"You kids did great trying to chase after him, but leave this matter to the adults, okay? We'll make sure to catch that thief!"

I stared dumbfounded at the blonde blue-eyed soldier for a solid few moments before I caught myself.

"Ah-Yes, sir?"

"Good lad!"

The soldier gave me a hearty slap on my back, which stung just a little. I rubbed my back softly as Surge pulled the Raichu slung over his back up to his shoulder by her tail, resting her there softly.

Well, at least now I know why Blue thought I'd be able to help…

"Oh? You two don't look familiar, but you seem decently competent… Are you two Gym Challengers by any chance?"

The black-haired girl by my side nodded hyper-enthusiastically, her eyes glimmering with life-And locked on the Raichu leaning against Surge's head unsteadily.

The Raichu was a particularly plump specimen, shaped less like a healthy mouse and more like an orb with the characteristic traits of a Raichu painted onto it's surface or stuck on with sticky tape. The yellow cheek pouches, long curved ears with a yellow centre, and wire tail ending in a lightning bolt were all present, but they were muted by the sheer girth of the Pokemon.

Chee reached hesitantly towards the creature, who sniffed her hands briefly before leaning against surge again.

"Uh-Yeah, we are."

"Quiet black-haired girl, and a serious boy with a splash of white in his otherwise steel blue hair… I see! You must be the interesting pair Brock and Misty wrote about!"

He let out a hearty laugh and slapped my shoulders. "Welcome welcome! Sorry if you went to the Gym and I wasn't there, I have a lot to do about town. Did you want to go now?"

"We were waiting for a friend-"

Surge held a palm up to my face, cutting me off.

"Ah hold on, gotta do something first."

I tried to answer but the blonde man was immediately distracted, hoisting the defeated Miltank over his head with a grunt. He waltzed right past me, letting out a few huffs but not appearing slowed even with the large ball of flesh hovering over his head. His Raichu dropped to the ground and was immediately met with even more attention from Chee.

"Milton!" A voice called from back the way Chee and I had come from.

An older looking lady rushed towards the scene, nearly tumbling over her own feet.

"This your Miltank, ma'am?"

"That's my Milton…!"

Surge set the Miltank on the ground, and it leapt towards the lady, pressing it's face into her side.

"Keep a better eye on it next time, don't let some kid swipe your partner!"

"Yes! Thank you Surge…"

The man turned to us again, placing his hands on his hips. "Alright! Now, you were saying something?"

I glanced over at Chee, who was still enraptured by the Raichu, squeezing it's belly and watching it spring back into shape.

"…We were going to challenge it with a friend, but he's holed up in his room."

Surge placed his chin between his finger and thumb, nodding thoughtfully.

"Alright! Well, you could at least come do the test before the battle! Seeing what you did just before, I'm sure you two will have no problems!"

…

Without really asking for our opinions, Surge eagerly dragged us over to the Vermillion City Gym. The building led into a large open floor with smooth tiles and a handful of squares with padded floors. The squares were spacious and filled with different configurations of doll-like wooden targets, and Surge led us to a doorway at the back which led to a spacious storage room, the walls lined with racks and racks of different practice weapons.

Wooden swords, knives, axes, bows with rubber tips, spears, almost any weapon you could think of was lined up on the walls. Piles of discarded weapons were scattered across the floor space, along with protective body armour of various sizes.

"Sir…?"

I glanced around with a sense of unease. It wasn't as though I'd never seen weapons-On the contrary I'd used such things many times in my time at war. But seeing them so prominently on display in an official Gym was concerning.

"The lever's here some-Aha!"

Brushing past a pile of discarded chest pieces Surge pulled a large mechanical lever down, and the main room began to buzz to life.

Ushering us back out, I was able to see several targets emerging around the padded squares, moving around at various heights and distances.

"The test here is simple as. Take one of the weapons and, along with your Pokemon, take down 15 targets within a minute."

The targets were laid out in an array of patterns, some looking tougher than others. Some were clustered together, others were separated by a long distance, some moved around in moderately distant collections.

It's like a battlefield. I realised. There's stragglers, companies, and even hidden foes… Is that one supposed to be a sniper?

"I'm sure you kids are already strong trainers, but there's more to Pokemon battles than just using the strongest moves your Partner knows."

Surge gestured to the Raichu on his shoulder, who lazily nibbled away at a glob of peanut butter it had obtained along the way.

"You and your partner are a team. You need to find a weapon that compliments the way your partner fights, helps you support them-Or helps them support you. Once you figure that out, you'll have learned your specialisation."

Ah. We're learning specialisation already?

