I had no fixed place of residence due to my obsession of demolishing Team Plasma's bases one after the other which required me to be constantly on the move, but that had to come to a temporary stop now that I have to take care of a child that, like me, probably has no identity whatsoever. At least I now know that I have a family even if I don't plan on visiting them anytime soon, but this girl, if she really is a feral child like the auctioneer had told me, really has no one.
"That apartment there is yours," the gangster who I enlisted the help of to find a place to stay pointed at the window of a rundown three-story apartment block within Nimbasa's slums. I simply forked out the cash to pay for the rent for the next three months, including the deposit, in exchange for the key. I could easily afford something much more grand but this is the kind of place that makes it easy for anyone to erase their tracks and lay low for a long period of time, which is something we need to do with immediate effect.
"One last thing," the gangster took another puff from his cigarette and spoke before I could leave with the little dragon girl. "As you might have known, there are two rival gangs here that fight for the turfs and all sorts of nasty scums like me inhabit these parts. For your own benefit, you need to know that there's one person and place that you absolutely cannot hurt if you don't want those two gangs coming after your life."
He pointed to the window of another apartment on the opposite side.
"Martha, that old lady living there? Most of the kids who lived on the streets were fed by her at one point or another and most of these kids now joined either one of the two mentioned gangs. She is the only one who can freely move about within the two turfs and people will happily make way for her. Don't mess with her and nobody will mess with you, you get me?"
"I'm not that much of an asshole to go after a defenceless old woman, but thanks for the heads up anyway."
I led the dragon girl up to the third floor, the shoddy wooden stairs squeaking with every step we took. We soon reached the equally rundown apartment on the third floor that we will be staying in for the foreseeable future and I unlocked the door with the key, allowing us entry. Weavile hacked out an uncontrollable cough after seeing just how dusty the entire place is.
I really need to dust off this place. This is simply inhabitable.
"Stay here, don't move," I told the girl as I pointed at a wall and instructed her to wait for me over there until I'm done. I checked the lights and sinks, and once I was satisfied that the basic amenities like electricity and water were at least functioning, I decided to do a bit of basic cleaning before we go to sleep tonight. I am fully capable of falling asleep in such an environment after the kind of shitty life I've led, but this is not the kind of place a child should sleep in.
"Alright, drastic times call for drastic measures," I muttered to myself as I held my breath, fully opened the windows and stood aside before releasing shiftry from its pokeball. Shiftry looked at me after taking a quick glance of the place and understood why I had called him out, asking me a silent question if we really have to do this, in which I replied with a resigned nod. I walked over to the dragon girl, threw her a piece of clean cloth to cover her face with, and gave one last order to spiritomb.
"Spiritomb, you help out too. Shiftry, just get it started."
Shiftry raised its right arm high into the air before swinging it down towards the direction of the window, its bladed fan producing a violent wind so strong that the dust in the room exploded in a violent swirl. Spiritomb's Psychic immediately collected and condensed all the flying dust into a sphere and promptly threw it out of the window. If anybody complains about the huge ball of dust on the road tomorrow morning, I will deal with it then. For now, I really want to sleep.
"Good job guys, went much better than expected," I cannot help but praise as I ran my finger through the surface of the floor and while there was still dust remaining, it was at an acceptable level that a simple cleaning tomorrow morning will fix it. I looked around, spotting a worn but still usable couch at the corner of the apartment. It was rather dirty and I probably would throw it out tomorrow, but it can still be used for tonight.
I took out a spare blanket from my bag and spread it across the couch, patted it down, and was satisfied to see that the blanket was big enough to provide a clean surface for the dragon girl to sleep on.
"Get on, you are sleeping on this tonight until I find something better."
The girl looked at me in surprise as if she couldn't believe my words. I really have no patience for this, however, so I simply picked her up and laid her down on the couch.
"S-Soft…"
"Yes, I know the couch is soft," I replied as I quickly dusted the section of the floor which I am planning to sleep on tonight. "Now, sleep."
"No… dragon?"
"Dragon?" I asked in confusion, which she nodded. Is she referring to the haxorus?
"Haxorus?"
The nodding ensued.
"I gave haxorus to someone who is able to treat its injuries. You won't be seeing it for a long while until it's well again."
Or more like she won't ever see the haxorus again, but that is a lie which I won't plan on revealing to her anytime soon. I don't want to deal with crying children, ever.
"So no dragon?"
