I still remember it like it was yesterday.
It was a warm day in the sunny Pallet Town, a big beaming smile on my face as I stormed down the stairs, excited to play with my friends. My partner Yeller bounded down with me, looking almost as excited as me.
I was a little disappointed to have a three-legged Rattata at first, but the two of us had become fast friends, and it wasn't like I had to do Pokemon battles. I was more than happy just to play with him each day.
"Mum!" I called out as I reached our Kitchen, "Yeller and I are gonna go out for a bit, is that okay?" turning the corner I saw my mother was on the phone, and clasped my hands over my mouth.
My mother quietly rubbed her furrowed brows as she listened to the voice on the other end. "No but... Why now, after all this time...?"
She was quiet for another moment, then snapped at whoever was on the other end. "It's not like you ever cared before!"
A moment of silence again, but she took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. "...I'm sorry. You're right, I ought to at least ask him." She turned her gaze to me as she spoke, and then she leaned down and covered the microphone with her hand.
"...Cyan, sweetie. Did you ever want to... Meet your dad...?"
I blinked a few times. "I have a dad?" I replied excitedly. "Who is he?!"
My mother pursed her lips for a moment. "He's... A very busy, very important man. But he said that he wants to meet you. Apparently he's in Johto at the moment, so... You'd have to be brave but... Would you like to meet him?"
I nodded enthusiastically.
The next day, my mother saw me off with a scary-looking man dressed in a suit and tie. She reassured me that the man worked for my father, and that I could trust him to protect me until we got to my father.
As we left, I overheard my mother muttering to herself. "All boys leave home someday, huh..."
The man possessed a large and powerful Pidgeot, which he used to fly us across Kanto at a breakneck pace. I was scared of him at first, but when I was scared of the height he placed a hand on my shoulder.
"It'll be alright kid. Nothing is gonna happen to you under my watch. I stake my life on it."
I found the comment to be reassuring, in a strange way.
After a week of travel, we made it to Goldenrod city. The city was beautiful and majestic, as a boy who'd been living in a rural town until now the skyscrapers were overwhelming and breathtaking all at once.
The man took me to a colourful building, a daycare for young children-Much to my confusion.
"Sorry kid, all I was told was to make sure you arrived here safely. My job is done now." The man answered, climbing up onto his Pokemon. "Hope your dad comes to pick you up soon."
And without another word he flew off, leaving me with the daycare staff.
And so I waited. I waited patiently in the lobby, never going in to play with the other kids. I didn't want to miss the chance to meet my dad.
My mother had told me to be brave, and so I was. I would wait here until he arrived, and then I'd give him an earful about the way he'd decided to meet up with me!
And so I waited. 10 minutes turned into 30. An hour turned into two, into eight, into 12... The staff tried to convince me to leave, but I refused, stubbornly staying in the daycare lobby.
One night passed. Then two. Then three.
Just as I was about to give up and try to get the staff to find me a way home, one of the members of staff-A young lady with brown hair, who smelled strongly of perfume, and was trying a little too hard to smile... Except she wasn't smiling, and she had a nervous air.
"Y-you're... Cyan Hughs, right...? From Pallet Town?"
I nodded quietly. "I-I'm sorry, we just received news that... Your mother is..."
No. I don't want to remember this...
"Your mother is... Dead..."
I felt my skin go cold. I stared up at the lady with annoyance. "That's not a funny joke! My mum is safe at home! Pallet Town!"
The woman in front of me bit her lip, trembling. All of a sudden she threw her arms around me.
"I'm sorry! Pallet Town is... It's..." Her voice was shaking, and I began to understand.
"Pallet Town is gone!" She cried, barely holding herself together.
"W...hat?" I felt my voice cracking as tears began to form. "What do... you mean...?"
"I'm sorry..."
I stayed at the daycare for a month before returning to Kanto. My father never came to get me, and I never heard from him again.
At 12 years old, I was orphaned. I felt the fear, the uncertainty, all of it as if I were experiencing it for the first time. The world was large and scary, and the person I'd always been able to depend on had died.
I was scared. I was sad. All the emotions flying through me, but without giving me the chance to process any of them. I wanted to scream, to cry out, but I knew that my mother wasn't there to help me anymore.