Specialisation, Combat Archetypes, back in my last life it was a term we'd use to describe how a trainer and their partner would fight in tandem. A Close-Range Brawler would fight up close, and could both take hits and deal damage. A Mid-Range trainer would use some form of ranged attacks without sacrificing their ability to fight up close, and so on.

Your specialisation would set you apart from others. Even trainers with the same build and the same kind of pokemon as their partner could have wildly varying specialisations. It all came down to how you and your partner fought together.

"Specialisations, I see…" I nodded thoughtfully. It did seem a little early-I hadn't learned about specialising until a fair way into my time with Red- but this was the Gym Challenge. The place for the elite trainers to learn how to fight with their pokemon.

Even if you wouldn't fight alongside your partner in a league, it would make sense to teach the most gifted trainers how to use a weapon for self defence. Perhaps this was where Red had learned too.

Chee had already wandered back into the weapons room, and seemed to be admiring the different weapons aimlessly. She had that dull misted-over look she sometimes got, making it hard to read her thoughts.

She had a good sense for things, she would probably find something that suited her without much trouble. I already knew what I'd be taking.

Without any delay, I walked over to the sidearms section and started admiring all of the short blades.

"You not gonna complain?" Surge frowned at both of us, though it seemed more a look of confusion than condemnation. "Call it a weird challenge or something?"

"It makes sense to me." I answered absentmindedly.

"Huh. Alright, you do you."

I brushed off his voice, examining the weapons carefully.

Yeller was a Close-Combat fighter, and by nature of his condition he had no choice but to be a rushdown fighter rather than a brawler. A single injury could render him unable to fight. So my tactic had always been to overwhelm my opponent with rapid attacks.

I reached my left hand out to one of the knives, lifting it into the air for a moment and taking a few swings. The weight felt right, the blade despite being made of wood mimicked the sensation of a real knife well.

Knives were a good choice for me. They were simple and easy to learn, could be used at speed, and I could use them even though I only had one arm to-

I stopped for a moment, looking at my right arm.

It wasn't gone. I still had it.

The moment I'd grasped the knife, I'd left my right arm limp. I hadn't gone *that* long without my dominant hand, had I? Yet I held the knife in my left hand.

I tilted the knife blade to the side thoughtfully.

"Come to think of it, why did I start learning to use the Knife again…?"

…

I gritted my teeth, pain stinging along my right side and reminding me of what I'd lost. Such was the nature of war, I supposed.

The platitude didn't cause the pain to subside. I could still feel the teeth digging into my flesh, cracking bone, a terrible tearing sensation, I could still hear the sickening wet pop-

I shook my head and sat up from my sleeping bag. The moonlight flittered through the flap in my tent, and without waking the others, I stepped out into the night.

The air was frosty, and I could see my own breath turn to mist in front of me from the cold. I knew it probably wasn't good to lower my body temperature, I should have stayed in the tent, but I couldn't just sit still.

The campsite was deathly quiet, which wasn't surprising.

Red's unit had been pretty successful up until now, but our engagements with the forces from Sinnoh had been far more dangerous than anything up til now. The number of friends and allies we'd lost in the last few skirmishes were unbelievable.

We'd been too arrogant. Kanto may have bested Johto in their little squabble, the scale was nothing like this. The Sinnoh forces hit faster, and harder, and the horror stories of their Champion wiping out entire squadrons singlehandedly only seemed to multiply with each passing week.

In a few weeks, we would probably have to fight her ourselves. If we didn't have Red on our side, that thought alone would terrify me.

As I trudged through the campsite, I heard a few wooden impacts from the south, and thoughtlessly began to wander in that direction.

After a few moments wandering, I saw a spindly man dressed in red and black. His red jacket flittered in the cold breeze, as he slammed his gloved hands directly into the base of a tree. Each impact made a sharp impact, like the sound of an axe cutting wood.

"Red? You're still training?"

The pale man jolted in surprise, whirling around to face me with fists at the ready. His signature red cap shaded his face, making it hard to make out the details, but the glow from his crimson pupils made it easy to tell who it was.

His eyes met mine, and I could tell what he was thinking.

'Cyan.' His eyes and posture relaxed. 'You startled me… Why are you still up?'

I gestured with the stump of my right arm, tied with a bandage to keep from bleeding. "Can't sleep."

Red shook his head, then locked eyes with me, his arms crossed across his boney waist. 'Fine, since you are here, I will redo your bandage.'

We sat a short distance apart on a felled tree, as Red kept my arm under pressure and undid my bandage. His fingers pricked at my shoulder, skilfully washing the bloody stump before applying a new bandage.

"Taking a serious injury like this… Some commander I make, huh?"

Red glanced up at me blandly, looking at me as if I were stupid.

'Your squad are still alive. The same cannot be said of many others.'

