Parks were easy to find, in Autumna. That didn't exactly fly in the face of her knowledge of her first world's Tokyo; her home city had certainly had its fair share of parks and other natural places for people to go and waste their time. She was sure that most if not all of them were clearly marked on maps and signage.
They were not, however, easy to find. Not compared to Autumna, anyway, where you could hardly go three blocks without finding yourself in one. Tanya had found herself in a park accidentally, twice, during her work for her former employer, and there were three within walking distance of the docks she'd worked at. They weren't quite as prevalent in downtown Autumna… but Tanya would never have expected to accidentally pass one on her way home in Tokyo. In Autumna, she could.
However, finding a park was the first step in what was quickly becoming a process. A process that had flown from trivial right past tedious, and was now beginning to border on strenuous.
Needless to say, Tanya had not been expecting locating a park to be the hardest part of training her Pokemon.
Still, this one was looking to be what she wanted. It wasn't just a well-manicured lawn or a line of concrete directing people through an area meant only for admiring nature and not practicing battling, there was a grotto of shaded trees, shrubs, and grasses that would serve to conceal her from nosy passersby or eager trainers, there weren't other trainers already there, and it was close enough to where she currently lived and the places she was likely to live in the near future that she could use the location to practice privately without having to allocate too much time to traveling between it and her home.
She gave it one more glance, checking for wild Pokemon. She didn't doubt that there were at least a handful in the trees and in the grass off of the barely-visible path that led into the grotto, but as long as none of them jumped out at her…
She stood stock still for a few moments more, and when nothing tried to challenge her, she nodded to herself once. "Alright," she said with a glance at her shoulder, "Get off."
It did as she'd asked, and she walked towards a tree across the clearing, her hands and eyes drifting down to her satchel. "I think this is a good enough place for us to train."
"WEEEE!"
A very familiar cry interrupted her action, and it was only over two months of intermittent dueling that she knew to leap out of the way when that cry was followed by the sound of whistling air.
Her bag discarded, she rolled, and Weedle soared over her head and into the tree she'd been about to use. She scowled at him from her position on the ground and opened her mouth.
He didn't let her talk, launching itself again. Tanya rolled once more, and then sprang up out of the roll as he landed in the dirt. "Weedle-"
He launched itself again, and Tanya dodged to the side, not even bothering to roll as the purple light launched from his horn sailed past her, closely followed by her Pokemon. She rolled her eyes-
Then she glared at the Weedle that was readying itself for another attack. She didn't need to look at her foot to know that she'd just stepped into some String Shot. When he had shot it, she wasn't sure, but-
He shot three more Poison Sting attacks at her, but she only had to put effort into dodging the third, stepping to the left as far as she could and then leaning farther away. She merely raised an eyebrow at the Pokemon. "Really? This is the best you can do?"
He chittered angrily again and then tried leaping at her once more. He wasn't using an attack, really – Weedle could learn Tackle as an Egg Move, but her Weedle only had the standard two – but he didn't really need an attack to put an eye out with one of his horns.
Unfortunately for him, his aim was atrocious, so all she had to do was confirm that he was sailing through the air straight for her head instead of somewhere smarter, like her trapped foot, duck below it, and then undo the laces of her boots to free herself.
She turned around and began running for the tree the Weedle had just sprung from. She turned sharply, eyeing him over a tree branch. She grabbed it and grinning viciously at him – hopefully, he would interpret her smile as a threat display.
Once again, he chose to launch himself at her instead of sitting back and shooting Poison Stings from a distance. As he was an animal, she had little hope she'd be able to teach him complex strategies or tactics, but hopefully she could teach him not to fight unwinnable battles…
She pulled the tree branch she was grabbing back as he launched himself, and then she let it fly forward.
TWACK!
The Bug-type went flying to the other side of the grotto. On the other hand, perhaps she wouldn't disabuse him of his suicidal notions. If she wanted him to sacrifice himself so she might save herself at some point, a suicidal streak certainly wouldn't hurt.
She watched the insect slowly roll over and shake his head. "Stop," she commanded. "I'd like to actually teach. If you need me to beat you down some more, however…" she mused aloud.
For a moment, she thought he might actually try to fight her again. Then, when neither of them moved, he curled up. Tanya grinned and walked out from behind the tree. "Good. Maybe we can get some actual training-"
He jerked up again, his front horn glowing purple. "Wait!" Tanya shouted. The glow faded, and Tanya sighed. "I won't be saying that word again," she muttered to herself.
Obviously, he'd come to associate that word with fighting her. Was that her fault? She couldn't exactly recall every word she'd said in his presence. Perhaps she'd mentioned how fighting him was training for her sessions with Ikube?
She shook her head, and then considered her next words carefully. "No more training. Practice." She would keep her words and commands as simple as she could. No doubt she would just confuse him if she tried to convey anything particularly complex… or multisyllabic.
He just stared at her with his beady, unblinking- no, wait, he just blinked at her. Did… insects have eyelids? No, flies cleaned their eyes with their legs, right?
She fought the urge to shake her head – she had no desire to confuse him – and discarded the thought. She turned and walked to her discarded bag and picked up some of the things she'd been trying to get out before her Pokemon had attacked her.
While the Weedle's preferred method for growing thus far seemed to be 'battling' her, that was not a state of affairs that would last for long. He would outpace her by a wide margin in both agility and speed when he evolved into Beedrill.
Neither would continued practice with her be good for battling. While there were a wide range of rulesets dictating how a battle was to be conducted, she did not imagine she would be participating in any where targeting the opposing trainer was allowed…
She paused as she rose back to her full height.
