Chapterrr... four!
Chapter Four
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As Luke and his team traveled back home, Luke couldn't help but glance over at Woop every once in a while- Woop being the name which he had just given to his wooper. Woop had shown him a friendship that he had never shared with his pokemon before, even though it had just been defeated in battle. Luke couldn't help but wonder if it was in Woop's nature to be so friendly, or if he just plain liked Luke a lot.
As Luke and his friends arrived back home, the sun was low in the sky, about 2 of its own widths from the horizon. Luke wobbled and collapsed, leaning on the outside of his house as his pokemon began gathering berries from nearby bushes. He looked into the sky with concern in his eyes. He hadn't eaten for almost a full day now, and his pokemon had been living on just berries for the last day. He couldn't keep this up for much longer, that was something he unwillingly acknowledged inside himself. In the meantime, his own stomach was throwing a temper tantrum, screaming for the smallest scrap of food.
Luke closed his eyes. He had to eat something by the end of the day, but the only way to make that kind of money quickly would be to win a battle, something which he couldn't do at the time. As he sat and pondered quietly, his pokemon rejoined him one by one, all munching on berries. Miltank was nice enough to carry food for magikarp and Woop, who didn't have arms.
They all sat in a quiet circle, the pokemon munching on their berries. Kenshin would throw an occasional look of anger at Luke, and Woop would try to counteract this by throwing him a smile for every angry look it caught. Miltank grew worried of Luke, but to comfort his pokemon he faked a smile. It broke quickly, however, as he grimaced in accordance with his stomach's painful dance of hunger.
The eating circle eventually broke as quietly as it formed; not a word was exchanged, and yet so much was said.
* * *
The next morning, Luke was greeted with a clear sky, bird song, shining sun, insane psychopath stomach, a look of distrust from Kenshin and a supportive smile from everyone else.
Pretty much a regular day.
His stomach as abysmally empty as it had for the last day, Luke led his pokemon out on another berry-picking routine, collapsing beside a tree as his pokemon wondered off. Magikarp and Kenshin traveled together, while miltank and Woop went together, simply because those without arms needed a partner with arms to help get berries for them.
As they went off, Luke was left to doze on the side of a tree. He lacked any energy at all, all of it lost in the recent chain of depressing events as well as his lack of substance. He kept his eyes closed, enveloping himself in a world of darkness, trying to put himself to sleep as to avoid having to endure the painful moans of his belly for any longer.
However, within the darkness he could hear a cry of pain, far off in the distance… it startled him, but as he began to settle down he heard another one from the same source… it grew sharper, and louder, repeating again and again, until he opened his eyes to see the cries of pain weren't distant at all; his magikarp was crying in pain, in a small clearing just in front of Luke. It was being attacked by a small purple, horned beast- nidoran.
Wait… attacked?!
Luke jumped to his feet, his stomach bouncing and groaning in disagreement. He glanced around to catch Kenshin, lazily sitting on the side and watching intently while eating berries.
"K-Kenshin, help him!"
His plead was returned with a look of anger mixed with a general disinterest in following Luke's orders. Luke was left to watch in horror as the little purple brute rushed forward, jabbing magikarp with its horn and creating another sharp cry of pain from the tortured red fish.
Luke knew what he should have done; magikarp lacked the capacity to battle effectively on its own, and it needed a command from Luke. And yet, in every way he looked at it Luke was horrified at the idea. His nervous thought process was interrupted by another scream.
Woop and miltank were soon drawn to the scene by the screams, and also watched with terror in their eyes as magikarp was attacked mercilessly. For the nidoran this was basic food hunting rule number one; if you see a generally weak or immobile pokemon who can provide a good meal, you'd have to be stupid to not kill it and eat it.
Summoning the courage, Luke leapt forward, swinging at the purple nidoran; but his human strength was no match for that of the nidoran, who smoothly dodged Luke's punches and rammed him in the stomach with its horn in retaliation, causing Luke to jump away in pain. Luke lacked the physically prowess to chase off the nidoran; that attempt was hopeless.
At this point Luke saw a red stream dripping from magikarp's last wound; it was bleeding now. Luke's mouth gaped open, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything, give any words of support. The purple nidoran leapt into the air and jumped onto the magikarp, crushing an old wound and resulting in another screech of sharp pain. It leaned down to bite the magikarp, and the fish's yells grew louder and louder, as by now it had noticed its inactive trainer watching the slaughter.
Luke closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He had no choice. With a short hesitation he looked into his own past, forced to remember his childhood, when he was only seven.
His father, who at the time hadn't revealed his identity as a Team Rocket member, gave Luke a large book which named every pokemon attack and which pokemon learned them. Luke, who, at the young age of seven was absolutely obsessed with becoming a pokemon trainer, and began reading the book day in and day out memorizing as much as he could. By the time he was eight Luke had memorized just about everything in the book. It was only a couple weeks after he turned eight that his father revealed his position as a Team Rocket Member and left the family.
Even at the age of fifteen he could recall the attack names; but he hated to do so, because it forced him to bring up memories of when he actually… liked his father. Something which he hated to remember, something he wish he had never thought or felt. And of course, brining up memories of attacks brought up his previous hatred in anything that would include controlling and/or battling his pokemon. But now things were different.
"Magikarp, use FLAIL!"
