When Hogoki arrived with his team in Lavender Town, he noticed a strange feeling everywhere as he walked about its streets: sadness. The colors of the townscape were faded and dreary, the townspeople's expressions appeared somber, and there was an uncanny silence about the air which even smelled of longing and loss.
It was a little painful to experience, frankly, but that just meant he'd have to heal up fast and head to Saffron immediately...
"Hoooogooookiiii...!"
...is what he would have said, but that rapidly approaching voice meant one thing: He wouldn't have time to feel sad now as he got swept into a tackle hug from behind, flailing as he tried to escape.
"Wha– Tenshou, what are you–?!"
"I'm greeting ya, of course!"
Eventually, after a few more seconds of flailing, he went limp, a bead of sweat going down his face as he sighed a little... and suddenly felt her let go right when he'd accepted his fate?
"It's great to see you too, Foccai!" Said Popplio was excitedly barking in greeting as she cheerfully turned to a certain Shaymin. "Hanako! He actually managed to catch ya– O-Oh, good to see you, Kwaru..." She seemed a little nervous to see the Ducklett doing his best security camera impression at her.
At that point, the two children began walking together for whatever reason, Tenshou leading the way.
"So, what brought ya here to Lavender Town? That kid from Johto ever show up again?" Tenshou asked cheerfully, looking behind her.
"Yui? She never showed up, nope... I'm here on the way to Saffron."
Tenshou looked surprised. "You haven't seen her since?" She then proceeded to talk to herself for a moment. "...Maybe... No, no, she'll come back, they always do... Can't shatter her dreams when that happens..."
"...Tenshou?"
"Huh?" She blinked with a slightly startled expression.
"What're you talking about?" Hogoki asked with a confused look.
A strangely nervous Tenshou picked her next words carefully while looking away. "...I-It's nothing! Maybe she went back to Johto?"
"...Maybe that's what happened, yeah... But besides that, what brought you here?"
She quickly returned to her usual cheerful self. "I wanna catch a ghost type at the tower! They don't die, after all, right?"
Hogoki seemed to hesitate for a moment while Foccai looked worried. "...Right, right!"
"Ya sound nervous..."
"I'm not nervous at all... In fact, I think I'll help ya out!"
He was totally nervous.
Tenshou suddenly grew excited. "Really?! Then let's go now! The tower's this way!" She then began running off after grabbing Hogoki's arm–
"Hey, hey, not so fast...!"
Yeah, he didn't like that too much, but what could he do?
Eventually, they got to the tower. Stepping in, Hogoki found the air to suddenly grow thick, and he felt uneasy as they both looked around.
Tenshou seemed oblivious to it, though. "There should be plenty of ghost-types in here... This place is always full of 'em... Like that Gastly behind ya, Hogoki!"
Said boy immediately froze up, his eyes going wide as he turned around to see the Gastly.
The ghost proceeded to make a face, and Hogoki yelped before hiding behind a confused Tenshou as the gas being began laughing.
"...What's with you today?"
"G-Ghost types, that's what...!" Foccai was dying inside presently.
Tenshou began laughing before giving him a pat on the back. "Don't worry about that, it's just messin' with ya!"
"...Well, even if they are, we've gotta battle 'em to catch 'em, so... Eevee, Tackle it!"
The brown fox thing immediately excitedly jumped at the laughing ghost...
...only to phase through it while it continued to be in hysterics.
Hogoki shivered while Eevee just blinked, and then the Gastly vanished into thin air, so he began looking around before visibly relaxing with a sigh.
"Thank goodness it's gone–"
And then it reappeared right in front of him while making a bizarre face.
"GYAAAAAAAAH!"
Tenshou and Hogoki's entire party just stared at the sight with sweatdrops on their foreheads.
By the time they'd gotten higher up in the tower, Hogoki was shaking. "...I'm really second guessing being here right now–"
He felt a couple pokes on his back and yelped while turning around to see two Haunter that began laughing while he let out a short scream again. By now, Foccai had died inside enough to nearly be an actual ghost himself as the Haunter disappeared.
Tenshou tried to help at that point, putting her hands on Hogoki's shoulders. "Look, Hogoki, you're a really strong trainer to get this far, so you can handle these ghosts just fine..."
