Outsiders (ZnT/Pokémon Reverse Summon)
Season 1, Episode 4, Chapter 3
After a long day of training, for both her and her Pokémon, Louise was exhausted. She ran, crunched, pushed, pulled, every conceivable exercise Saito could think of, she did it. That wasn't to say it was just her. To his credit, Saito joined in, every step of the way, and by now was just as exhausted.
"I… I think we're good…" Saito breathed out, eyeing the sun as began its descent. "Let's…set up camp. I don't think we can make it back to Santalune before it gets dark."
"Thank…you…" Louise, currently sprawled out on the forest floor, wheezed as she struggled to get to her feet, only to be lent a helping hand by Saito. As she rose to her feet, she hunched over to catch her breath. "How…often should I do this…?"
"Once every few days, really…" Saito admitted. "Granted, you'll be hiking a lot, which should suffice most of the time, but doing some dedicated exercise days wouldn't hurt. At the very least, the more you do it, the easier it gets."
"I…keep that in mind," Louise said, straightening herself. Saito had already pulled out his camping supplies, which like her included a tent, sleeping bag, and a portable stove. Unlike hers, his were obviously cheaper and of lower quality, more suited for standard weather rather than extremes. Following his lead, she opened her backpack and pulled out her sleeping bag and rolled it out on the forest floor.
"What are you doing?" Saito asked, his eyebrows raised and widened in confusion as to what he was seeing.
"I'm setting up camp," Louise replied, continuing to roll out her sleeping bag.
"Where's your tent? Oh Arceus, please tell me you have one."
"I have one! I just…don't know how to set it up…" Louise blushed from embarrassment, feeling Saito's gaze bore into her.
"… Then, where is it?" At Saito's request, Louise reached into her backpack and pulled out the tube containing her tent, handing it over to Saito. Promptly opening it, Saito could only sigh in resignation at the sight of the snarled heap that was the improperly managed tent.
"What happened? Why is it like this?"
"Heh, heh… Well, you see, I tried once to set it up, and when it didn't go very well and almost got ripped, I…put it away."
"You call this," Saito pointed to the tent in emphasis, "'putting it away'? How long has it been like this?"
"…about a week," Louise was practically red at this point, while Saito looked increasingly exasperated.
"When did you get it?"
"…right before I left Lumiose…a week ago…"
"… How long did it take for you to travel down Route 4?"
"…a week…"
"…are you telling me that you spent an entire week in the wild, with nothing but the clothes on your back and a sleeping bag to protect you while you slept?"
"…I had Brennaraki to keep me warm…" Louise could only meekly nod, causing Saito to slap himself.
"Didn't it rain once last week on Route 4?"
"I never actually got hit by that. It went away right before it got to me," Louise admitted. "Got lucky, I guess. Only good bit of it I had that week…"
"Arceus…," Saito sighed. "Okay, new plan. I'm teaching you how to set up a tent. Now, where are the instructions? And I swear, if you say that you threw them out, so help me…" Saito stopped once he pulled out the instruction booklet, still in its plastic container.
"… Those were instructions?"
"Just…get over here before I blow a gasket…"
"See, isn't this so much better?" Saito and his smug look irritated Louise, but she had to admit, sitting inside of her freshly assembled tent, he was correct. It was rapidly getting dark, and with the clouds obscuring the moonlight, the only source of light was the firepit Brennaraki, currently held in Louise's arms, had lit up.
"Yes, it is. You can stop being so smug now." Her glare only might Saito laugh. Nevertheless, the acquiesced and turned his attention back to the fire.
"So," Saito began, "I wanted to ask you something."
"Is it about my home?" Louise threw out a guess and sighed. "You still don't believe me, do you?"
"It's not that I don't, it's just…" Saito struggled to find the words. "Look, as I said before, your being from another world would certainly explain many things about you. It's just…you never really explained just why you are so obsessed with 'proving your worth'."
"I already told you," Louise sighed. "If I don't prove my worth, I don't get to go home. It's as simple as that."
"I doubt that more than your original story," Saito declared, shocking Louise into silence. "With the way you've acted, I seriously doubt that all of this," Saito waved his hand above his head in emphasis, "started with your arrival in Lumiose. Something tells me, this goes deeper. Am I right?"
Louise could only stare at Saito, unsure of how to answer. Seeing her unease, Saito shook his head.
"Forget I said anything. Sorry for—"
"I was born the youngest of three daughters of the Vallière family," Louise's soft voice rang out over the camp, catching Saito's attention. "The Vallières are among the most important families in the entirety of Tristain, my home kingdom, second only to the royal family. My mother, Karin de la Vallière, is the most powerful mage my country has ever produced. A war hero, who formerly commanded the Manticore Knights. My father, he was a general, who led Tristain's armies for many years."