I felt a hand gripping my own, reassuring me and giving me strength-
...Wait, a hand...?
...
My eyes snapped open, and I gasped for breath. I could feel a cold sweat pouring down my back, but I quickly focussed my attention on my left hand, which was tightly embraced in the grip of two smaller hands.
I looked over to my left to see my black-haired female friend, who was clinging desperately to my hand while shaking silently. Her eyes were filled with concern.
...Are you okay?
"I'm fine..." I answered, wiping some sweat from my brow. "...Why are you holding my hand?"
Chee withdrew a single hand, tapping something onto her PokeDex. A moment later, a message appeared on the screen of my own PokeDex.
'You were screaming in your sleep. It looked like you were in pain.'
She returned her attention to me again, grasping my hand even tighter. Are you sure you're okay?
I pulled my hand from her grip gently. "I'm fine. It was just a nightmare, don't worry about it..."
Okay... She withdrew her hands softly, pulling at the hems of her gloves to make sure they were still fastened tight.
I don't think that Chee believed me. I'm not sure if I did either, but it didn't matter. She kept eyeing me with concern for the rest of the morning as I got ready to travel, but soon enough we were out of my room and on our way through the city.
Once we reached the northern exit of the city, the tension had faded and we were able to interact as usual.
I took the time to double check our path. Once we left Viridian City, we'd have to enter Route 2, push through Viridian Forest, then exit back into Route 2. After that, we'd be able to reach Pewter City-The site of the first Gym on our Gym Challenge.
Yeller reached level 10 fighting a wild Pidgey that got in our way on Route 2, but after that Chee kept interfering every time we went to fight a Pokemon.
At first I thought she was just bored from not being allowed to battle last time, but even when I tried to distract her with a different wild Pokemon while Yeller and I fought something else, I would turn around to find my target had already been defeated by a vine whip.
"Chee! Why won't you let me battle anything?!" I complained. Her eyes narrowed at me.
...Not letting it happen again.
"What?"
She glared intently at me. Last time you trained against wild Pokemon, you summoned some monster! With a huff, she folded her arms and turned her nose up at me. You're not allowed to fight wild Pokemon anymore!
And so, I was banned from fighting wild Pokemon.
...
It was around noon by the time we reached the entrance to Viridian Forest.
"Alright. If we avoid battling, we can probably get halfway through the forest today." I mused. "We'll have to be careful of the wild Weedle and Beedrill, but the paths should still be relatively..." I trailed off as I looked at Chee, who was munching on a handful of nuts and berries, her cheeks inflated like a chipmunk.
"Where did you get those?" I asked. She responded by pointing at the trees along the path we'd been travelling.
On closer inspection she was right, the trees of Viridian Forest were often adorned with berries and nuts since they were what the Pokemon here would eat. It made sense, but I'd never really considered it before.
"...Are those safe to eat?" I was slightly concerned she was eating bad berries, but she nodded vigorously at me, handing me a few of them. I turned them over in my hands, but they were ripe and they were the kinds of berries safe for humans to eat.
She pointed to another tree that housed bright purple berries. Not those, those are bad.
Chee then pointed to the tree she'd gotten her berries from. Those. Those are good.
"...Okay." I relented. A part of me wanted to ask how she knew which berries were safe to eat, but I was frightened that I'd receive the answer 'I ate them before' and thus decided it was better not to ask.
After walking through Viridian Forest for a few minutes, Chee tugged at my shirt again, apparently now full on nuts and berries. I've got something I wanna do while we're here!
"...What do you wanna do?"
Chee pulled out her PokeDex, fiddling with it for a few moments before presenting it to me. I expected to see a written message as usual, but instead I was greeted with an actual PokeDex entry for Kakuna.
"Kakuna...?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. When she lowered the PokeDex, I saw that Chee was holding one of the Pokeballs we'd bought yesterday.
Yellow! Want! Her eyes twinkled with excitement. Help me catch one!
"I mean, I don't mind but-" She put a finger to my lips. WANT!
"...Alright."
...
And so we'd spent the last few hours searching through the forest for wild Weedle or Kakuna, only to have no luck whatsoever. We'd already come across more than a dozen Caterpie, several Metapod, and two Pidgeys-Which I remembered since Chee always made me fight them for some reason- but not a single yellow Pokemon had appeared.