Hogoki's breathing slowed back down to something more calm before he sighed. "...Maybe you're right, yeah. I fought Erika with water types and won, I somehow beat Surge without Kwaru getting hurt, and Kwaru beat Koga by himself..." He looked more cheerful now. "...Yeah, I'll be fine, won't I? These ghost types aren't gonna be that dangerous–"
And then he was interrupted by an upside-down Gengar floating downwards in front of him, and he immediately freaked out again.
"As soon as I become Champion or something...!"
"Don't run away on me now!" Tenshou said, having to restrain him from behind as Foccai faceflippered and Kwaru laughed at them.
Eventually, they reached the top floor. Hogoki was muttering to himself with a frantic look on his face as he took hesitant steps anywhere and everywhere. And then he remembered. "...Wait, weren't we here to catch something?"
"...Oh, right!"
Hanako sighed as everyone else looked at Tenshou incredulously.
Hogoki eventually sighed himself and then began looking around. "Well, now's as good a time as any to do that and get outta here– W-Wait a second, that looks like..." He froze up again.
"...Another ghost?"
"That's a Mimikyu... Ya never see those in Kanto..." He looked a little serious for once now as he looked to Kwaru, who just kinda waddled into position to fight as the Mimikyu growled at them. "...Looks like we're gonna have to battle it."
Tenshou simply looked confused. "...Why so brave all of a sudden?"
"If I don't fight this one, we're gonna have a problem..."
Well, they began to have a problem right about then. Namely, the Mimikyu beginning to send a barrage of Shadow Balls at them, and not just Kwaru; Hanako had to dodge a few attacks and immediately began Razor Leafing at the clothed spirit.
"Kwaru, Water Gun this thing outta here!"
The Ducklett immediately sent a torrent of water out at the ghost, but it resisted getting blown away, the cloth breaking a little to make Mimikyu's head somewhat limp. Then our waterfowl had to dodge more Shadow Balls as the costumed monster dodged a Quick Attack from Hanako.
"...Say, Hogoki, what's under that thing's rag?" Tenshou asked curiously.
"Nothing we wanna see!"
"It's something I wanna see, though!"
Hogoki got distracted by that and immediately had a face of what the fuck at Tenshou's comment. "Th-That's a really bad idea, Tenshou–"
"I'm gonna look!" she proclaimed.
"No, wait, Tenshou, you'll–"
"Time to learn somethin' new...!"
He could only look away as she ran towards the now frantic Mimikyu and snatched off its rag...
...But he didn't hear a scream or a fall or anything?
In fact, he heard something strange, like a whimpering.
"...Huh... that's what ya really are?"
...Tenshou was alright?
Maybe it was a good idea to look back, then...
Hogoki then found himself shocked.
What was under the rag was a transparent, ghostly Clefairy. Said Clefairy was noticeably panicking, trying not to cry, and seeming generally upset.
But Hanako walked over and began emitting a certain scent that helped calm the Clefairy down, and she began talking to it as Tenshou, Hogoki, and the other party members watched.
After a few minutes, a seemingly serious Kwaru waddled over to join the exchange, and soon, the Clefairy nodded calmly and began fading until it was no longer in sight...
They found themselves speechless for a moment until Hogoki broke the silence.
"...That Clefairy seemed happy at the end of that."
"Wha–? How could you tell?"
"I dunno, just a feeling..."
With that, they began heading downwards, unbothered by the ghosts now as they made to exit the tower.
Tenshou commented on the entire situation around the bottom. "...I'm glad whatever happened here happened, but I still kinda wish I'd caught something... and it looks like not even the ghosts are safe, yeah?"
"I dunno if that was an ordinary ghost-type..."
"...Right! I'll have better luck next time I try to catch one!" Then her expression softened a little. "...But for now, I've gotta go back to Celadon. Everyone's probably waiting for me there, y'know?"
"Right! And I've gotta head to Saffron finally..." For some reason, he didn't want to leave just yet, though. ...Probably exhaustion from all the ghosts.
"...Well, see ya, Hogoki. Come visit Celadon sometimes, will ya? There's a lot to enjoy there, and you were only there a few days."
Hogoki nodded. "I'll head there as soon as I'm done with my League challenge!"
...With that, they parted ways.
And with that, Hogoki and his motley crew of Foccai, Kwaru, Hanako, and Eevee went onward towards Saffron City.
—
On Route 8 on the way to Saffron, Hogoki and his party heard barking. When they walked ahead in the direction of it, they encountered something unexpected: About eight Growlithe running around a house, who proceeded to excitedly start running at them to tackle them.