Actually…
A grin began to grow on her face as she walked towards one of the trees. The words of the posts and articles describing Beedrill floated in her mind's eye as she began to affix the items she'd grabbed from her bag to the tree.
Beedrill did not excel as one-on-one fighters, yet their species still existed despite its deficiencies in that regard. Beedrill fought as a swarm, claiming territory and driving out competition. If something, be it a different Pokemon species, humans, or even Beedrill from another hive, intruded in their territory, they would swarm. Some would faint, yes, but, inevitably, the sheer number of Beedrill – of three-foot tall bees with foot-long lances for hands – would push back invaders, leaving the hive, its honey, and its young safe.
The average final-stage Pokemon was unlikely to lose to a Beedrill of similar level, in a one-on-one fight. Despite their decent Attack stat, they were far too frail on the physical side and lacked the speed to really excel at fighting that way.
But against a human?
Tanya chuckled as she finished with the last target. While targeting an opposing trainer might not be advisable in any League-sanctioned battle in Kanto, pulling an unorthodox move like sending her Pokemon after an opposing trainer might just save her hide if Interpol were to track her down and attempt to detain her.
Beedrill were weak, yes, but they were weak for a Pokemon. If she distracted whoever was trying to capture her by pretending to battle fairly, she was sure that even a Beedrill could catch an unwary human off-guard, put a hole through their head, and then escape with her afterwards.
Where she would escape to was an open question, but she would have the option.
She turned to her Weedle, appraising him in a new light.
She stepped to the side, and gestured at the paper targets she'd tied to the tree. "Practice. Targets," she said, gesturing to them.
Perhaps she would continue to 'train' with him, but for now, she needed to help him increase his accuracy. Today, they'd focus on Poison Sting.
According to her Pokedex App, Poison Sting had 100% accuracy. Despite that fact, Tanya had literally never been hit by it, barring the single time she'd wanted to get hit by it so she could pummel the Weedle into submission. She'd poked the word accuracy on the display for that move and been given an explanation of how it was calculated.
When an attacker and a defender were roughly the same level, and the defender wasn't trying to dodge, the move hit every time.
She supposed that, since commanding a Pokemon to dodge was not legal in all rulesets, especially those used by children, displaying the accuracy for the lowest common denominator made some kind of sense. Regardless, she'd changed the settings of the app and been shown that, if a defender was told to dodge an attack, the accuracy plummeted into the fifties.
Tanya would say she had higher 'stats' than a foot-long insect, which meant the accuracy fell even lower.
Despite all of that, when she'd been partially immobilized, she hadn't really had to worry about two of his attacks. Such a low accuracy was not a state of affairs she was going to tolerate any longer.
A higher level and experience would help to alleviate that problem. So would training… or, as she'd said earlier, practice.
She held up one of her hands. According to her Pokemon's physical, he had a Sassy nature. According to her own experience, a proverbial carrot was a good way to induce obedience in trainees. According to a number of websites about the basics of training Pokemon for battling, a baked bun called a poffin was a good way to reward your Pokemon. According to Ichigo, her Weedle's Sassy nature meant it liked bitter flavors and disliked sweet ones – a possible reason he had left his hive was that he disliked the honey gathered there, apparently, though there were a dozen other reasons he had texted the truth was equally likely to be.
Regardless, the baked good in her hand caught the Pokemon's attention immediately. "You should have at least twenty Poison Sting power points left," she muttered under her breath.
She cleared her throat. "Hit targets. Get treat."
He stared between her and the treat and the targets, practically vibrating. She stepped a bit more to the side, wondering what he was waiting for.
She opened her mouth to belittle him, as she would any other trainee, when she remembered an important step. Right.
"Use Poison Sting."
His eyes snapped to the targets and he did manage to hit one, despite his lackluster abilities thus far. It wasn't in the center… but that would come later.
Getting him used to following her commands was vital. Building up a pavlovian response, where he associated her with positives – getting stronger, eating good, sleeping comfortably – would ensure his loyalty.
She allowed herself to smile. "Good. Again, Poison Sting!"
-OxOxO-
Tanya waved her phone at the sensor on the door to her apartment. The Weedle's practice had gone much better than she'd expected it to, in all honesty. They'd had to pause in the middle so Tanya could run to a nearby grocery store to snag a few leppa berries, but she'd been able to move from letting him choose his own targets to directing his fire. The Poison Stings still weren't hitting the center of the targets, but she was happy enough with his obedience to her directions to give him a few of the poffins anyway.
Of course, after she'd given him the first one, he hadn't wanted to stop training, but she had no desire to wear him out – or stay out past sundown.
She pushed through the door. "Evening, Angela," she said to the woman manning the front desk. She waved back absently, and then shook her head. "Tanya! You're back late. Are you alright?"
Tanya nodded. "Of course. I just finished my first day of training Weedle," she said. She refused to count her abortive attempts to do so yesterday as training.
Angela chuckled. "I still can't believe you finally caught it…" she trailed off for a moment, and then, with an appraising look in her eyes, she asked, "Would you like a battle?"
Tanya grimaced. She had been asked at a few of the other parks she'd visited for much the same. Those, she'd been able to turn down relatively easily, explaining to the more insistent trainers that she was new to Pokemon training, or that she only had one Pokemon, or that she didn't have any badges.
Angela would still understand, but-
"Hey," she said when Tanya didn't respond, "don't sweat it if you don't want to. I just thought I'd offer. Did you already battle someone?"
Tanya shook her head. Well, practice was best done in a low stakes environment, and a battle against an acquaintance at a time when no one else was going to watch was about as low stakes as it got.