"I got arrogant because you'd been teaching us. That almost got us killed."

'And you sacrificed your arm to make sure you could all get away.'

Red pulled the bandage taut, then sealed it off with some medical tape. Setting the supplies aside, he got up and walked over to the injured tree he had been facing before.

We sat in silence for several minutes, as I simply watched Red land various blows on the tree with his fists and his feet. In fact, as the time went on, I began to almost feel sorry for the tree.

"Hey Red, you told us in training that we need to pick a specialisation. How did you pick yours?"

The capped figure paused for a moment, then lowered his fists.

'Pick something that works with your pokemon.'

He cupped his Pokeballs between his fingers, then swung his arm outward. Three beams of light resolved into the red scaly figure of a charizard, the armoured blue and brown figure of a Blastoise, and the leafy green quadruped Venusaur.

'My partners are slow but incredibly powerful. Charizard is the fastest, but even he is bulky and sluggish compared to smaller Pokemon. But they all have a decent range of attacks and area control.'

The brass knuckles on Red's hands glimmered as he held them up for me to see.

'I chose to be a nimble fighter to maximise on the area control these three give me, and cover for their inability to chase down small targets. Since I need to wrangle their Pokeballs often, I didn't want to keep my fingers occupied. This is what I came up with.'

I nodded as if I understood.

'Though honestly…' Red rested a palm against the Venusaur, which nuzzled the hand affectionately. 'I wish I had a bit more flexibility in style. Back when this one was just an Ivysaur, I had an idea… But no, it's too late now.'

"Something that suits Yeller, huh…"

There was a short pause, before Red drew a knife from his pocket, complete with sheath, and tossed it to me. I clumsily caught it in my left hand, holding the weapon with confusion.

"Sir?"

'Of the weapons you can still use, this one should suit you the best. Your partner is best at rushing in and attacking the enemy at speed. Take advantage of their panic, sneak up on them, and cut their head off.'

I pulled the knife from it's sheath… It was a beautiful blade, deadly sharp, and with an ornate pattern along the base.

"It's beautiful."

…

That's right…

I'd started training with the Knife because it was easy, time was short, and because I'd already lost an arm. I'd used it to aid Yeller in putting pressure on the opponent, but that hadn't work against Cynthia.

When we faced the Champion of Sinnoh, yeller hadn't had the opportunity to escape. My knife had been no use in defending him, and the pressure hadn't been enough to stop Cynthia or her partner from finishing him off.

It hadn't been enough to kill her by surprise, either.

If my blade had been a bit longer, perhaps…

But no. The only reason my attack had worked was because I'd surprised her. A sword would take longer to draw and swing, and the range wouldn't have been enough if she had time to react.

Although I felt conflicted, I did still have experience with knives and so I hooked a decent-feeling one by my waist. I turned to look at other weapons and nearly jumped out of my skin in surprise as I found myself face-to-face with Chee.

Are knives good? She tilted her head at me.

"Um, they, can be?"

The black-haired girl nodded thoughtfully, scanning over the knives with her silver eyes. After a few moments, she turned her gaze back to me.

'K, I'll use knives then.

"Sheesh…" I let out a breath to calm my nerves, rubbing my shoulder tenderly. Seeing Chee sneak up on me like that reminded me of the games of 'Forest Ball' we'd played back at Oak's lab, how she'd appear from seemingly nowhere and pelt me with rubber balls…

"Chee. Have you thought about using throwing weapons?"

The black-haired girl was carelessly handling a blunted wooden dagger, and she tilted her head at me. Throwing weapons?

"You're good at moving quickly and quietly. I think they'd suit you. Why not try them out too?"

She nodded at me with a smile.

Alright! If you say so!

I left her to it, wandering over to pick up an axe and hold it appraisingly. An axe would be an aggressive weapon, more focussed on landing a killing blow than any semblance of my own safety… But unfortunately even though I was strong for my age, the axes were sluggish and heavy.

No good. I'd never keep up with Yeller this way. Hammers will probably have the same problem…

I set the axe aside and examined the swords instead. These and the daggers would be most similar to the knives I already had experience using, but neither called out to me. They couldn't be concealed as easily as a knife, and what benefits they did have didn't appeal to me. There were longer swords with larger handles which could channel more power, but they would be far too unwieldy.

Yeller, what do you think?

I glanced down to my partner, who shrugged his little rodent shoulders at me with indifference. He probably didn't even really understand what the difference would be.

[Guardian:

"I recommend a spear."]

I blinked a few times at the sudden appearance of the system window. The Guardian rarely spoke up unprompted.

Why a spear? Actually, can you even help me with this?

[Guardian:

"If I couldn't help to guide you I wouldn't be much of a guardian. But I digress."]

