New Beginnings – A Pokemon Slice of Life. [OC/Isekai/Move Tutor/Breeder]

“You see? They’re not going to hurt you, Shuckle,” Ethan said comfortably as Shuckle cautiously began to exit his burrow. Shuckle’s eyes remained locked on the construction company members and their pokemon.

“Shuck-le-le?”

Ethan patted Shuckle on his shell as he waited for him to finish his observations. He wasn’t going to force Shuckle to get used to outsiders, but he’d encourage it. “Did you know that you’re a very special pokemon?”

Shuckle shook his little yellow head as he continued watching on. “You’re the slowest pokemon that exists, and you’re very weak when attacking. When hit directly on your body, you’re very frail.”

Shuckle began to look dejected, but Ethan continued with a smile, catching his attention. “You’re also the pokemon with the highest defenses. Out of them all, you’re at, or tied at the very top. You’re capable of learning a move that swaps your defense and attack, enabling you to take on any foe at the risk of becoming physically vulnerable. It’s called Power Trick.”

Now his gaze was on Ethan, his tiny jaw dropping as he listened on. “While you’ll still be very slow, nobody will want to mess with you after that. And if they try? Well, you’ll be doing so much damage that they’ll learn the hard way… What I'm trying to say is, you’re not useless. You do not exist to get picked on. You don’t have to be afraid of strangers—being cautious is all well and good, but you’ll never make any friends if you don’t come out of your shell.“

After a deep breath, Ethan pointed off at the meadow. “Do you want to try learning some moves? I’d like to see what you already know as well.”

Shuckle nodded rapidly, eager to learn how to fight back for once. Ethan picked up his berry fermentor, who was a hefty fifty pounds, and headed towards the meadow, passing Alba’s workers as they organized their materials and planned out the construction of his soon-to-be ranch.

Once in the open field, Ethan put Shuckle down and took a few steps back. “Okay, Shuckle. How about you show me what you can do? I know you know dig, but what else?”

Shuckle ducked into his shell, then came out of several of his other holes, effectively turning around. Shuckle stared fiercely into the distance, and then with a cute yell of “Shuu!” retreated into his shell as a faint coat of shimmering blue rippled over him.

With as much praise as he could muster, Ethan cheered on his pokemon. “Great job! I think that was Withdraw. It raises your physical defense. What else?”

As Shuckle focused on doing his next move, Ethan watched very carefully. In the games, when a buff or debuff affected a pokemon, the animation was usually an orange or blue effect. Orange for a buff, blue for a debuff. He’d need to see if that was truly the case here, or whether the blue shimmer was the effect of using a water move. This would be the easiest way to know if Shuckle had the ability Contrary.

Next, Shuckle flailed a limb forward. A baseball sized brown rock materialized and launched into the distance. It was a fairly fast projective, but not nearly as fast as a major league baseball pitch.

“Nice! I think that was Rock Throw. It’s always good to have some ranged options for when you need it. You’re also a rock type, so it gets an extra little boost to power. Anything else?”

With another nod, Shuckle walked toward Ethan. Once at his feet, Shuckle’s limbs quickly wrapped around his leg, coiling around his calf like a rope. It didn’t hurt at all, feeling like a hug, but Ethan didn’t doubt that it could hurt, if Shuckle intended for it too. “Another great move! That’s Wrap or Bind. I can’t really tell the difference, but both are very useful moves for a lower damage pokemon. This is a great foundation!”

Shuckle let go, unwinding his limbs from Ethan’s leg, then tapped his shoe. Next, he wiggled one limb into the field and huffed some air out of his nose in determination. Seeing this, Ethan figured that Shuckle had yet another move. Shuckle reared his head back in a mighty, intimidating pose, then thrust his neck forward!

*ACK*

Like a cat coughing up a fur ball, Shuckle hawked up a spray of absolutely foul smelling purple liquid. It splattered across the grass harmlessly. Shuckle withdrew and popped out of his other holes to turn around, and looked at Ethan with an eager smile, expecting more praise.

Ethan held a forced smile as best as he could. “Wow! I don’t even know what move that is! Very impressive! Now, let’s talk about what moves you should learn. While I would love to teach you Power Trick, I wouldn’t even know where to start. There’s a similar move, Power Split. It evens out your attack with your opponents. Since you’re naturally weak, you will get much stronger while your enemy will get weaker. I think it would be a good starting place to learn these swapping moves… But, you’ll need a partner…”

Ethan looked over his shoulder toward the cabin, where Chatot sat perched. She’d been watching the construction workers go about their tasks with intrigue and curiosity. He cupped his hands and was just about to yell when a soft, questioning cry came from off near the trees.

“Ral?”

The tiny fairy had its head peeking out from a nearby bush. Its bowl cut hid one of its curious pinkish-red eyes as it held a nubby hand up, tapping its chin. Before Ethan could even attempt an introduction, Shuckle was in his shell. He had entered with such speed that Ethan barely managed to catch the final rocking tilt of the shell as it stilled.

He knelt and gave Shuckle some pats. “Ralts is a friend. Remember what I said earlier? Not every pokemon is out to get you.”