"No dragon," I affirmed, not wanting to tell her that I actually have a dragon in the form of hydreigon but releasing hydreigon here is definitely not a wise idea.
"Oh…" The girl seemed dejected at the idea of not being able to see haxorus before asking me another question. "I… sleep… here?"
"Yes," I replied tiredly. Why do children ask so many questions? Do I really have to spin bedtime stories one after the other before they can fall asleep? Wait, hypnosis should work… Forget it, there's no telling if there will be any harmful lasting effects if I keep subjecting a child's mind to the influence of hypnosis like what occurred to me. Better play it safe.
"Really?"
"Yes."
"But me… sleep floor… all the time. With dragons. Dragon, where?"
I stared at her, and then realised that she really wasn't joking. The kind of life she led until now really mustn't have been pleasant.
"You don't need to sleep on the floor now. Happy?"
She nodded vehemently.
"So can you go to sleep now?"
She continued to nod vehemently.
"Then go to sleep."
"No dragon."
Oh come on.
I didn't even bother chastising weavile when it just howled in laughter at the girl's response.
I woke up even before the sun rose the next day.
The girl was soundly asleep, curled up on the couch in a defensive position that I knew must be born out of habit in a subconscious effort to protect herself. I kept my footsteps light as I searched around the dingy apartment which I chose to stay in for no reason other than it is easy to hide my tracks in such places. Thankfully, I found a usable mop and bucket.
Mopping and cleaning up the place did take a while. Shiftry and spiritomb may have gotten rid of most of the dust, but it was not very thorough and seeing that we will be staying here for a while, it is best that I try to not let the child live within a safety hazard. Breathing in dust for long periods of time couldn't be healthy for her lungs and it might cause her to develop respiratory problems later on in life and I don't want to deal with that.
By the time I mopped the floor clean and removed all the dust that I could possibly reach, the sun was about to rise. I left shiftry and umbreon with the sleeping girl with instructions to take care of her as I left the apartment and headed for the nearest 24/7 supermarket. Food, clothes, mattresses, anything that I think might be needed during our stay in our temporary residence, I simply dumped them into the shopping cart. Dammit, what does a child her age need anyway? Toys? Books? Does she even read? Was she even taught how to read?
I threw in a few picture books that I think might be needed, even making sure that there were dragons drawn in those picture books because she seemed to be overly obsessed with those lizards of wanton destruction. I walked past a section selling stationeries and decided that maybe some colour pencils and a drawing book may be needed too, anything that might help in having her stop pestering me with questions about dragons all day long.
She had already woken up by the time I lugged everything back with me with bisharp's help. Umbreon was curled up in her lap, purring in contentment as the girl kept stroking his sleek fur in childish wonder. It was then that I decided that she really needed to wash up because she looked like she hadn't bathed in weeks.
"Are you able to shower by yourself?"
"Sho...wer?"
Oh great, she doesn't even know what a shower is.
"Clean yourself, with water. And soap," I decided to dumb things down for her but she didn't really seem like she understood.
Nevermind, I will just do it myself.
It was a hassle trying to get her to shower because she hated the water for reasons unknown, but it was eventually done. I cannot help but frown when I saw for myself just how skinny she was underneath those rags she was wearing, to the point that her ribs can be easily seen. That will have to be fixed.
"Dragon!"
She excitedly pointed at the new shirt she was now wearing, one with the picture of a haxorus printed on it. I chose this shirt for this very reason despite the fact that it was classified under the boys section.
"Yes, dragon," I replied tiredly as I unpacked the breakfast that I had gotten for us before I returned back from the supermart. A burger for each of us, that's all. With the exception of shiftry and umbreon who I had left behind to take care of this girl, I had already found time to feed the rest of my team before we returned.
"Food?" She asked curiously, a little less afraid of me after that little tussling in the bathroom where I was trying to teach her how to shower on her own. I simply unwrapped the packaging of one burger and passed it over to her. She didn't eat it straight away, but instead looked at me as if waiting for instructions. I simply bit down on my own burger for the purpose of demonstration, which she carefully imitated after seeing what I had done.
I don't know if she was simply famished or if the burger suits her tastes, but she finished her meal relatively quickly and also messily, eagerly licking off the barbeque sauce from her fingers as though she didn't have enough of them. I still don't know what I am supposed to do with her beyond preventing her from falling into Team Plasma's hands, but I guess that could probably wait.
First of all, I couldn't possibly keep calling her the dragon girl.
