Like No One Ever Was

“You don’t need to feel guilty about this, bzzt,” Miles pointed out for what felt like the fortieth time. Blowing out a soft sigh I pressed the buttons on the elevator to close the door, not sure if it helped the doors close faster.

“I know that. Logically, I get it. Telling him ‘at some point in the future, you’ll have an accident of some kind while snowboarding’ probably wouldn’t get him to quit doing what he loved.” Even if he believed me and didn’t think I was crazy. “But still.”

“Dun dun,” Dunsparce noted beside me, carefully coiled around to fit in the enclosed space.

“Ok, that’s fair. ‘But still’ isn’t much of an argument. I guess I just mean… it feels different, having seen it play out almost in front of me. I’ll try not to let it get to me.”

“Bzzt, and you’re coming to visit him, I’m sure he’ll appreciate that.” I gave Miles a wan smile at that, clutching the ‘Get well soon’ card I held a little tighter. Feels lame to give to someone after that bad accident, but what else am I supposed to do? Show up with nothing?

The elevator reached the floor that the man at the front desk had told me Grusha was on. Walking down the hallways I noticed just how similar hospitals were here as they were in my world. While I knew we had some more advanced treatments here due to Pokemon, even a lot of the machines I caught glimpses of in rooms looked similar. A bit smaller overall than I would expect from my world though. I guess it’s because most people here heal up fast.

Pokemon could help with that, and I saw a Kirlia doing just that as I passed by one room. The Pokemon in question sent out a stream of glowing pink energy to an elderly man. He let out a sigh of relief as the pulses hit and rejuvenated him. Everything I’ve seen online shows that people don’t get as much benefit out of Moves like Heal Pulse as Pokemon, but it does still help somewhat. I wonder if that’s because everyone has some degree of Aura, no matter how faint or untrained. But without the body of a Pokemon, it can’t just instantly heal wounds, only soothe pain and re-energize.

Glancing down at Dun slithering beside me, my mind flashed to him using Roost. Moves aren’t a thing even Aura users can copy, but I wonder if I can mold my Flying Type energy into a revitalizing technique. Sure would be handy to be able to rest for a minute or two and get the equivalent of a few hours rest. That was a trick that I wouldn’t be showing off to Cyan if I did manage such a feat; she’d been getting more on my case recently about how much I was doing again as I settled back into my routines after Unova.

When we reached Grusha’s room, I saw that it was filled with flowers, balloons, and gift baskets. So crowded was it I had to return Dun to comfortably enter the room. He stared at me, his blue bangs draped over his face and wearing a thin white gown. “Um, hello. You might not know me, but I-”

“I remember you. That child who saw me fall.” He spoke softly, icy blue eyes glaring at me.

“I didn’t actually see you fall, just… the aftermath. I was battling nearby, at the Gym, I hope I didn't-"

He scoffed, the sound morphing into a harsh, hacking cough partway through. Standing up I looked around as if to offer him something but had no idea what to do. Do I call someone? Offer him water?

His coughing stopped on his own and he spat out "Don't be an idiot. There are staff to make sure wild Pokemon don't disrupt anyone on the course, and the Gym is kilometers away. You're not to blame." He said the words so coldly as if to demand why I was here. I guess I already knew that it was too far away, that it was already destined to happen, but I felt so guilty over the fact that I didn’t warn him.

"Umm, I wanted to give you a card and uh, see how you were doing.” His eyes glanced over to the stack of cards that were much the same, piled up on his bedside table and I placed it there.

Silence reigned for a minute as I tried to think of something else to say and wondered what he was thinking. God, why did I try and do this? It’s so awkward. Eventually, I said “Looks like you’ve got a lot of well-wishers. I hope-” He snorted, the harsh sound cutting me off and jarring with how softly he spoke.

“So many well-wishers, but not a single one of them showed up to see me.” I mean, I did, but I guess I don’t count here. “All these?” He gestured at all the gifts. “They all came before the news broke that I wouldn’t be able to compete again.”

“There’s no chance? Not even with umm, Ditto Cell Therapy?” I ventured. Medical knowledge wasn’t something I had studied overly much yet, but my various online info dives had told me about that as one of the more recent revolutions for humans.