"Sure, we can battle. Don't expect much from us, though," Tanya said as she took Weedle's ball from her belt. Angela grinned and got up from behind the desk and walked towards the door across from the entrance.
She pushed the door that opened to the small, ratty battlefield that sat at the center of the complex. "Hey, you know me. This is just Poochie's exercise. You shouldn't expect a lot from us either! Just a bit of fun, eh?"
She took her position at the other end of the field and sent out her Pokemon. The gray-coated dog-hyena Pokemon materialize in a flash of light… curled up on the field. It yawned and looked over at Angela dolefully.
"C'mon, you lug. It's exercise time!"
It yapped once and then rose, stretching. Tanya sent out her own Pokemon. "What ruleset should we use?" Tanya asked.
Angela waved a hand flippantly. "Standard. I don't think you're Weedle will last too long if we go with Simplified."
Tanya nodded once. She thought that she wouldn't last long regardless, but being able to tell her Weedle to dodge would allow him to survive that much longer.
"We start after I say one?" Tanya offered. Angela nodded, and she grinned encouragingly at her Pokemon. "You can do it Poochie!"
It woofed. Tanya looked down at her Weedle. Speeches and words of encouragement weren't the best way to motivate people in her experience, and she doubted her own Pokemon would understand anything complex. Still, if she was going to be a trainer, that meant conforming to people's expectations so as to not attract undue attention.
"Fight hard. You'll lose, but do good enough, and you'll get another treat," she settled on.
At the very least, he recognized the word treat. The Weedle chittered at the Poochyena, and Tanya began the countdown.
"Three… two… one!"
"Tackle!" Angela commanded.
"Dodge!"
The Poochyena shot forward, and her Weedle dodged to the right as it charged past. Her Weedle quickly turned back around as the Poochyena stumbled. "Poison Sting," Tanya said. A purple glow surrounded his front horn and shot towards the Pokemon.
The attack hit the Pokemon's side, and the hyena barely seemed to notice. Tanya nodded in response. That attack had barely done any damage, then.
"Tackle again!" Angela called out. It charged, and Tanya waited.
Victory was impossible, but she'd expected as much. If she was having this battle to get a feel for how battles in the future would be, it was important that she understood how her Pokemon, her subordinate, acted.
The Poochyena charged forward, but Weedle didn't do anything. He just sat there, watching as it came closer and closer to hitting him.
"Dodge," Tanya said. He immediately did so, springing away. Again, their opponent missed, though only barely this time. "Poison Sting," Tanya called, though she wasn't really focused on the battle.
Weedle could have dodged that attack much earlier, but he hadn't. Was he already loyal to her?
She shook her head as the Poison Sting connected again. No, he probably just wanted another poffin.
The Poochyena growled threateningly as it was hit – perhaps it had done a bit more damage? – but it hardly seemed to have slowed due to the damage. Angela was scowling. "Hey," she asked, suddenly speaking to Tanya, "do you mind if I look at his moves? I know he's got another one, but I always forget it."
Tanya shrugged. "Sure. Should we pause the battle?"
She didn't respond as she became absorbed in her phone, and Tanya shrugged. "String Shot."
"Dodge it!" Angela shouted, still not looking up. The String Shot twirled through the air, chasing after the running dog, and Tanya sighed. She'd have to teach him how to lead his moves.
"There it is!" Angela cried. The Poochyena paused and then yelped as the String Shot finally landed on it. Weedle cut off his attack as the Pokemon tried to disentangle itself.
Angela put away her phone and pointed at Weedle. "Shake it off and use Bite!"
The Pokemon growled again, and dark energy dripped from the fangs lining its open maw. It charged Weedle once more, though it was moving only half as fast as it had been.
"Poison Sting. Aim for its head."
The Weedle cried out and did just that, shooting a purple bolt at the Pokemon. The bolt missed the head, but it managed to hit one of its legs instead. It growled again and continued charging forward.
"Dodge!" Tanya yelled as it halted right in front of Weedle. He dodged to the right – for the third time in a row. The enemy anticipated his movements and clamped down on her Pokemon.
It shook her Weedle around a bit and then spat him on the ground, where he didn't get up.
Tanya sighed again and held up her Poke ball, cracking it open and allowing her Pokemon to return. "I yield."
Angela grinned, while her Pokemon barked. It ran towards her-
"Ew, no! Don't get that stuff on me! Poochie!"
Tanya suppressed the urge to snicker at the sight and went over what she'd learned.
Her Pokemon would listen to her over his own judgment, based on how he hadn't moved a muscle the second time their opponent had used Tackle. She needed to teach him directional words so she could direct how he moved, if he was going to be predictable in how he moved. She needed to memorize how much damage her Pokemon's moves did and study up on how moves imparted damage onto their targets, in case she couldn't just point her phone at the battle to have it do the calculations for her. Tanya would have to restrict her Pokemon's opponents to similarly weak species if she wanted it to level up, unless she wanted to go looking for or buy Exp. candies.
She needed to get more poffins and other treats to ensure his continued cooperation.
They parted soon afterwards. As Tanya had expected, she'd had no chance of winning. Angela gave her platitudes about just starting out, and while outwardly Tanya accepted them graciously while returning to her room, internally she worried.
Tanya worried, and Tanya planned.
-OxOxO-
"Poison Sting," Tanya commanded again. The mound of silk sitting in front of her shot a purple lance at the enemy, a Caterpie that was looking worse of the wear. It had been annoying, to have to cut and pull at the String Shots that her Pokemon inevitably became entangled in, but the alternative was worse.