Silently making a note to ask what kind of Pokémon a 'manticore' was, Saito leaned forward. "So, with such a huge importance already placed on your family…"
"That same importance was placed onto me from the very beginning. I was expected to be everything a noble was supposed to be. Confident, powerful, superior in every way. At first, things were…perfect. Life at the Vallière estate was peaceful. I had friends from all over the kingdom. My early magical studies, all from the best tutors my family had, were exceptional. I was even the personal playmate to Princess Henrietta…" Louise trailed off.
"What changed?" Saito asked, seeing where things were going. Taking a deep breath, Louise continued.
"…When nobles turn eight, that's when we move from mere magical theory to practice. This is when nobles find their affinities, which element they are most attuned to. When I held my wand, my father's old wand, in my hand for the first time, I was so excited. The ultimate proof of what separates nobility from commoners, and I was about to do it," Louise took a deep breath before continuing on.
"My first spell was supposed to be one that, once casted, would determine your elemental affinity. It was a simple beginner spell, one that anyone could cast. But I didn't get fire, or water, or wind, or earth. No, I wasn't that lucky. Instead, I blew up half the room."
"Your first spell was an explosion?" Saito asked in worry. "Was anyone hurt?"
"No one was hurt, thank the Founder, but no one knew why it happened. Of course, now I know it's because I'm a Void mage, but back then they thought I miscast it, somehow, so I tried again. Another explosion. After a while, it became clear to everyone that I could not cast magic."
"But…you created an explosion from nothing. Even for me, that's obviously magic."
"It wasn't done right!" Louise shouted, standing up in rage. "We tried for months to figure out what was going wrong! Again, and again, spell after spell, incantation after incantation, the result was always the same! Another explosion! It wouldn't matter what affinity we tried, they all failed!" Louise snarled at the memory, tightly clenching her fists and grinding her teeth. Upon seeing Saito's surprised face, she took a deep breath and sat back down.
"After that, things started falling apart. My family stopped hiring tutors, my friends stopped associating themselves with me out of fear. My oldest sister, Éléonore, took the frustration of her failed engagement out on me, while my parents started having me take marriage classes, to make me a better wife. I even lost Henrietta after I covered for her at a party. If it weren't for my other sister, Cattleya, I would have been completely alone…" Shaking her head and steeling her eyes, Louise looked up and stared into the fire.
"My family may had given up on me, but I refused to give up. I started studying on my own, without tutors, determined to find out just what was causing my ailment. For years, I tried to cast a successful spell, only to fail every single time. Eventually, though, I convinced my family to let me go to the Tristainian Academy of Magic, the greatest institute of learning on the entire continent. I thought things would change for the better, that I would finally be a proper mage."
"I take it that's not what happened, is it?" Saito suggested, to which Louise nodded.
"The exact same thing happened all over again, only now it wasn't private. Once again, I was alienated. Only, this time, things got worse."
"…How?" Saito asked, anger beginning to rise towards what he knew was coming.
"The students didn't just avoid me. No, they tormented me," Louise emphasized. "For over a year, I was subjected to constant ridicule, laughter, mockery, denials of me being a noble. The 'Zero', they called me, because I could do 'zero' magic. The only thing they didn't do was any physical harm, not that it helped. All of which was led by Kirche von Zerbst. She was the worst, by far. She was the one who started it, and everyone else followed her lead."
"Why would she do that?" Saito was fuming at this point. "You couldn't control the fact that you could only cast explosions."
"No, but her family and mine have feuded for generations. She likely saw tormenting me as continuing the family tradition…" Louise paused to clench her fist in anger before moving on. "I desperately wanted to prove them wrong, so every chance I could take to perform a spell I did. As always, only an explosion occurred, which only made things worse. By the end of my first year, my teachers were about to give up on me, as well."
"Which is why you were so focused on the 'summoning', I take it?" Saito pointed out. He may not believe this part of the story, but he could certainly believe the bullying part.
"It was my last chance. If I had failed my summoning, I would have been sent home. When I failed the first time, I tried again. When I failed again, I tried for a third time. And you already know what happened then…" Louise trailed off, her story finished. A silence descended over the camp, oppressive and heavy.
"Your classmates sound like assholes," Saito declared, shocking Louise. "Now, I still don't necessarily believe your story about coming from another world and talking to Arceus, but you going to a school and being bullied for something you couldn't control? That's universal, no matter where you are, and you didn't deserve that."
"…thank you," Louise's soft voice came out. Deciding to change the subject, Louise cleared her throat. "How long until we start eating?"
"I was about to start, actually," Saito stood up and went to his backpack, pulling out a portable stove, some pans, and some patties out of a cooler. "Ever have hamburgers?"
"No, actually," Louise answered, happy to have moved onto the subject of food.
"Oh, you're in for a treat."
"Saito! Come on, let's go! I want to get my Gym Badge!" the voice of Louise rang out from outside of Saito's tent. Groggy, Saito unzipped his tent door, only to see Louise already dressed and ready to go, with the notable exception of her tent. Looking out, he could see that the sun was only just rising, meaning that once again Louise had woken him up at the crack of dawn.