“I’ll walk again, eventually,” the young man hissed like it was the bitterest consolation prize he had ever received. “Once you stop growing, the cells don’t work as well, or so the doctors say.” Considering just how badly his legs had been screwed up, walking around again is a miracle by itself. But I don’t think he wants to hear that. Unfortunately, I didn’t know what he wanted to hear.

“Well?” He demanded after a minute. “Aren’t you going to tell me it gets better? That I’ll somehow manage to snowboard again someday?”

I shook my head. “I certainly wouldn’t declare myself to know better than the doctors. And I’m guessing that even if you could get on a board, it’d never be quite as good as you were before the accident.” I could only imagine how much trying and failing to live up to your old standards would be. Grusha was good; good enough that he had many fans, as indicated by all the support that had been sent his way even before he’d been allowed to receive non-family visitors. From what I’d seen though, he wouldn't be able to competitively board again, not without intervention from a Legendary or the like. In this world, it feels like anything is possible, but some are still far less probably than others.

“I can say that you’ll find new things to do. New dreams. They might not be what you wanted first, and they won’t replace your old loves, but they’ll be magical in their own way.”

He brushed his bangs aside, his gaze softening for a moment. “How can you know that?” In a way, I’m lucky. A lot of my dreams, like being a writer can still be done here. But others… others are gone.

“I guess I can’t be certain, but I found Pokemon training and it’s been incredible.”

He snorted, before coughing violently and looking away. “You’re just a kid,” he said dismissively before sighing. “The only one who’s shown up. Look, I get that you like battling, but dreams come and go easier for little kids. I’m sure in the future that you’ll want to do something else, but I’ve put in time and effort into this-”

“I train my Pokemon four hours a day,” I interrupted the bedridden man. “At least four hours a day, on average. My parents make sure I take a day off from training at least once a week, but we usually use that time to watch old battle videos to get a better feel for how trainers at different levels compete.”

He stopped, looking at me as if I had grown an extra head, and revealed I was actually a Doduo. I’ll take that as a sign I’m on the right track for getting Grusha out of his funk, then. Continuing, I said “Most days, me and my team practice in the morning, honing the Moves they know. After a break for lunch and any lessons I need to take for non-Trainer activities, we’re back at it in the afternoon. We run generalized endurance and movement drills, practicing battlefield maneuvering. After they get tired, my team takes a small break and I run over simulations with them of mock battles. Commands I can give for fake strategies based on their prompts. Using the real-life battles I’ve reviewed, I then try and estimate how effective those would be and better strategies for the future. Finally, we finish off with training new Moves and bringing those up to the level their current repertoire is at. And we haven't even started our Journey yet!”

Obviously, there's more to it than just that. We'll have variations depending on when Arven comes over or when my tutor schedules align. I make sure to mix drills up too, but this should give him a general idea of how I might train on a given day.

A long moment of silence hung between us, interrupted only by my breathing slightly harder than normal from the sudden diatribe I’d launched into. After a moment he said, “You get way too heated, chill out.” Oof. Seriously with the puns? You aren’t even the Ice Type Gym Leader yet!

I noticed that despite his words, his gaze had moved over from me to the Pokeball that I could see, buried under the gifts and balloons on his bedside table. He has a Cetoddle, doesn’t he? Wait, it’s his Altaria that he Terastalizes in the games, and I think I remember seeing some videos here of his Altaria cheering him on in competitions.

“As for not getting other visitors, I think that’s just because you were only just cleared for non-family visitation. I’m sure you’ll see tons of fans soon!” My cheery optimism was admittedly slightly influenced by the fact that I could hear someone walking quickly down the hallway toward us.

“We’ll see-” he began before he heard the footsteps too and the new guest burst in. At first, the view between us was obscured by the massive gift baskets and balloons they were carrying in front of them.

“Mr. Grusha sir! I’m your biggest fan and I wanted to… see how… you were… doing.” A familiar voice trailed off as the young man who had entered stopped to stare at me, dark eyes burning with hatred as he recognized me. A mutual feeling, prick.

He dropped the gift basket unceremoniously to the side and I heard a clanging that made me wince and hope that nothing in there had broken.“What are you doing here? Come to ruin my life again?!” Frederick van Grough demanded hands clenched into fists at his sides.

“Hardly, you do that so well yourself. Besides, why would I have any idea you would be here?”