Poison Sting was a weak move. Tanya was currently off-route, having taken a bus close to where Route 11 started and promptly walking off into the forest. She would rather not put herself in undue danger, but the only Pokemon her Weedle could reliably beat on-route were Budew, and that was only if they weren't smart enough to use Stun Spore and Growth until they could overcome Weedle's resistance to Grass-type attacks.
"Poison Sting," she said. Another purple light flashed and hit the Caterpie, which was now charging her Pokemon, building up speed for a Tackle.
So. She was barely off-route, searching for Pokemon to beat. According to her Pokedex, there were quite a few among the Pokemon that one could encounter off-route that wouldn't fare well against her Weedle, even when she limited her search to the forest she was currently traipsing through. Seedot, Kurazeed, Bellsprout, Shroomish, and Petilil were all Pokemon her Weedle could definitely beat, one-on-one.
Despite her Pokedex's claims, she hadn't had any luck in finding them.
Thus far, all she had found were Caterpie, Metapod, Weedle, and Kakuna. Well, she'd also seen a bipedal Pokemon her Pokedex identified as a Charcadet, and the less said about the bird-Pokemon watching from up in the canopy she'd had to ward off with her newly purchased walking stick, the better.
The Tackle attack landed, probably doing less than it might because of all the string piled high around her Weedle. "Poison Sting," she said.
The Caterpie jolted backwards and finally began to shrink.
Fighting Caterpie, Metapod, Weedle, and Kakuna was not hard. They had a limited moveset, which meant the same 'strategy' – using Poison Sting repeatedly – worked against all of them.
However. Poison Sting was a very weak move, which meant it took over a dozen just to take down enemy Weedle that were approximately the same level. Caterpie were easier, because they were pure Bug-type and didn't resist poison-type moves, but against Kakuna and Metapod, with their defenses and their preferred move of Harden?
Tanya was bored out of her mind, and adding in anything resembling strategy just made every battle take longer.
At least they had no chance of losing. She'd picked up leppa and oran berries at a store after stopping by the Pokemon Center this morning to make sure her Pokemon hadn't been negatively affected by putting off taking him to the center last night.
She'd done her due diligence, of course, and it hadn't looked like Weedle had taken debilitating damage during his fight with Angela's Poochyena. Certainly, the examples she'd seen of what 'debilitating' looked like didn't match being thrown around a bit by a Poochyena. She'd given him an oran berry before going to bed, and he had eaten it and shot back into his ball.
Her opinion could hardly be compared to a medical professional, of course, and a stint in the Pokemon Center's healing machine had finished what a night of rest had started.
She shook her head and began to cut away the string surrounding her Weedle. He was chittering from within the pile, but Tanya said nothing.
One or two more battles, and then he would evolve.
Tanya held another bundle of threads and prepared to cut through it.
"Wait," she said to herself. "Could I just return you and then-"
There was a flash of light, and the pile of thread sagged. She looked down at her belt and scowled. "You-"
"Hey!"
Tanya's gaze snapped up and pierced the direction of the voice.
The child flinched back. "Ah!"
Tanya smoothed her features and assessed the child. "My apologies," she said. They had a wide straw hat askew on their head, shorts, sneakers, and a white tank top. What stood out most about the dark-eyed boy, however, was the large net he had attached to a pole.
He was the perfect picture of a bug catcher.
"I wasn't expecting to run into anyone today," she continued. He caught his breath. "No- no problem, miss."
He stood there for a second, and she raised an eyebrow. "Was that all?"
"Uh-" he shook his head, and then, with as much bravado as a preteen could muster, he pointed at her and declared, "I challenge you to a battle!"
Tanya had seen kittens as intimidating as this kid. "Sorry, but I can't right now," she said.
She wanted to evolve her Weedle, which meant knocking out Pokemon. She had no guarantee she would accomplish that against a trainer, where most rulesets specifically banned using items like she had been against her wild opponents thus far.
"Why not?" he asked. "I just saw you-"
"Look," she explained, "I just caught this Weedle, and I want to-"
"What a coincidence! I just caught a new Pokemon too! C'mon, I wanna evolve my bug too!"
Tanya pursed her lips. She had no guarantee he was telling the truth… but there were obviously ways to check that. Besides, beating up a kid's newly caught Caterpie or Weedle was easier than hiking through overgrown grass looking for one or watching her Weedle use Poison Sting against an unmoving, unresisting Kakuna for five minutes straight.
"Prove you just caught it," she said.
He showed her the Pokemon's profile in his Trainer App. "Combee?" she asked.
He nodded proudly. "Uh huh! Must have gotten lost from wherever her colony is. All the better for me, right?"
She just hummed as he continued to display it proudly. She compared what she saw against her own Weedle.
Weedle was faster than his Combee. Combee wouldn't resist Poison Sting. Combee knew Gust. Combee was level 1.
She frowned fractionally and then smoothed out the crease in the corner of her lips. Why he wanted to battle when he was probably going to lose hardly mattered to her.
"What ruleset?" she asked. His eyes widened and he took his phone back. "So you'll battle me?"
She smiled confidently at him, but she didn't answer. He began to walk towards the treeline, and Tanya followed. "Eh, I don't really have a preference, I think. What about you? Since I challenged you, I'll let you pick."
Oh, Tanya definitely did. "How about simplified?"
He nodded eagerly. "Sure, whatever. Let's do this!" he said as they emerged from the trees.
He ran a dozen feet away, spun on his heel, and threw his ball as he turned. From within, his Combee emerged. His ball flew back towards him.
Smack!
And hit him in the forehead.