"Do you have a name?"
"Name? Is name food?" She asked excitedly and I tiredly dragged a palm across my face. Great, she doesn't even have a name. Is this what Jane felt when we first met? I am starting to sympathise with her. God, how did Jane even tolerate me back in the early days? She really was a goddamn saint.
"What do people usually call you?"
"Uh… Girl? Dragon bitch? Monster? Feral bitch?" She started listing off her fingers and I think I heard enough to understand where this was going. Despite her current limited speech capabilities, from our interactions thus far I believe that she is actually an incredibly intelligent child and also super fast on the uptake, so I do hope that she can understand the importance of having a proper name soon.
"Okay, let me put it this way. What do you want people to call you?"
"Dragon!" She answered excitedly without hesitation with her hands in the air. Weavile simply cackled without remorse at my plight and even umbreon was joining in to poke at my misery.
"No, dragon is not a name."
"But… You say…"
"Dragon is not a name."
She visibly wilted and pouted, but not for long.
"Oh, oh! Flo...Flower! Mountain, I live, pretty flower! Pretty, pretty! Dragon and I, we always see flower, together!"
To be named after a flower, now that is something acceptable. It's far better than calling herself dragon, at least.
"Do you know what flower it is?"
"Blue, white, yellow, and…and…" She stuttered at the last word, but immediately pointed at her long purple hair and excitedly showed it to me.
"Purple?"
"Purple!"
Deciding that it might be faster to show her a list of pictures of various flowers instead of guessing its identity based on her uninformative verbal descriptions, I quickly searched for a picture dictionary of flowers online using my phone and showed the entire library to her. She identified the flower she spoke of soon enough.
"Flower! Pretty flower!"
She pointed excitedly at my phone's screen and I took a look, the rest of my pokemon crowding around in curiosity to see just what her favourite flower is.
"This is an iris flower. I-ris. It's pronounced like this: ai-ruhs."
"I..rust."
"I-ris. Iris."
"I...ris?"
"Yes, Iris. Do you want to be called Iris?"
"I can?"
"You can," I nodded and explained to her the meaning behind her name, even if I'm unsure if she could understand me. "Flowers have names and their names have meaning too. For the iris flower, different colours mean different things but most of the time, iris means wisdom, hope, trust, and valour."
"Wis… wha?"
"Nevermind, I will teach you about it some other time," I held back a sigh. Patience, Jayce, patience. "So, are you okay with being called Iris?"
"Iris!"
"Yes, Iris. Your name is now Iris. No more dragon bitch, feral bitch, monster girl, anything like that which you heard before. Those are bad words and you are not a bad thing, so don't say it anymore, you hear me?"
"Me, Iris," the girl nodded excitedly with a smile so big that it made me feel as if the torture I had just been through to give her a name was worth it. Hopefully, she is able to learn how to communicate properly soon.
"Iris, Iris!" The girl exclaimed in happiness as she squealed and rolled around on the floor while hugging umbreon close to her. Umbreon was yelling at the top of his lungs at the sudden rough treatment and he certainly didn't appreciate being rolled around with Iris like that without his permission, but nobody is coming to his rescue.
After she calmed down from her excitement she began to understand the importance of a name, as can be seen from how she is pointing at different things in the room and expecting me to answer her questions every single time. She will repeat the words I said and the pronunciation of her words got increasingly better with each repetition. From the door to the wall to the furniture and then to the pokemon around us, I tried to patiently teach her the name of anything she might not have learnt yet.
"Shiftry," I replied when her finger wandered over to shiftry, then to umbreon. "Umbreon. That one there is weavile."
"Shiftry! Umbreon! Weavile!"
"Yes, yes, and yes."
Her finger then pointed at me. I hesitated for a short while as to which name I should give her, but came to a decision nonetheless.
"Jayce."
"Jayce!" She repeated my name before breaking out into uncontrollable giggles. "Jayce! Jayce!"
"What's so funny about my name?"
"You, Jayce! Me, Iris!"
Guess I shouldn't have expected a coherent answer.
"Jayce is dragon!"
"No I'm not."
"You smell dragon!"
"I smell… what?"
"You smell dragon!"
I took a pause to try and understand the meaning behind her own brand of mumbo-jumbo. I do have a hydreigon, so maybe she somehow smelt some of hydreigon's scent on me? Wait a minute, is it even possible for her to pick up on scents like pokemon could?