“Because I’m Grusha’s greatest fan, of course!” He shouted. Is that really how you want to behave in front of the injured guy? Then again, I’m probably not helping by being here.

Shaking my head I turned to Grusha. “Sorry for being so disruptive. I hope- hopefully, my words were of some help. I’ll be leaving now.”

Sneering, Freddrick just had to throw in another jab. “Yeah, you better run. I’ve got a Tera Orb too now, so you won’t be able to cheat your way to victory again if we battled.” I should go, I should really go... but I’m not just going to take his slander lying down.

Turning back slowly at the edge of the doorway, I shot back “From what I remember, I wasn’t the one who got their badges stripped and barred from official League Matches for cheating. Or got kicked out of school, apparently,” I said, gesturing at his black and red uniform. It looked fairly fancy (his parents were still wealthy, after all), but it wasn’t the purple and gray Uva Academy uniform he’d been wearing at the tournament.

Uva Academy still probably has its issues with small acts getting swept under the rug, but something as public as Freddrick’s cheating scandal meant they must have had no choice but to get rid of him. I didn’t feel any sympathy for the young man in this situation, honestly believing that he’d likely have had too permissive a life if he felt he could act the way he had in the first place.

My taunts must have hit closer to home than I expected, as the boy stepped forward aggressively, raising his hands. “That investigation was rigged! Your parents have always been jealous of my family’s success-” He ranted, spittle flying off his face. As he approached, my own hands snapped up into a guard stance, ready to fight.

Before we could come to blows, however, the third occupant of the room cleared his throat. “Are you going to be fighting here?” He asked, more than a little incredulous. Ok, yeah, this isn’t cool.

“No, I’ll be heading out-”

“Cause you know your Pokemon can’t beat mine!”

“Is this really what you want to be doing as ‘Grusha’s greatest fan?’” I pointed out. That reminder seemed like it would have mollified him, at least to the point of letting me leave in peace until the man in question cut in.

“I want to see it,” he said in a low tone.

“Huh?” I asked, cocking my head at him.

“You said battling can be ‘amazing’, right?” He asked with air quotes. “I want to see that then.”

“This is… really not the usual part of being a trainer; me and Freddrick have history.” He narrowed his icy-blue eyes at me. “Fine, fine. Guess you should see all sides of battling if you want to get an idea of what being a Trainer will be like,” I muttered, loudly enough that he could still hear me. Then, in a louder voice, I faced Freddrick and declared: “I challenge you to a one-on-one battle.”

“You're on!” He snarled, whipping out a Pokeball from his belt.

“Uhh, whoa whoa. We aren’t going to battle in the hospital, right?” I asked, and my question was answered by one of the nurses who had come over to investigate the ruckus and now glared at the two of us.

***

With a bit of quick talking from Grusha and throwing his celebrity status around, we managed to arrange for our battle to take place outside, with Grusha escorted out to watch.

We had to wait for a bit as the staff got him a wheelchair and placed him down very gently in it, which led to an awkward and tense silence between myself and Freddrick. At one point, I muttered to him “Not sure what problem you have with me or my family, but none of that justifies your cheating.”

“The League was rigged-”

“Shut up. Lie to anyone else as much as you like, but don’t waste your breath on me. I heard you whispering to the head judge about how you got me disqualified.” And I don’t doubt that they cheated in the other ways the report mentioned as well.

The nurse started moving Grusha down, giving us a very pointed look to stop our bickering, which cut off any further ‘conversation’ between us until we reached the field out behind the hospital.

Given the mountainous terrain and the mobility of Pokemon, most patients came in through the front or were air-lifted in above. As such, we had a decently clear snowy field to battle in. The terrain gets a little hilly and bumpy past twenty meters out. Shouldn’t be too much problem for Dun to navigate in, but Freddrick will have the advantage in the air, assuming he decides to use-

“Go, Corvi!” He threw his Pokeball out immediately, and the gigantic metal bird took her place in front of him.

“Corviknight!” She crowed, flapping her wings and sending a flurry of snow into my face.

“Lovely,” I drawled, releasing Dun. “Let’s take our places and establish the rules.”

“What do we need to talk about? Just a one-on-one fight till the other side loses.” He said dismissively, but nonetheless started walking opposite me until we were far enough that with the chill wind we had to just barely push our voices above regular conversation levels.