Well, it went a little differently. Hogoki got tackled and licked, to his surprise, but Foccai went directly to the dog himself and got a face full of Flamethrower (he was covered in soot afterwards), Kwaru flew up to avoid the dog who ran into a tree as the duck laughed at it and Foccai, Hanako started using Quick Attack to run as a chase began, and Eevee nearly tackled the dog to battle it but missed.
Before long, an old man exited the house and ran over to them. "Hey, kid! Hope you don't mind the attention of my Growlithe — they're quick to get excited."
"That's alright, I'm used to this kinda thing by now..." Hogoki replied. He tried getting off the ground and somehow managed it since the dog wasn't on him now, only for Kwaru to perch on his head.
"Would you like to rest a bit in my house? You and your team look tired."
"We haven't really stopped since before Lavender... so sure thing!"
"Then feel free to come inside as long as you need to," the man replied, gesturing to the open door.
With that, Hogoki and his Pokemon walked in followed by the man and his dog fleet, and the Pokemon immediately started playing while Hogoki and the old man sat down.
"So, why do you have so many Growlithe?" Hogoki asked calmly.
Yes, actually calmly, he isn't a wizard.
The old man took a long breath in. "Well, you see, it began with my wife. She had a Growlithe, and she decided she'd give it to me when she left me. Then the doggone thing got lonely, so I decided I'd find some Growlithe off the streets of Saffron, and there ya go, eight Growlithe, one owner. Can't stop with it now."
"...How do you feed 'em all?"
"Big retirement account, lemme tell ya. Darn things are gonna outlive me on that."
"We usually live off of berries..." Quack. "And bread when we've got it."
"A gym challenger then, are ya? Well, I'm hoping I'm not holding up your training..."
"You're not at all, we needed a rest! ...Except for this one, she never seems to." Eevee sounds.
The old man laughed. "Well then, it's about time you help her train a little, isn't it? I'd like to watch."
Hogoki immediately got up and nodded excitedly. "Right! Then let's go, everyone!"
Foccai and Kwaru sighed before looking at and slapping each other as Hanako and Eevee led them out.
With that, they began training outside. The Growlithe breathing fire into the air randomly as Eevee practiced her moves... on Hogoki?
"Alright, just tackle me as hard as you can–" He got tackled hard enough to fall over from the fox thing's impact. "...Nice one, almost as strong as the last two tackles I got..."
"Is this how you normally train?"
"Yep!"
"...Mew help this boy. I'm a training fanatic myself, but not quite at that level of experimenting..."
He looked confused at the man's woes before he noticed Eevee trying to mimic a Growlithe's Flamethrower... leading to a somewhat cute roar attempt and then a coughing fit.
Everyone looked like they had secondhand embarrassment there.
But eventually, the training ended, and Hogoki began rallying the team to leave. "Alright, Foccai, the map's saying we go this way, right? ...The opposite way? ...Left?" Bwark. "Oh, right... Kwaru, Hanako, we're ready to lea–"
He immediately stopped when he saw Eevee. She was looking towards the Growlithe house, visibly hesitating to leave, and he got the feeling that... perhaps she didn't want to?
Come to think of it, she'd been playing and battling with the Growlithe quite a lot...
...Kwaru looked at him, and instead of being himself, the duck quacked while nodding.
"...Is it really alright to do that?"
Quack.
"...Right." He nodded before turning to the old man, breathing, and explaining the situation. "...I think Eevee wants to stay with you and your Growlithe. Could be to train more, could be to fight them, could be some other thing..."
"I'm happy to take her in if you'd like me to," the man replied. "She's quite the energetic thing with a lot of potential, so I'd train her myself as well."
"...Guess that's that, then." He took a ball off of his belt as a teary eyed Kwaru was quacking something to Eevee. "Take good care of her, alright?"
"You have my word, son."
...It still didn't feel good to give Eevee to him for now, but he knew it was for the best.
"Then I'll leave her to you. I'll come back after I've challenged the league so she can rejoin us."
He turned to Eevee and began to tear up a little himself...
"...You keep on fighting like you did when I was training you, yeah? I'll be back in a few months."
By now, Foccai and Hanako had started to tear up, too, and Kwaru was bawling for some reason as Eevee had begun to tear up, though she seemed happy.
"...Let's go, guys. I'll see you soon, Eevee."
With that, Hogoki began running towards Saffron City, his Pokemon in tow as their journey continued on.
...He'd miss that Eevee. He already did, in fact, and he'd just left.
Onward to Saffron at last, at least.