The nidoran was immediately blown off of magikarp in a massive flailing of the red fish's body that almost tore the ground apart. Its wounds were glowing, feeding the pokemon energy. After all, this specific pokemon technique involved drawing energy from one's wounds. It was far from a perfect attack, as a flail from any other pokemon with this much damage would have much more destructive power, but it was strong enough to fend off the nidoran.
The purple monster, fearing it would receive another such blow from its opponent, fled the battlefield and left the red fish to sag on the ground, a few wounds dripping with red blood.
With a yell of concern, Luke, Woop and miltank dashed over to the fish, circling it and comforting it as they each individually could. Luke felt his eyes well up with tears as he looked into the wounded magikarp's eyes.
"I'm so sorry, magikarp." He pleaded, his head hanging down. "I-I just didn't want to have to… to control you like I did. You're all living beings to me, and to command you like tools isn't something I like to do. Please, forgive me?"
The red fish looked away, but was unable to suppress a grin as it looked at the damaged ground beneath where it had flailed. It was awfully proud of itself for summoning the amount of strength that it did, and it was thanks to the boy who was trying to take care of it. It looked back at look with a chipper, forgiving grin, very uncharacteristic in comparison to the pokemon's heavy wounds, coupled with a soothing sound, similar to the purring of a cat which only magikarp could make.
* * *
Soon after Luke and his pokemon returned home, he heard a silent knock on the door. He opened the door to reveal a stunning young lady, at right about his age. She had long brown hair, which looked very shiny . Her eyes were a cool blue, and her face was as cute as they come. She wore a white skirt and navy blue shirt, and beside her was a small pink pokemon with billowing white fur- a flaffy.
"Hiya!" She said, her chipper voice melting away Luke's awe. "I hear you run a day-care here? That's so perfect! See, I need someone to watch Flaff while I train in that cave down to the south."
"…Whuh? Huh?"
The girl blinked, then repeated herself, without a tinge of annoyance. "I said I'd like you to watch my flaffy for a bit; probably just overnight."
The way she spoke was very unnatural for Luke to hear- her words bounced forward, with an upbeat rhythm. Even listening to her talk made Luke feel a little… pushed, especially after the last few days of hearing mostly his own monotonous mumbling.
"Oh! Sure. Uhhh…"
And yet, Luke couldn't help but enjoy her upbeat personality and chipper voice. It gave his dark little world a shimmering light, for once.
"…What's your name? I have to, uh, track it down in my, uh, list of clients so I, uh, know who to give it back to."
His last words were a flat-out lie in truth; he had no such list. He just needed an excuse to get this girl's name…
"My name? It's Kristin! Some of my friends call me Kriss, or Krissy, or whatever. So that's great! Flaff, you should go now. I'll see you tomorrow."
The flaffy hesitated, slowly walking into Luke's house.
"Alright, thank you so much! Oh, wait, when do I pay? You and your parents sure could obviously use some money judging by the size of your house. Not to be rude, of course!"
Luke blinked, unsure of how to respond to this. To tell her his exact family situation would be a long story, and would bring up some things Luke really didn't want her to question or know about. So, he gave a fibbed, short version.
"I, uh… I have no parents."
There was a silence, which felt very uneasy and quiet right after listening to Kristin's bouncy talking.
"That's… that's terrible." She said, her voice as bouncy as ever as she reached into her hip pack where she evidently kept her things. After some rustling around, she pulled out a good handful of white bills, shoving them into Luke's arms.
"Whuh- this is a bit much."
"Don't worry. You need the money! I can't stand to see someone so young put under so much stress!" Regardless of her somber words, they still bounced forward.
Luke blinked, suppressing the urge to leap forward and cry in her arms. Nobody, not ever had ever tried o understand him or show any sympathy for his situation. His mouth quivered, and his legs shook. To him, she appeared as… as an angel, who came to help his small, pathetic existence. She didn't seem to notice, however.
"Well, buh-bye!" She said, waving her arm enthusiastically and smoothly walking off.
It took him a full thirty seconds to finally give himself a mental slap in the face, snapping out of his stupor. By now she was almost completely out of view. Luke sighed, turning into his home and closing the door behind him gingerly, fighting to keep all the white bills in one arm as he reached out with the other. He hoped that even after he saw her the next day, he'd get to see her again.
* * *
Thanks to his oversupply of money, Luke was finally able to enjoy a hearty dinner along with his pokemon. He had certainly been given a LOT of money, enough so that even after his large meal he has plenty to spare.
His pokemon all seemed to be in good spirits, even Kenshin seemed abnormally happy, almost reaching a level of indifference towards Luke. Although, it still didn't like him. Flaffy looked a little out of place, trying to fit in- but that was normal for pokemon who Luke took care of.
As his pokemon al played together- except for Kenshin, who, as always, sat in his lonely corner, Luke once again found himself lost in thought. Earlier today, he had, for the first time, commanded his pokemon. He always thought it would bring about uneasiness between him and his pokemon, but… as a direct result of his commanding, his magikarp showed strength it didn't even know it had. For the first time since it had been caught as a pokemon, it was happy. In fact, it was the same command that saved its life. Faced with this situation, Luke couldn't help but admit to himself that perhaps his ideas on commanding were wrong- maybe he was indeed supposed to command his pokemon.
It was certainly a little awkward for Luke to accept an idea like that in himself, as only yesterday he despised it. And yet… it felt right.
Content with his decision, Luke watched his pokemon play with a smile on his face, eventually getting them all into their shed for the night, which was starting to look a little crowded. With a yawn, Luke fell into his bed and slept.
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End Chapter Four