“Don’t want any sudden curve balls thrown my way again,” I said with a mocking smile, as if I wasn’t still slightly bitter over how the Junior Tournament ended. “We just have one Pokemon each, so no switches. Fight til one side faints or surrenders, without needless malice. No battle items. Oh, and there’s a hospital nearby, so let's try to control our attacks away from there - anything that hits the building or people and could cause serious harm is an instant loss.”

Despite directing my words at my foe, my gaze wandered over to where Grusha sat in his wheelchair off on the side of our makeshift battlefield. The nurse who had helped wheel him out had quickly thrown a blanket over his lap, but he hadn’t seemed too affected by the cold. Jeez is that Auric potential, or just him being used to it from all his professional snowboarding?

Dun, clearly not trusting Freddrick, started drawing a line in the snow with his tail, well away from our ‘audience’. The older boy took a second glance at my starter and blinked before laughing out loud.

“You evolved your Pokemon, but it only got a bit longer? How lame!” His Pokemon didn’t share his amusement at the situation, her beady red eyes glaring down at Dun as he set up the field. As he finished laughing, he added “Though it is fitting, I suppose, that a lame Pokemon has a lame evolution.”

My Pokemon glared at him for a second before shrugging it off, turning around, and slithering back to me. He’s gotten a lot better control of his temper, I wonder if he's getting close to unlocking the Serene Grace Ability?

Miles zipped out of my pocket and hovered at the side of the field, recording the match and I picked up a twig fallen from a nearby tree. “We’ll begin when this stick hits the ground, sound good?”

“Fine, just hurry it up,” Freddrick said, not having any meaningful objections. I tossed it up, and a split second before it hit the snow, my foe gave an order.

“Sky Attack!” Like the end of our last match, Corviknight began glowing brightly, such a harsh light surrounded her that even I felt the instinctual need to avert my gaze.

“Ancient Power, then block it!” I called out. Dun whipped his tail up and sharp rocks shot out of the ground, flying like spears that clanged against Corviknight’s heavily armored wings. Dun had improved at wielding this attack, but he barely had time to launch three of his rocks at his foe before we both felt the bird approach, swooping down.

As fast as her attack was, my large land snake was even quicker to defend, aborting his attack and surrounding himself with the translucent green barrier. A small shockwave boomed out from the point of impact, and while there were a few small cracks that formed in his shield, Dun held out against the attack, the light dying down as the bird lifted off, back into the air.

“Ancient Power,” I tried again, hoping for that omni-boost that would make winning this fight a breeze. Unfortunately, we had barely as much time as we did for the first volley before she began glowing harshly again, literally flying into the attack almost as fast as last time.

She bashed once again against Dun’s Protect, forcing his attack off but once more failing to pierce the nigh-invincible barrier. I see, it looks like that first attack wasn’t a fluke, or a ‘fluke’. Was the report about him using Power Herb false- no, that’s not it. He probably was training to make up for it ever since, so he can pretend to anyone who would care to listen to him that it was faked.

Unfortunately for him, that seemed to be the only area they improved, as when the attack failed again, he tried for the same Move once more. It’s fast, but Dun can still use his faster Moves in between Protecting against the powerful Sky Attack. We’re whittling him down slowly but surely, but… Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Grusha frowning at the fight. My goal here is to get Grusha interested in being a trainer, and then hopefully a Gym Leader, not just on winning at any cost. Not, that I’m going to lose, in any case.

“Glare,” I gave the order before Corviknight could get too bright for him to look at, eliciting a frightened squawk as his foe beheld his near-demonic visage.

She pushed through, having enough control over her body to avoid falling down this time and even striking Dun’s shield. Less force this time, though. Guess fighting against your muscles freezing up can cost you power on some Moves.

This time Corviknight had to land down after the attack, talons sinking into the snow beside Dun. Freddrick, seeing this, finally decided to give up on his old strategy. “Fury Attack!”

“Parry!” With his longer body, Dun could twist around to follow the furious pecking on his own, rather than having to rely on my hand gestures to block the attacks with his tail. This time though, there was an unexpected pause in the attacks as her Paralysis stopped Corviknight, throwing off Dun’s rhythm and letting her land a few hits against his softer body.