Over the course of the last two hours, I had watched Chee's youthful excitement drain away and be replaced with a vengeful drive to 'catch one weedle, even if it killed her'. And I had watched from the clearing as she started deliberately messing with any trees that looked like they might have a beedrill nest.
A lot of poor Metapod fell from trees, but not a single Beedrill came for revenge.
Now she was swinging from the treetops, looking for any signs of yellow Pokemon, as I followed behind as fast as I could. "Chee wait!" I called out. "You're going too fast!"
I lost sight of her for a moment, then I tripped over something small and fuzzy. Looking down, I saw the familiar sight of her Pikachu plushie. Honestly, she was so caught up that she'd even dropped her favourite plushie.
I picked it up by one of it's ears and charged through the bushes again. "Chee! Chee you dropped your plushie!"
I burst through into another clearing, where Chee dropped in front of me, checking her bag in alarm. She drew her Pikachu plushie out from her bag in a rush, and let out a sigh of relief. It's right here, what are you talking about?
...We both turned our attention to the yellow Pokemon that I was currently holding by it's ear.
The very angry, very electric, Pikachu.
"Oh c-!" I began, but I was cut off as a powerful current charged through my body and I reflexively flung the electric mouse into the distant bushes. Chee chased after the tossed Pokemon immediately, with a speed I'd never seen from her before.
And in seconds, I was alone in the depths of the viridian woods.
I flopped to the ground, in pain and exhausted from running through the woods. Yeller bashed his way through the bushes a few moments later, nuzzling my cheek to make sure I was still alright.
[Log:
Type Proficiency: Electric +5%!]
What do you know, turns out being hit by a move can also increase my proficiency-Although I wasn't too keen on this particular method of raising proficiency.
...Status.
[Cyan Hughs
Status:
HP: 10/25
Atk: 8
: 1
Def: 10
Sp. Def: 5
Spd: 12
Stat Points (15)
Skills:
Eye to Eye
Regression System
Pokemon Status Lv 2
Type Proficiency 21% {Tap to Expand} ]
Yeah, that was about as I'd expected. The electric shock had taken a real hit on my stamina. Although it struck me as odd that Type Proficiency had gone up so high. Wasn't it only at 16% before?
I opened the type proficiency window to check.
[Normal Proficiency: 303% {VIEW REWARDS}
Fighting Proficiency: 0%
Flying Proficiency: 0%
Poison Proficiency: 0%
Ground Proficiency: 0%
Rock Proficiency: 0%
Bug Proficiency: 0%
Ghost Proficiency: 0%
Steel Proficiency: 0%
Fire Proficiency: 0%
Water Proficiency: 0%
Grass Proficiency: 70%
Electric Proficiency: 5%
Psychic Proficiency: 0%
Ice Proficiency: 0%
Dragon Proficiency: 0%
Dark Proficiency: 0%
Fairy Proficiency: 0%]
...Grass Proficiency? Why has my grass proficiency gone up so much?
Just as I was wondering this, the log updated again.
[Log:
Type Proficiency: Grass +1.67%
Your party defeated a wild Caterpie!]
I frowned. I hadn't just fought anything, and I definitely didn't tell Yeller to use any moves...
Oh, it must be because of that party thing. Am I getting some of the proficiency of Chee's battles? Neat that it ties into the system like tha-
I sat upright as an awful realisation hit me, and in a moment of fear I opened up the 'Completion' window for Viridian Forest.
[Viridian Forest Completion:
- Defeat Wild Pokemon (33/40)
Reward: Spawn Area Boss
- Defeat Area Boss (INCOMPLETE)
Reward: 1 PokeStatus Point, Type Proficiency: Bug +50 points]
I waited with baited breath for a few seconds, staring intently at the screen as my fears deepened. ...Maybe it's just a total count? Since I have beaten a total of 33 wild Pokemon since the system started counting...
But then, in front of my eyes...
[Viridian Forest Completion:
- Defeat Wild Pokemon (34/40)
Reward: Spawn Area Boss]
"CHEEE! CHEEE STOP RIGHT NOW!" I called, charging into the bushes after my wayward friend.