"Ow…" he said. Tanya opened her own ball. Weedle appeared, and Tanya crouched down to feed him an oran berry. He chittered and then spun back around, waving the horn on his tail threateningly. The Combee buzzed in reply, all three of its faces squinting and concentrated.
"Gust!" He called out.
"Use Poison Sting." Tanya said. Weedle moved faster, landing a shot on the flying Pokemon. What felt like a light breeze drifted by Tanya, while a few leaves and a bit of dust was kicked up around Weedle.
Even if the Combee was using a super effective move like Gust, it was level 1. If it was much stronger, perhaps even by a level or two, it would be able to win before her Weedle, in which case, she wouldn't have accepted the battle.
"Poison Sting," she said. "Gust!" he shouted.
Again, they exchanged moves, both were damaged, and they waited, attentive to the orders of their trainers.
"Poison Sting."
"One more time! Gust!"
Weedle was faster. His move connected first, and the Combee fainted, shrinking, before its move could connect.
Tanya smirked-
"Whoa! That was awesome! Thanks for the battle, miss!"
Then she frowned. What?
She glanced at the kid again, and the question bubbled up in her mind again. Had he thought he might win and was just keeping up appearances? Had he not expected to win? If he wanted to evolve his Pokemon, why bother with a fight like that, then? Why-
"OH!" he cried. She blinked and realized something was glowing.
Tanya's eyes widened. Where Weedle had been standing stock-still, was now a glowing like shaped like her Pokemon. The light emanating from it was white and harsh, but not hard to look at directly. Within the pale glow were hints of a faded rainbow of other colors.
His glowing silhouette began to morph, the spherical segments of his body becoming straighter and taller, his horns fading from view. The tail remained pointed, but the head smoothed out into a dome.
Then, the light grew brighter, and Tanya had to squint.
Slowly, the light faded…
"Kakuna!" her Pokemon cried, upright and balanced on the point at the tail of his body.
Then, without further preamble, his form teetered forward, and Kakuna landed squarely on his face.
Tanya grinned again. "Good job!" she called out, walking forward. "Thanks for the battle, kid."
"Yeah, no-" he cut himself off, and then looked down at his phone.
He chuckled to himself. "Eh, right. We forgot to set up the battle…"
Again, that question clouded Tanya's mind. He hadn't done that on purpose, in case he lost? She hadn't mentioned it for the same reason. Why…
Unbothered by her inner musings, he wanted to document the battle in their Trainer Apps, 'so they'd never forget crossing each other's paths!' and she couldn't find fault with his earnestness. They documented the battle, exchanged information, and he gave her a few hundred yen. She got that much out of letting him record the information, and perhaps another source of information… if she were truly desperate.
He walked off after that, and she had to suppose that, in the end, he just wanted to have fun.
-OxOxO-
"KSSS."
"No." She had other stuff to do, and if the request she'd put out bore fruit, she wouldn't have to go through the laborious process of battling with Kakuna more than once. "For the next few days, I'm planning. Which includes getting you TMs," she said mostly to herself as she set the Kakuna down on the kitchen counter – he'd almost tripled in weight, which seemed to violate the law of the conservation of mass, but no more so than the magic of her last life had seemed to violate the law of the conversation of energy.
He hissed again and wobbled back and forth, but she didn't pay him any more mind than leaning him against the wall so he could see the room.
He had not been happy they were leaving right after he'd evolved, but she wanted to eat a late lunch, and at least one upside of his current form was that he couldn't run off… though he seemed just as capable of escaping his Poke ball, despite his new form.
Just like his previous form, his mouth and the mandibles that protected it were difficult to spot, but when she'd found the opening he'd greedily devoured the food she'd gotten him, and he'd seemed to be content after that.
For the moment, Tanya sat in her chair and closed her eyes, thinking about what she'd read over lunch, about Pokemon and team building. Her computer lay untouched, for the moment.
While the author of the article had used an anecdote about his own Pokemon journey to frame the rule, she'd boiled all the fluff down to its core: no matter how perfectly she planned, she was unlikely to get exactly what she wanted. That was as true for whatever team she thought up as anything else.
It wasn't an unfamiliar rule; she'd known that much since her first life, even if her own life had gone according to her plan up until the very end. Regardless of her familiarity with it, the rule remained true.
Still, she had goals she wanted to achieve with her team. They were not the ones the article had suggested – being a coordinator or winning a league or 'making friends' – but were instead much more practical: she wanted safety, and, barring that, she wanted a way to escape.
Once Kakuna evolved, he would ensure the former, to a degree, but he would not help against anything much stronger. He couldn't really help her escape her possible pursuers, except by acting as a meatshield if she had to run for her life, but if Interpol was close enough to her that she had to sacrifice her Pokemon, she was practical enough to admit that sacrificing her Pokemon was not likely to buy her much time.
She needed more Pokemon, but which ones? Her Pokedex claimed there were over a hundred thousand species scattered across the globe; of those, roughly four hundred – excluding the major outlier of Eevee – called the Kanto region home, while Japan as a whole had over a thousand.
Beyond that was the question of how to train the Pokemon she did pick. Did Interpol issue Pokemon to those working for it, or were people encouraged to make their own teams? Would the same hold true for local law enforcement in Kanto? What about in Japan? If that information was public, how likely was it to be accurate for whoever was sent after her? What if some other organization, like the dreaded, mob-like Teams, decided they wanted a faller in their employ? Could she look up any of that information without getting noticed online?
And, when she did train her Pokemon, increasing their levels and movesets and EVs, how would she utilize them? What strategies would she use? Were there any she would be particularly susceptible to?