The next time she froze though, I was ready. “Hyper Drill!” Point blank, he burst backward into Corviknight, his tail spinning incredibly fast. On impact, there was a horrendous screeching sound, as even her metal armor couldn’t fully stop the power of one of his strongest Moves.

With a cry of pain, she backed away, forgoing offense in favor of distance. Dun spun around to face her and I decided to try out a new Move we’d been working on.

“Triple Yawn!” Taking in a massive breath, inflating all three segments of his body, Dun exhaled, letting out a large beige cloud that slowly drifted up to Corviknight.

“Blow that shit away!” Freddrick cussed, grinning as his Pokemon easily dispersed the cloud with one sweep of her wings. Before they had time to cheer, Dun let out another cloud, another segment deflating as he did so. She repeated the action, but one final instance of the Move was ready to be released the moment after the winds she had kicked up had stopped.

Corviknight’s muscles were seizing, having a hard time working through the Paralysis. Personally, I don’t feel shouting at your Pokemon ‘just do it!’ and ‘hurry up!’ help here.

Nonetheless, Frederick’s Pokemon followed his frantic ‘commands’ and managed to blast away the cloud at the last second before it could envelop her.

Dun and I hadn’t been idle while she was struggling with that, however. Drawing my fist down to not give away the game, my starter began gathering electrical energy high above and released it just as Corviknight finished blocking our previous attack.

The Thunder hit with a flash and loud boom, the electricity piercing her and causing real damage. She fell to the ground, but rather than follow it up with Earthquake or any form of attack, I focused on our own speed. “Agility!”

Dun glowed bright blue, zipping around the battlefield as Corviknight got back to her feet. Freddrick stomped the ground, hissing as he stepped a bit too deeply in the snow and sunk past his fashionable yet not very tall boots.

“Gah! Enough of this, let’s show them your true power!” He shouted, drawing forth his Tera Orb from his pocket. The orb shook in his hands as he activated it, tossing it over his Pokemon’s head where it burst into light, encasing her in crystals for a brief moment before they shattered. She emerged, glowing and with a set of crystalline balloons resting atop her head.

“Wing Attack!” He ordered, and she caught us off guard, flying forward faster than before, Terastalization, or perhaps the desperation of the moment, allowed her to shake off the Paralysis that had hampered her prior. The surprise let her slam one wing into Dun, knocking him back a bit, but he soon adjusted, rolling with the blow and quickly avoiding any follow-up, dancing out of the way.

“Ancient Power.” Dun sped around the battlefield, rocks hurtling out at irregular intervals from wherever he passed by - and occasionally striking into his foe from behind as he telekinetically controlled the few that missed hitting again.

“Night!” The bird Pokemon cried out in pain as the attacks racked up against her.

“What’s the problem? You’re Terastalized, just push through!” Freddrick complained, a nervousness in his eyes as even the arrogant young man started to realize he was going to lose.

“That’s exactly the problem,” I pointed out, before seeing Dun glow with a mysterious power.

“Ok, that’s one of two problems. The first is that by turning Corviknight into a pure Flying Type, you may have strengthened some of her Moves, but you left her weak to others.”

“What’s the other?!” Well, technically the other issue is the omni-boost Dun just got from Ancient Power, but I'd rather just have a dramatic, ‘cool’ line.

“This. Thunder,” I declared, letting them watch in awe as Dun unleashed a powerful series of lightning strikes falling like rain down upon Corvknight. With his speed and power increased, there was no contest, and try though she might to get close to him, she fell short, collapsing into the snow in front of Dun and not getting up. “It’s over.”

Freddrick was stunned, just staring out into space as if he couldn’t understand how this happened. I pushed that and any worries about what he might do to the side, returning Dun to his Pokeball. I’m sure he could heal the injuries with a Roost pretty quickly, but he’s looking pretty tired from all the Moves he did and I can just use a Potion later.

Walking over to Grusha, I saw the man was shivering a little, which was to be expected given the weather. He barely seemed to care, however, holding a Pokeball in his hand and glancing down at it and back at the battlefield repeatedly. “So, you find that… fun?” He asked awkwardly.

Not like he didn’t believe me but more that he was just having trouble with something…

Having trouble hoping. That there could be something in his future. Which, a little melodramatic, but I’ll give it to him, given the circumstances. “Yeah,” I said, nodding vigorously.

