liked it. He drank the rest of the drink shortly afterwards.

"See? Told you you'd like it" said Kit finishing his own drink.

I rolled my eyes and said "Guys, I know that I'm the best at making those, but they were supposed to last for a bit longer..."


After finishing my sandwich, I stood up and readied myself to go back to work for the rest of the day.

"Alright guys, keep up your training. I gotta go, but I'll be back again when it's about sunset"

"Seeing the progress we are making, I hope that by that time Jake at leasts knows the basics of his own power. And we ain't stopping until he does!"

Jake rolled his eyes and said "Alright, dad!"

I chuckled and left the arena, waving at both of them as I walked. Outside, I began walking back to the small shop that I grew used to.

Hope Kit can teach him something. If he doesn't know how to defend himself, he won't survive a hostile encounter with anyone.

"Alright, bud! Time to continue. You gotta master that ability of yours"

And we kept training. What was left of the day was spent training with Kit in the dojo.

I gotta say, it was fun. Sort of. Training the aura-sense was fun, but exhausting. I really wanted to know how to use moves.

After two hours of no more progress except of being able to use it without being at the verge of fainting, I was starting to become nervous.

"No damn progress! And we have been here for the whole day! Are you sure there is no trick that I can use?"

He thought about it for a while, but shrugged after some time.

"Nope. Sorry, but there is nothing else. If I were a Lucario, I could help you better, but we got none in this dojo"

I sighed. So there was nothing he could do. I couldn't blame him.

"Although..." I perked up. "I dont know if it matters, but my friend always said that being reminded of those he cared about helped him be stronger. Maybe you could try?"

Think about those I care about? Maybe...that could work. But who do I think about? There is no one I know too well here!

I paused. What was I saying? The answer was clear.

"Alright. I'll try"

He went invisible again and I concentrated. Again, the dojo became that mess of blue outlines and differently colored blurs.

Alright, Jake. Concentrate. Think about who you care about. About everything.

I thought about the girl that made me come here, but that resulted in even worse results, so I didn't try again.

I thought about that increasing feeling of wanting to know who was the person that was with me before everything occurred.

I felt as the outlines slowly became clearer and more distinguishable.

It's working

I thought about how Kit was wasting his time in trying to train a human who won't even be able to use moves.

I could feel the sensors on the back of my head twitch, but I preferred not to think about that.

The final stretch

I thought about how Ember decided to not only save my life, but also give me a place to stay, food and water. How even though she was so freaked out because of me being a human, she still decided to keep her promise. How she was the first friend I had after that stupid fall.

On the corner of my eye, I managed to see a figure preparing an attack. I turned and grabbed Kit's arm before he could strike me with a Night Slash and kicked him, out of sheer instinct

And then...I fell to the ground. Kit made himself visible in front of me, amazed.

"So that was it. Nice one, Jake. You got the basics. Congratulations. Nice first training session. And don't worry about the kick, I got kicked harder back when I-" He stopped himself.

"What I was saying is, you got some talent. You just need to find it. I think you would be a great member of an explorer team"

"What is that?"

Just as I asked that, Ember appeared through the door followed by Nash.

"I'll tell you tomorrow"

"What? Why? What's wrong?"

Kit just sighed.

"Hello Jake and Kit! How have you been doing?"

"Your friend has made significant progress. He can now use his aura-sense, and this is just his first day!"

"Oh, so you want to train me again? I thought I was too unexperienced for you"

"At first. But I decided to take it as a personal challenge"

"Well, at least you are a cool teacher and not one of those old ones that seem to hate fun. I actually had pretty much of that today"

"Gee, thanks. Heard that, Em? He said he had fun! And he thinks I'm cool~"

She rolled her eyes and ignored that.

"So how did he do it?"

"He seemingly thought about how the ones that matter to him. And I may not be able to read minds, but I'm sure he had a small room in his brain for ya~"

This time, I was the one that rolled my eyes. "You love teasing her, don't you? Maybe you are the one that has to be her boyfriend~"

Kit expected lots of answers from me, but never that. But Ember decided to follow the joke. "Yeah Kit, come here and gimme a kiss. If you want me so bad, just tell me~"

He also didn't expect that. "Guess you learnt some lessons, huh? See how it is not useless, boss?"

Nash just sighed and shook his head, but a small smile was present on his face.

"What will I do with you?"

"Maybe give me a raise?"

"Yeah. And also make you the next boss of this place. What do you think?"

We all laughed.