"I do have a dragon," I answered slowly as I tried to formulate a response that she could hopefully understand. "Big, dark, three-head dragon."
"Dragon!" Iris practically squealed in delight upon my confirmation. "Iris know! Iris know! You have dragon not haxorus! See, see! Iris see dragon!"
"Three-head dragon too big, cannot be here."
"Go mountain, see three-head dragon! Iris, Jayce, go mountain!"
Actually, why not? Might be a good chance to introduce her to the rest of my team so that they know not to accidentally maim her on sight.
"Just to make sure that you are not playing a prank on us with your illusions… We are all seeing the same thing, right?"
We all looked towards zoroark as one, who shook his head in vehement denial. The entire team looked back at the scene in front of us, spotting the most mentally unsound member of the team basking contently in the sun as Iris climbed up and down its body like a little monkey and even continuously slid down from its long thick neck while whooping in joy the entire time.
I had seen how she had calmed that enraged haxorus that day, but it still astounds me how powerful her ability which she inherited from her ancestor is. In a way, our abilities are similar in a sense that we are both able to easily befriend pokemon of a certain typing, but Iris' ability allows her to even easily befriend my hydreigon, who sometimes could not even tell apart friend from foe when it's too angry to care. I am able to get hydreigon to calm down too but I will forever remember how we first met. I certainly was not able to get it to like me within the first minute of getting to know each other like how Iris did for hydreigon. It took me some time to be able to fully tame hydreigon, not immediately, which she did where I had failed.
Iris would make a darn good Dragon Specialist with that gift of hers. No, scratch that, she can easily become a Dragon Master by the time she reaches my age if given proper guidance and having the chance to learn and grow.
'I never thought we would live to see this day, Master Jayce.'
'Me too, exeggutor, me too,' I replied through our telepathic connection as we watched Iris play with hydreigon in a secluded area of the forest far outside Nimbasa where we would not be spotted. The gears in my head started to turn as I watched the scene unfolding in front of us. Maybe, just maybe, Iris would make a good trainer for hydreigon by the time I'm gone. She absolutely adores dragons, I know she will treat it well and hydreigon is more than powerful enough to protect her from all threats.
I still have five years to groom her to be a responsible and reliable trainer to entrust hydreigon to. Sounds like a plausible arrangement.
'She seems to be good for you, Master Jayce.'
'You haven't seen her pestering me about dragons all day long. Come to think about it, your alolan counterparts are dragons too. Maybe I can send her your way so that you can take one for the team.'
'Dragon? Those barbaric warmongers? Whatever are you talking about? I'm a true Kanto native, bonafide intellectual psychic,' Exeggutor shook his leaves cheekily to emphasise his point. He usually is not this cheerful and talkative, so maybe not being a part of Team Rocket any longer is starting to have a positive impact on his personality.
'If you are so free, help me brainstorm a way to deal with the Iris situation. We can't possibly let her stick around while we are out there busting Plasma hideouts all day.'
'We can bring her along with us? Teach her the wisdom of our ways?'
'You want to bring a child along in our exterminations?'
'She has hydreigon on her side, what is there to be worried about?'
'That's not the point. Team Plasma cannot be allowed to know where she is and who took her and I'm not risking anything.'
'In that case, we eradicate everyone in every hideout we come across? No witnesses means no information leaked? Draco Meteor go boom?'
'I wasn't aware that you are a bloodthirsty one. You are not usually like this.'
'Oh, that was the other boring heads that you are usually talking to. I don't usually do the talking.'
'You need to stop switching heads when speaking to me, it gets confusing. I told you many times before, just come to a decision on which head should be the one talking to me and stick with it.'
'Heya! It's me this time! The noisy one!'
'Now you are doing this on purpose.'
'Are we? Draco Meteor, boom! Bzzzt, pew pew pew, BOOM! Plasma gone! The end!'
Ah, whatever. Maybe exeggutor has a point. Team Plasma wouldn't know about Iris if there's nobody left to tell the tale, wouldn't it?
Name: Jayce Dandolos
Age: 22
Pokemon Team:
1. Ninetales, female
2. Exeggutor, male
3. Weavile, male
4. Honchkrow, female
5. Umbreon, male
6. Hydreigon, male
7. Drapion, female
8. Zoroark, male
9. Bisharp, male
10. Shiftry, male
11. Porygon-Z, (Nosy), genderless
12. Greninja, male
13. Spiritomb, male