There was a pause, then the next message.

[Guardian:

"Your Pokemon is fast and powerful. A spear would allow you to cover their attacks and keep your opponent from retaliating without putting yourself at great risk. A bow would be an alternative option."]

I lifted a spear from the wall, gauging how it felt in my hands. I gave it a few swings, a few thrusts. My range was significantly further than I expected, even with my clumsy attacks.

Certainly, I can see how this could be useful…

I could picture Yeller landing a blow and backing away, only for me to step in and deflect counterattacks with the blade on the end, there was merit to the idea, but…

It's way too long. I can't conceal it, and if I shorten the staff it loses it's potency. I see some potential, but it still doesn't feel quite right…

Yes, I could see potential for covering Yeller, but spear combat was all about zoning, keeping the perfect distance and poking within that range. While I could help cover Yeller at that range, if an opponent broke past Yeller and charged at me, I'd have almost no recourse.

If the enemy got close to me, we'd lose. That's antithetical to Yeller's style, and I've always fought by staying close to Yeller.

I set the spear back against the wall.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[Guardian:

"You will have to pick something."]

I know.

"Spending a lot of time thinking about it, huh?"

Surge called over to me, arm raised as he jogged to my side.

"I can't decide, sir."

I instinctively answered formally.

"Hey, I'm not going to rush you. A lot of kids just immediately grab random swords because they think swords are cool. It's good to see you two taking things seriously."

I nodded.

"You've got plenty of time, why not try a few different options? Sometimes you won't know what weapon is right for you until you've tried it yourself."

"I'll think about it for now. Maybe Blue will have suggestions."

Surge straightened a little. "Ah… Your friend who locked himself away is Blue?"

I shot a glance up at the muscular man, who looked the tiniest bit sheepish.

"You remember him?"

"Of course I do." Surge sighed deeply. "You know, my Gym has a pretty bad clear rate. A lot of trainers never complete it. Some of the other leaders like to mock me saying that only trainers who can beat the whole course will pass my Gym Challenge."

…Come to think of it, even in my last life, most of the trainers with Gym Badges I'd met had one or two badges at most. The main exception I could think of was Red, who had a full eight. Though he'd never taken the official test to become a champion, his level of strength was leagues beyond the one or two badge trainers.

"Most kids just give up after a few tries, or at least take breaks to strategise. I'm not going to go easy, that defeats the point, but…"

I raised an eyebrow at Surge, confused.

"What do you mean?"

Surge let out a huff and turned his face away.

"I feel a little guilty beating a kid 28 times in a row. I think I might've crushed his spirit a little…"

"Twenty-"

I sputtered. I figured Blue had tried and failed to defeat Surge a few times, but TWENTY-EIGHT?

"He just kept challenging me. He didn't seem to understand why he couldn't beat me."

Surge shook his head in dismay.

"I hope he's taken some time to reflect. If he keeps trying the same strategy, he's not going to get anywhere."

I turned and immediately left the weapons room.

"Kid?"

"Gotta do something. Show Chee how to use her throwing weapons while I'm gone."

The pieces were clicking into place. I knew Blue had been in an odd way ever since we reunited in Cerulean City. Now I finally understood why.

Blue was a genius, I'd seen that first-hand. He'd probably never encountered a wall he couldn't overcome with a little effort before. If I left things as they were before, he'd probably abandon the challenge here and go home.

In my last life, Red had ended up with both Squirtle and Bulbasaur. If Chee never left on her Gym Challenge, and Blue abandoned his here and went home, they would both have been killed in the Tauros Stampede, leading Red to adopt their partners.

Blue may be arrogant, rude, and hard to get along with, but his potential-His skill, was the real deal. His advice had already been of great help to me.

I won't let you quit here, Blue!

This chapter is just a little special to me.

The Raichu, Rai, is loosely based on my pet mouse of the same name. She was an adorable and fat mouse whom I loved dearly.

You may have noticed I said 'was' and not 'is'... Because she passed away on the 28th of July this year.

I won't go into too much detail, but in memory of my pet mouse I've imprinted some of her characteristics and behaviours onto Surge's Raichu. (Don't worry, I didn't swing her by her tail like he does)

If anyone would like to see pictures of her, I'll post them on my discord in the chapter discussion. (I was going to post them here, but I remembered some people are scared of mice and didn't wanna jump-scare anyone)

On a more positive note, this chapter includes a beefy Red flashback and some more world-building in the form of specialisations! I've had this idea hanging about for a while without being totally sure how to express it. I think it makes sense that in war-time, trainers and pokemon would fight side by side, even if trainers can't shoot bolts of lightning from their fingertips.

Er, most of them anyway.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! See you next week.