"Come on, everyone! We are closing. I'm sure you three are tired. And you have to work too, Ember. See you tomorrow, Jake?"

I nodded. "I would love to keep training with my favorite teacher". Kit gave me a thumbs up. Kinda.

"Well then, lets go"

We exited the place and Nash closed the doors. It was time to part ways.

"See ya tomorrow, Jakey. Don't miss me too much. Same to you Ember. Goodnight to y'all"

"Same" said Ember.

"Goodnight, Kit!" I said.

And we walked back to Ember's house.

"So you like Kit, don't ya Jake?" said Ember

"Yep! He's a great guy. Thanks to him, I managed to learn how to do the aura thing!"

"Well, tomorrow you can go back to training. And since the next day I don't have to go to work, maybe I can show you around after that"

"Yeah! I'd love to!"

She grinned and kept walking. After not a very long time, we arrived at the small house and we got in.

Immediately, I sat on the sofa. I was so exhausted from that training I could sleep right there.

"Are you tired?"

I nodded. "Yep. This may be the first time I train for a whole day. I probably need to get used to this"

"Probably. Today I did some shopping. If you wait for a bit, I can cook something. Go sit at the table if you want"

I nodded and walked towards the small room that was the kitchen and sat in a small table. Ember began cooking something, while I was amazed by just its delicious aroma.

I want to ask her about those explorer teams, but Kit looked reluctant to talk about that in front of her. What happened to her? Maybe it's none of my business, but I want to help her.

"Ember?"

"Yeah?" She said without turning.

"I..."

I can't. At least not until I know more about what happened.

"That smells amazing! What are you cooking?"

She smiled and said "Some Tauros steak. Smells good, doesn't it?"

"You are cooking what?!"

She's cooking meat from a Tauros?! Isn't that at least a bit weird?

Seeing the face I was making, she sighed and laughed.

"Don't you put that face! We haven't killed any civilian to do this!"

"Then, what is it?"

"You know about Mistery Dungeons?"

I was about to speak when she interrupted me. "Of course you don't. You are amnesiac, aren't you? They are quite hard to explain. They're distortions from space and time themselves. Their layouts change everytime someone gets in, and so do the items inside. They are populated by some sort of illusions that look like Pokémon, but aren't. Despite that, their attacks are real, and can hurt you pretty badly! Normally, when you defeat them, they just dissapear, but sometimes, if they get hit hard enough, they may drop something depending of which 'mon they were"

"We still don't know why, or why even Mystery Dungeons exist, but all we know is that they are dangerous, and that's why only explorer teams have the authority to enter for anything" The words "explorer team" seemed to have been stuck in her mouth.

"That sounds amazing! I'd love to explore one of those! You think I could join one of those explorer teams?"

A subtle way to see her reaction. Indeed, it showed that she really didn't want to talk about it.

"Maybe. But you gotta train hard to even have a chance. MD's are not as easy as they look like, and teams want the best of the best"

Then silence. We didn't speak anymore until the steaks were done. After that, she put a plate beside me and sat in front of me.

After a while, I decided to enlighten the mood a bit and asked her to tell me about her day at work with more detail.

"Not much really. Just usual cashier stuff. Deal with customers, solve questions,... Don't you have cashiers back there, Jake?"

"Well, yeah, but I thought it would be different here!"

She laughed and continued eating. I did the same and finished the steak in no time. It was just so good.

"This was delicious! Loved it. You cook incredibly well"

"Thanks. See how you forgot about thinking about the food's procedence after taking a bite?"

I rolled my eyes and stood up. "I don't know about you, but I'm completely exhausted after today"

"Same. Lets go to sleep, shall we? You gotta learn some moves tomorrow. And I promise that I will give you a tour in the evening. We can even tell Kit to come. I'm sure he'll be down to come with us and have some fun"

I nodded. I walked towards the small sofa and just threw myself there. I covered myself in the blankets and felt the whole day worth of training manifest in my muscles.

"Goodnight, Jake. See you tomorrow"

"Same. Goodnight!"

And she went in her bedroom. I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

I really want to learn how to fight. If training Pokémon is this fun, then battling like one must be so cool too! I'd really like to be in one of those explorers. I wonder what happened to Ember to hate exploring. I guess I'll ask Kit tomorrow. I really want to help her. I will help her.

And with that promise in my mind, I drifted off to sleep.


END OF CHAPTER 2

Fun fact:

Kit is named like that because I originally thought of it as an abreviation for 'kitsune', which is the thing Zoroark are based on!