What would happen to her if she were captured? Was vivisection on the table? Would it be better to die? Would Being X find her if that happened? Had Arceus already sold her out?
Questions bombarded Tanya.
She took a deep breath, and she let out that breath. The questions faded in intensity.
Pokemon battling was fiendishly complicated. There were over a hundred thousand Pokemon that might come after her, who might be trained in even more different ways. Her life was not yet that complicated, but if she were found out, it certainly would be.
In spite of that, Pokemon battling was also simple.
Pokemon battling was all about math.
Some of the math was uncertain. There were probabilities involved in whether a move had additional effects, and depending on where a move landed or if there were obstructions, it might do 15% less damage at random or it might do 150% of the damage it was meant to if a rare 'critical hit' was landed.
Some of the math was relatively complicated, like the equations humanity had written to describe how much damage a move dealt or what a Pokemon's stats were or how likely a Pokemon was to be caught by a Poke ball.
However, some of the math was decidedly certain. If her Pokemon's HP was greater than one, and her opponent's Pokemon's was zero, then she won.
Her goals could be summed up in three words: learning, safety, concealment, and escape. As long as she could achieve the latter three, then she could focus on her first goal of obtaining information useful for whatever Being X would do when he inevitably came for her.
Tanya opened her eyes and leaned towards her computer. She would identify Pokemon that excelled at those tasks, catch them, and train them to be as good as they possibly could be. She would limit her initial search to Pokemon obtainable in Kanto, as searching for and obtaining something outside the region would threaten her concealment, but she doubted-
BZZZZ
Tanya's gaze snapped from her computer to her phone. A notification? Perhaps it was Ikube or Ichigo…
Her eyes skimmed the words of the notice. "Questioning upon your return to work… don't feel obligated… police and Interpol…"
Tanya licked her lips subconsciously. Did they know?
She considered the question and then discarded it. The Heahea Papers had revealed quite a lot about Interpol in regards to fallers, namely that they cared little for a faller's personal rights. While they publicly claimed that such 'oversights' would not go unpunished again, Tanya certainly didn't trust them based solely on their word.
Dozens of people had died in the '5068 Kanto Incursion' as it was being officially called, and people were still looking for someone to blame. Interpol was receiving the bulk of it presently because they hadn't foreseen, literally or figuratively, that this would happen, but if the blame were shifted to her, they might get away with a few 'experiments' before someone stopped them.
So, if they knew it was her for sure, they wouldn't have alerted her unless they were already coming for her. Considering how she'd received the message through her work app and the notification's conciliatory, apologetic tone, it was likely something happening to all employees who had been there that day.
Likely did not mean guaranteed, however.
Tanya let out a long, heavy sigh. "I just…"
She didn't know what she was going to say, and she didn't find out.
"Ka! Kakukan. Kakuna!"
Thump
She turned, an eyebrow raised, to find that Kakuna had fallen off of the countertop. He shouted his name into the floor, and then inched forward slightly. He shouted and inched forward a second time.
She sighed and picked him up, stroking her Pokemon's exoskeleton before setting him to one side of her desk. He chittered.
She eyed him. If she was going to walk into what might be interrogation by an enemy, she would not walk in unarmed.
She would evolve Kakuna into Beedrill before then.
-OxOxO-
"Is that really you?"
Ichigo blinked, and then he scratched at his clean-shaven face. It was embarrassing, he felt, though he doubted she would think so.
"Yes, it's me. Sit down, would you?"
She was grinning, though there wasn't a hint of malice in it this time. She seemed genuinely happy to see how he was doing.
At least that made one of them.
"How's the job? And what's the job? You've been evasive, Ichigo," she said, sliding into her seat at the cafe. He frowned and then sighed. "I'm tall and active enough to look mildly threatening in a suit, so I managed to get a security job… but they made me shave my beard!" he said, sniffling. He'd spent years on that thing, dammit!
She pointed at his head. "At least they let you keep the hair."
She ordered after that, and then she narrowed her eyes and frowned. "Do you really not like it that much? What's so bad about it?"
He didn't respond at first, and she took that as her cue to start asking questions.
"Is there no room for advancement?"
"There is," he replied.
"Alright. Does it not pay well?"
"Anything pays well compared to not having a job," he griped, "but no, it pays well enough. I've got an actual space to call my own, which is nice, I guess."
"Then… what, do you have bad coworkers? Is someone giving you shit for having been homeless?"
"I was not homeless, I was a hobo. And no."
Tanya's confusion had twisted into a scowl. "Then what is it? It's given you a modicum of financial security, you've got opportunities for advancement… is it their retirement plans?"
"I just don't like the work, alright? I keep Sentret with me, of course, but we can't exactly be ourselves," he finally said.
She… did not look impressed. "That's it?"
He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "We can't all love our jobs like you, Tanya."
She scoffed and smirked. "Ichigo, I don't particularly like my job."
"You… don't?" he asked. She could have fooled him.
She waved a hand. "Of course not. Whether I like my work is immaterial. I'm performing work in order to accomplish my goals. If I could do a different job with fewer downsides that accomplished those goals more efficiently, then of course I'd do that job instead."
Ichigo's confusion turned into a small smile. He smelled an opportunity to deflect away from himself. "Oh? What kind of goals?"
She blanched, and then, very neutrally, said, "I want to retire as early as possible."
He raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know that translation work let you do that. And what would you even do during retirement? As far as I know, you've only got one hobby you don't currently consider work."
She was quiet, for a few moments, and his food arrived. He took a bite of the food – a 'galette' from France's capital, Lumiose – as she finally answered.