"…what is with you and getting up at dawn?" Saito groaned.
"It's something my mother drilled into us when we were little. Early to bed, early to rise," Louise replied, her hands resting on her hips.
"…I thought you went to bed that early because you ate five hamburgers and went into a food coma…" Saito flatly responded, making Louise squirm.
"Heh, well you see… Wait, why am I explaining myself to you?!" Louise shrieked back, her face blushing. Outstretching her hand towards a smirking Saito, she continued. "Now get out here! And don't try to pull that 'patience is a virtue' excuse, again."
"Heh, whatever you say," Saito joked as he zipped back up his tent to prepare himself. "Need me to help you put away your tent before we go?"
"…yes, please…"
The two now fully dressed, they quickly began packing their tents, Saito taking extra care to fully explain the process to an attentive Louise. Under his guidance, she quickly caught on, and soon she was packing the tent with newfound confidence, something Saito was beginning to recognize as a pattern. Louise, he noted, was a person that did not have a lot of the common knowledge others took for granted, but once she pushed herself to learn, she quickly grasped it. Case in point, her marked improvement in their practice battles. He himself was confident that she stood a decent chance this time. She, on the other hand, was not so sure.
"Louise, you'll be fine," he reassured his nervous travelling companion.
"I know that, but…still," Louise answered. During the trip back into Santalune, Louise's confidence began to drop as she neared the site of her biggest failure thus far in this new world. "It's just… Last time was awful. I've never lost that badly before."
"Most first losses against Gym Leaders are. I told you: losing to them, especially on your first time, is expected," Saito patted Louise on the shoulder. "Besides, you know what to expect now. Last time, you went in overconfident and didn't take the challenge seriously. Now, you know just how strong she is."
"That's the problem…" Louise grumbled as she neared the Gym. Stopping at the front door, she took a deep breath and, with Saito once again encouraging her, stepped into the building. Nothing had changed since the last time she had entered, except for a few more framed photographs. The entrance to the Gym Arena was still locked, the same couldn't be said for the audience stand. With that entrance open, Saito nodded to Louise and made his way in, leaving Louise alone in the foyer. Nervously rocking back and forth, Louise began looking at the various photographs, both new and old. One caught her eye, one of a Beedrill in combat. Moving to get a better look, Louise was puzzled to find the Beedrill to look familiar.
"That one's my favorite," Louise jumped as a voice suddenly sounded right behind her. Whirling around, Louise was surprised to see the voice belonged to Viola, busy appraising her work. "You just get the raw emotion of the moment right there. The anger, the rage, that Beedrill burned brightly with it. I was just lucky enough to catch it on film."
"… I can see it," Louise, looking closer, agreed. "Is this… Is this from a few days ago?"
"It is," Viola nodded. "This is a picture of the Queen."
"But the Queen Mega-Evolved. Why did it change back?" Louise raised her eyebrow in confusion. "Why did it Mega-Evolve in the first place, even? Professor Sycamore was adamant about needing a keystone for the transformation."
"I'm no expert in Mega-Evolution, unfortunately, so I can't answer either of those questions. But, I suspect Augustine can," the Gym Leader answered. "All I know is that once you and Saito finally fled, the Queen reverted back to her regular form. Didn't make her any less angry, though, something I am glad to have caught here."
At Viola's explanation, Louise fell silent, trying to wrap her head around that sequence of events. The whole thing was confusing to her, and if she had to guess it had something to do with her magic. Shaking her head and putting the question away for later, she turned to look Viola straight in the eye.
"Viola Pansy, I, Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, hereby challenge you to a rematch," Louise, with as much confidence as she could muster, declared. Viola, in response, merely smirked.
"I accept."
[~][~]
Hello, everyone! Here is the latest chapter of Outsiders! Sorry its a little late, but better late than never. Louise and Saito have now finished their training montage of sorts and are now ready for their rematch. Louise also discovered hamburgers and the dangers of indulgence, but she won't admit that.
Now, onto the Q&A:
MBenz4268: Yep, Shudo can be credited with creating the Pokémon anime we all grew up on as kids, but a lot of his ideas would not have worked for the franchise. Nintendo was wise to tell him to cut it out. Also, we love headcanons that explain the world as well. For example, the Natural Selection theory we had was a headcanon of ours that we decided to incorporate.
PokemonFan93: Stupid dog and Stupid Saito are two of Louise's most famous lines, after all. Since Saito is in this story, we decided that the use of them fit. And yes, Louise is a very determined person, which is an admirable quality of hers. And yes, she will be able to more easily grow in Kalos than she would in Halkegenia. By the time she is done, she will still be that spitfire we all know and love, but she will have grown so much. And that is the point of a Pokémon journey.
Anyways, stay tuned tomorrow for the first part of the Gym Challenge: The Practical!