...
The camp was quiet that day. Chee had been unable to find the Pikachu after I'd involuntarily thrown it asunder, and she was horrified when I told her I was pretty sure her own battles contributed to the boss appearing.
She now sat with dead eyes on a log at a corner of the camp, repeatedly kneading the ears of the Pikachu plushie as though she hoped it would miraculously transform into a real Pikachu if she kept at it for long enough.
Since the conditions in the forest were a bit rougher, I'd pitched some tents for us to sleep in, and I was currently making my potato and meat stew in hopes of cheering Chee up a little-She'd told me it was her favourite of the meals I'd cooked so far.
Even so, the silence in the camp was almost unbearable. Even though Chee was mute, there was a tangible difference in the air from her lacking enthusiasm.
Quietly I poured a bowl of the soup, and I very carefully placed it on Yeller's head. The Rattata understood his mission, and with tiny step after tiny step, he balanced the bowl on his head while walking around and in front of Chee.
Lifelessly, she accepted the bowl from the Rattata and sipped away at it for a few moments. She remained completely still, aside from the occasional bite of food.
After a few minutes, she set the bowl down to her left. Staring blankly into the woods ahead.
With a sigh I went and sat down beside her, holding the bowl she'd put down out to her. "You've got to eat up. Otherwise you won't have the strength to try again tomorrow."
She accepted the bowl, but she just placed it in her lap instead. I'm not hungry.
I sighed, patting my lap as an indication to Yeller that he could come sit on it. With a small leap, he clambered onto my lap and curled up between my legs as I ate. I gently rubbed his head, focussing particularly on scratching a bit of the fur behind his big ears, a spot that I knew he loved.
"Are you really that upset we couldn't find a Kakuna?" I asked, incredulous.
She shook her head.
"Then why are you so melancholy?"
Wordlessly, Chee's gaze returned to the Pikachu plushie at her feet.
"...It's because we saw a Pikachu, but couldn't catch it, huh?"
She nodded. I stared at her sad expression for a moment, but I couldn't quite resist the urge to ask.
"Why do you love Pikachu so much?"
Chee was quiet for a moment, then she pulled up her PokeDex, sending me a message on the app.
'Yellow and black means it's safe.'
I frowned. "Typically it's seen the other way around, those colours usually denote danger."
'It is only safe when there is yellow.' The app replied. 'Having a Pikachu means I am always safe.'
I was thoughtful after that. I think I'd be lying if I said that I understood, but I could at least see a piece of her thought process. For whatever reason, Chee associates Pikachu with safety.
'You are safe too.' Chee added via the app.
"...Me? Why am I 'safe'?"
Chee turned to look at me, staring directly into my eyes. Yellow.
Ah, I thought, realising why. My eyes are Yellow. Hence I am 'safe'.
But if that was the case, perhaps there was another way to cheer her up. I stopped petting Yeller, and lifted him up with both hands. "Wanna hold him?" I asked.
Chee's eyes widened with surprise, but I didn't detect any fear. ...Are you sure?
She checked her gloves again, but she gently cradled Yeller in her arms, rubbing her cheek against his soft fur. I felt that the sadness in her face seemed to melt just a little bit.
It was tragic, really. Underneath all of her fears and doubts, I could tell that Chee genuinely loved Pokemon. I don't know why she was scared of touching them with her hands, but the way that she lovingly played with Yeller was proof to me that she wanted to be friends with them, not to live in fear.
"Listen, he may not be a Pikachu, but we have a yellow Pokemon right here." I smiled, putting a hand on her head. "If you're ever upset again, you can snuggle with Yeller until you feel better, okay?"
I met the Rattata's eyes, making sure to affirm my message. He shot me back a look that jokingly said How could you sell me out like this!? , but I knew he was just as willing to help Chee as I was.
Chee was still for a few moments, and I realised I'd probably overstepped my bounds by placing my hand on her head, and rapidly retrieved it.
The young girl put down Yeller, and finally picked up her bowl, eating the rest of her food.
She shot me a glance, and to my relief she was smiling ever so slightly. Thank you.
And then she climbed into her tent for the night, closing the tent behind her.
"Good night, Chee."