"I want my time to be my own. Beyond that… my reasons are private."
Ichigo scowled. Another near non-answer that led to yet more questions she wasn't and wouldn't answer.
"Anyway," she said, moving swiftly onwards, "while I do not think liking a job is anywhere near the top of the list of things to consider when finding one, you clearly place it higher. What did they offer that you took it anyway?" she asked.
He grumbled and then, with all of the questions she raised that she seemed unwilling to answer, he made a decision.
Maybe if he told her a bit more about himself…
"I don't have a lot of credentials," he finally admitted. "I took the standard year-long journey and traveled around Kanto. I beat a few gyms here and there, entered a few tournaments. I decided that I liked it so much that I traveled around the whole region."
He couldn't help the pride leaking into his voice. "I coasted on league funding for most of my teenage years," he said proudly, because he was proud of what he'd done with his youth, despite the problems it'd caused him later.
Nothing would change that.
"I've seen marvels in every region, and at least entered every gym, even if I didn't challenge them. I was even in Chuenn when the Torijourner-"
Food was placed in front of Tanya, and she thanked the waiter. "So, you coasted on government funding," she said, "then what? I assume it didn't last forever?"
"Nah," he said. "I woke up on my eighteenth birthday with a notification that I wasn't eligible anymore, and I realized that while I'd done a lot… what I'd done wasn't exactly conducive to finding a job."
"I worked odd jobs for a while as I finished traveling, but when I got to Autumna, I just… stopped."
There was a brief flash of light, and Sentret popped out of his ball, nuzzling up against his face. He smiled warmly. Not having the beard in the way anymore did let him feel his friend's fur on his face better, which was nice.
"So," he finished, "it isn't like they offered a lot. I don't exactly have a lot to offer." She looked between the two of them, quiet and contemplative as she finished off her chocolate croissant.
"Well," she said finally, "what do you want to do? What do you want out of this career? Is it a means to an end for you or something you're passionate about?"
Those… were not the questions he'd been expecting. But… "Those are good questions. I… I'm not sure. It was mostly a means to get you to think about training Pokemon," he said leadingly. She rolled her eyes and shook her head at him, but she grabbed her Poke ball from her belt. "Fine. Although we probably shouldn't show off here, right?"
He shook his head, and they went about paying for their food. Sentret mussed his hair and put his paws on his clean-shaven face. They walked down a few sidewalks until they reached a small park.
She sighed and then, without fanfare, released her Pokemon. The Kakuna stayed on its tip for a moment, and then it fell over. She bent down and picked it up and leaned it against one of her legs. "This is Kakuna."
Sentret climbed down his body and went over to the insect-Pokemon, introducing himself. It chittered back, and then began conversing quietly. Ichigo smiled at the pair – they seemed to be hitting it off – and then looked back up at Tanya's impassive face with a raised eyebrow. "I don't suppose you'll be breaking out the black and white body paint anytime soon?"
She blinked once, her gaze still impassive. "What?"
He rolled his eyes at her. "Honestly, Tanya. You've never seen the Business Kakuna meme? My grandparents told me about that one. Did you crawl out of the grave of some Edo period child completely unaware of the internet?" he asked her sarcastically.
"Must be Japan-specific," she replied. He rolled his eyes, because he didn't think so. "Anyway," she said, "Stats. Training."
The Kakuna said something sharply, and motioned towards Tanya with its eyes. Sentret chirped in effort as he lifted it off of her leg. Sentret let go, and the Poison-type fell backwards.
"Well, have you looked at its – sorry, is he male or female?"
"Male."
Sentret tried to help him up, but he fell right back down.
"Right, have you looked at his EVs and IVs yet?"
She shook her head. "No, I'm not getting into those yet."
Sentret sniffed at Kakuna, and asked him a question. He repeated his name twice, and Sentret shrugged and talked at him.
"Really?" he asked. If he could assume anything about her, it was that she would excel at that kind of work. Her mind was a steel trap unlike any other.
She smirked. "Of course. I… will be doing the gym challenge. If I EV train him now, the Gyms will respond in kind. That's a layer of complexity I can do without, for now."
He shook his head ruefully. Of course. She had thought about it, and she'd twisted it to her advantage. "You want to challenge the gyms?"
Finally, the Kakuna couldn't take being face down anymore, and Sentret tried to help it up again.
She scowled. "Somewhat. I want to get stronger, and gyms help with that. More than that, I want information."
He winced. "I mean, some of that information is kept locked up for good reason." He said.
She scoffed. "Yes, and zero-badge trainers aren't allowed to look at the potentially very useful training guides on LandAZu because they just can't be trusted with how best to train their Pokemon, right?"
Sentret dug a little divot in the soil beneath them, and positioned Kakuna's point in it. He stayed up for a few moments longer and started to fall, but Sentret managed to grab him before he hit the ground.
He sighed. "Yeah, some of those websites can be a bit hierarchical. I wish they weren't."
"Me too. Regardless, I plan to take on the Fighting Gym within the week."
Ichigo's eyebrows shot right up to his hairline. "Really? You know he's ranked-"
"Yes, he's ranked second. I've got my Intermediate License," she began. "With sufficient planning, I think Beedrill will win against whatever he has, however. Beedrill's typing means he'll take one-fourth the damage he would. Even if they scale up the difficulty, none of what I've read online seems to indicate that he'll make it impossible."
The Kakuna did his best to look up at Tanya from where Sentret was trying to balance him on his point.
"EVs would help us do damage, but considering Beedrill's defensive profile, the risk of getting hit by moves boosted by EVs far outweighs the extra damage."