“Freddrick and I aren’t even the best examples of that - like I said, we don’t get along. But even so, I was having a blast. Pokemon battles have elegance, skill, quick thinking and big picture decisions, power, speed… they’re just the best. What Pokemon can do is magical and leading and training them, helping them reach the highest heights, it feels incredible.”

Internally, I cursed myself for not having a better description on hand. I felt like I could have spoken about battling for days on end, but in the moment the words wouldn’t come out right.

Not that it seemed to matter, Grusha looked at me with wide eyes before grabbing my hand and shaking it. “Thank you,” he breathed out, and I thought I saw water gathering in his eyes before he turned to the nurse, asking her to take him back.

Wow, glad I made a good impression. He was a cool Gym Leader and I would have been upset with myself if I inadvertently drove him away from that. Turning away, I started marching away from the hospital, deciding I had done enough and it would be best to leave. Unfortunately, Freddrick didn’t feel the same way, running forward and grabbing me.

Yelping, I twisted, his bigger body and sudden force causing me to fall into the snowy ground. My instincts kicked in on the way down and I managed to pull him with me, turning and trying to get his body under mine. The person on the top of a grapple had a huge advantage. Of course, since he was older than me, his size played a role too, and even managing to use his strength against him and get the top position, it was still a struggle as he flailed about.

“What is your problem?” I screeched, trying to pin his thrashing arms down and avoid getting thrown off.

“YOU! Everyone is always talking about how you’re so smart and Ma and Pa keep on telling me I need to show up the Glitterati’s and then you somehow beat me and it’s not fair-” The rich boy screamed as he struggled beneath me.

For a moment I was tempted to punch his face, but pulled back. Ironically, I was brought back by the sound of Miles hovering over him and buzzing very dangerously, reminding me of just how much damage I could truly do to Freddrick if I wanted to fuck him up… and how he wasn’t worth it.

“Oh, shove off!” Despite telling him to do that, I was the one who pushed off of his face with my hand, standing back up. I kept an eye on him in case he was going to start fighting me again, but all I saw was a snot-nosed brat crying in the snow. Jeez, this is embarrassing. Not on his behalf, but just from how sloppy my fight was. I know we’re in the snow and wearing heavy clothing, but I felt so sloppy here. Hmm, better add this kind of practice to my routines with Dendra.

“Quit complaining about your parents, you were a jerk to me before you even knew who I was. Your cheating is your own damn problem. Do you want to get better? Maybe treat your Pokemon better and stop cheating.” Flinging a hand out to point at the Corviknight still lying down in the cold (something we were all feeling after his little fit).

Frederick blinked, slowly getting up and returning his Pokemon. “This was supposed to be my chance to visit Grusha,” he muttered. “But you got to be the one who helped him-”

“Newsflash!” I interrupted him, causing the taller boy to flinch back. “We both helped him!”

“What?” The van Grough boy looked at me like I just said the sky was green.

“I couldn’t have shown him how great being a trainer was without you, so if you’re worried about that, then you did help. Maybe take that and stop being such a dick to everyone else,” I muttered the last part as I turned away. Whatever, I’m not his keeper. Whether he’s a better person or not is his own choice.

Without any further words, I turned and walked away, trudging through the snow to the town square. Miles, ever faithful, had already begun sending out a request for a Flying Taxi to pick me up.

“Thanks.”

“Bzzt, no problems, Young- Nemona,” They caught themselves, knowing I didn’t care to stand on station when it was just the two of us. “I think you handled that quite well, bzzt.”

Blowing out a hot breath and shaking a bit of snow off I responded. “Definitely think I could have handled it better too, but whatever. It’s done now.” Looking down the street I could already see the Flying Taxi landing down. Dang that’s fast, must have been in the area.

“Let’s look forward to better things. Next stop, vacation!”

“But your family vacation isn’t for another two weeks, bzzt. So actually the next stop is home, then over to Dendra’s dojo for practice tomorrow…” Letting out a small sigh and a side-eye, not entirely certain if Miles was being overly literal or messing with me, I climbed into the basket. I could barely think about that however as my imagination turned to my next great adventure, waiting beyond the horizon. Kitakami.