She didn't notice the look, and the Kakuna focused back on Sentret's attempts to help him stand. Ichigo focused on the conversation again. "And how'll you evolve him?"
"Well, seeing as I don't have a swarm of Beedrill to help and I'm not going to use Harden until whatever we're fighting Struggles until it faints, I'm going with Exp. Candies."
Yeah, that tracked. "You've already posted a request?"
She nodded once. "Yes. Honestly, I can't believe they don't just sell them in Pokemarts."
He shrugged in response. "It takes the fun out of things."
She rolled her eyes, and he continued. "Are you sure you'll be set for the Gym? If you need any advice…"
"I'll continue to ask you for it," she replied smiling. "Besides, I'm confident. I have plans."
"You sure you're sure? You never seemed to be particularly enthused about battling," he replied. In truth, if he had to look back and categorize how she'd looked when watching Pokemon battle back at the shelter, it had been an odd mix of disdain and… nervousness, maybe?
She raised an eyebrow. "Ichigo. If this is about mindset, I will face no problems in that regard."
He opened his mouth to interrogate that ominous statement, but she moved right past it. "Anyway, if you doubt my capability to battle, why don't we battle? I'm sure you'll win, but it'll assuage your concerns, yes?"
He chuckled, and then he grimaced at her narrowed eyes. Oh, she'd definitely heard the nervousness he'd tried to mask. She whipped out her phone, the scanner went to work on his Pokemon, who had pausing in poking at Kakuna's exterior-
"What?" she asked. "Why… haven't you evolved him?"
Sentret scowled up at her and pushed into the fur around his neck to show off his collar, on which a small Everstone was embedded. "He doesn't want to evolve," Ichigo said. Tanya rolled her eyes, and Ichigo couldn't hide his incredulity.
She hadn't wanted anything to do with Pokemon a week ago, and now she managed to form opinions about whether Pokemon should evolve? "Well, does Kakuna want to evolve?" he asked, glancing down at the Pokemon.
"I assume so," she said. "Ka! Kaku kana!" her Pokemon replied.
"I can't imagine, with how much he was jumping around before evolving, that he enjoys his current situation," she said with another shrug.
He looked between the pair, at the Kakuna that had responded so vigorously, and how she hadn't seemed to notice. More questions gripped his mind, most of which she definitely wouldn't answer directly.
He tried for a more innocuous one. "Speaking of, have you two been… getting along? You're taking your duty as a trainer seriously, right?"
A briefly concerned expression passed over her face, but it passed quickly and she answered affirmatively. "Of course. I've researched how to take care of him and Pokemon in general and have followed instructions to the letter."
She explained what she'd fed him, how she'd trained him, and how she'd interacted with him, and everything seemed… alright.
Still, he was concerned with how she hadn't responded to whatever Kakuna had tried to communicate. Tanya was obviously inexperienced, so maybe it was just that.
"Well," he said as she finished recounting how Kakuna had evolved, "We should meet again when you evolve," he said to the Kakuna, which Sentret had leaned against Tanya's leg once more. "You might not be able to beat Sentret, but a battle against me should give you something else to aim for, yeah?"
The Kakuna hissed, and he looked up at Tanya. "Good idea. It shouldn't take longer than a few days, but I'll try to give you at least a day of warning-"
He waved off her concern. "Don't worry about that. I'll make time."
They parted ways, with her extracting a promise that he'd think about what he wanted out of a job and him extracting a promise that she'd ask him if she needed any more information. He scratched his Pokemon under his chin and made his way back towards the bus stop. He sighed as he reached it and returned Sentret.
Tanya was his friend. They'd known each other for months, so he could say with certainty that she was always trying to move forward. Even if he didn't know what she was working towards, he could always say that much.
He also knew that she had opinions and stuck to them. She had been adamant, since they'd moved past simply seeing each other every day into acquaintanceship and friendship, that he could get a job and 'contribute materially' to society. She'd been adamant that she wanted to contribute to Japan and get a job.
She'd been adamant that she disliked Pokemon battling and wanted nothing to do with it.
He wished she'd give him a more concrete answer as to what had caused that dislike than 'an incident' in her homeland. He wondered what had caused that dislike, and he wondered what happened during the Incursion that she'd overcome that dislike.
He wondered if she was acting so distant from her Pokemon because she still disliked battling, even if she felt she had to.
-OxOxO-
BREAKING! Students and young trainers may protest the PWT, according to sources at Autumna University. READ MORE about their possible goals in the Chatter App. Chatter: It's still happening.
BREAKING! Rokyo and Zenrorengo threaten simultaneous strikes minutes after announcement of PWT host city announcement. READ MORE about collusion and theatrics between the unions and organizing committee in the Chatter App. Chatter: It's still happening.
BREAKING! Kanto officially awards host status to Autumna for Pokemon World Tournament. READ MORE about the bribery accusations surrounding the committee in the Chatter App. Chatter: It's still happening.
TRENDING: Pokemon World Tournament. READ MORE in the Chatter App. Chatter: It's still happening.
Ultra Beast Task Force begins disseminating information tonight. READ MORE about Ultra Beasts, recommended safety measures, and the UBTK's past and current actions in the Chatter App. Chatter: It's still happening.
-OxOxO-
A/N 1: If you'd like to donate to support me monetarily, search for Sugarcane Soldier on the website of the Patrons.
Thank you to WarmasterOku, Afforess, UNSC_Kawakaze, Theewizzz, Vee, malenkaya, and Saito Tachibana for supporting this story and everything else I write. Make sure to vote if you haven't yet!