Shuckle wasn’t swayed by Ethan’s honeyed words. He stayed in his shell, unmoving, pretending he didn’t exist.

“Ralts?” Ralts stumbled forward and waddled over. It took careful steps to not trip over its wispy, overly-long toga-like body, and peered into one of Shuckle’s holes.

“Garde-Gardevoir.” Following right after Ralts, was the familiar sight of Gardevoir. She gracefully floated over the tall grass, not opting to walk on her two legs, as she spoke a few more words to the curious Ralts. When she finished, Ralts waddled away from Shuckle, leaving the poor pokemon alone. He still refused to move or reveal himself.

The Gardevoir gave Ethan a nod of recognition and a smile. “Hello, kind one. I’m glad to see you’re doing better, and that your dreams are becoming a reality. I have come bearing a gift.”

“A gift? For me?” Ethan had only met this family of psychics once, and it was for less than five minutes. He hadn’t done anything to earn a gift.

As if reading his mind, Gardevoir’s eyes twinkled with mischief and she gestured towards the way they came. “Here he comes.”

“Paaaaaaaaaachiiiiiiiiii!”

Turning his head excitedly toward the sound of his missing friend, rewarded Ethan with a face full of soft white and blue fur as his neck snapped back from the force of Pachirisu’s enthusiastic entrance.

Pachirisu hugged his face as rubbed his tingly cheeks all over Ethan as he rapidly said his name over and over again, shuddering as he took rapid breaths.

“Pachi-pachi-pachi-pachi-pachi.”

Ethan tore the rodent off of his face as he tried not to cry from relief and joy. He held Pachirisu high in the air like he was raising Simba on top of pride rock. Pachirisu was blubbering and making grabby motions with his two tiny, outstretched hands. Ethan brought him to his chest and hugged him dearly. They both stayed like that until Gardevoir spoke into Ethan’s mind.

“He came to me, told me that you had been stolen, and asked for the help of the fairies. He wouldn’t leave until we came with him.” Gardevoir listened to Pachirisu’s blabbering for a moment, then laughed with a beautiful voice in his mind. “He says that he’s sorry for stealing your berries and for not helping more. He says he’ll protect you to make sure you don’t get ‘stolen’ again.”

Ethan felt the static electricity charging in his plain white t-shirt and held Pachirisu up again. “I missed you too. I wasn’t stolen… I was saved. You see these people?” He nodded off toward the construction crew, who had all stopped working and were watching on with various expressions, and Pachirisu sniffled with a nod. “They’re here to build me a home. A proper home… but sooner or later, I'll have to leave again.”

Pachirisu started crying again, shaking his head back and forth in denial.

“BUT! I think I’d like for you to come with me. This way, we won’t have to be separated again. You can live here with me. You don’t have to live in the forests if you don’t want to.” Ethan placed Pachirisu on his shoulder, then unclipped his last remaining pokeball. He tapped the button in the center, enlarging it, then offered it toward Pachirisu.

Pachirisu looked confused on what it was, and looked between it, Ethan, and Gardevoir.

“Garde-gar. Gardevoir. Gard, gar-arde.” She pointed to the pokeball, and Pachirisu, without hesitation, leaped at it. He was instantly sucked inside with a red stream of light.

*Ding!*

The ball didn’t even shake once, unlike the times before. Ethan heard clapping from off by his cabin, where the construction crew gathered. “Oh god. This is pretty embarrassing.”

“♫ Chaa-tooot! ♫”

Chatot flew over, landing on his shoulder with a tilt of the head as she stared at the pokeball in his palm. Gardevoir gave Chatot a nod and a greeting, and Ralts, wanting to copy his mother, did the same.

“♫ Chaa-tooot! ♫”

Shuckle ever so slowly raised his thin yellow head out of one of his many holes and peered around like a submarine’s periscope. “Shuck?”

Ethan released Pachirisu from his ball, and when he materialized, he twisted toward Ethan with eyes full of tears, and a happy, heartwarming smile… Then he stilled. He narrowed his blurry eyes at Chatot, who peered back at the electric squirrel from atop Lee’s shoulder—No, from Pachirisu’s spot.

“Pachi.” Said Pachirisu, tone flat and factual as he sniffed and rubbed his narrowed eyes.

Chatot raised a brow and looked toward Ethan’s other, empty, shoulder. “♫ Chatot. ♫”

Pachirisu, affronted by the mere suggestion that he take the left shoulder, began stomping his foot down on the grass while pointing at Chatot. “Pachi, pach-pach-paaaaa!”

Ethan, Gardevoir, Ralts, Shuckle, and the construction crew watched on with a mix of emotions. Gardevoir was amused by the scene unfolding before them. Ralts looked a little clueless, if Ethan was being honest. Shuckle looked worried, and the construction crew looked jovial like they were about to watch a movie.

Ethan was confused, but figured that it was best for them to sort this out peacefully. They were part of the same family, and holding grudges wouldn’t work well.

Pachirisu stomped forward toward Ethan’s leg, and then began climbing his way up toward Chatot, who looked impressed and intrigued. Almost as if she was thinking, “Oh!? You’re approaching me?”

Pachirisu held his glare the entire way up, and tried to insert himself in between Ethan’s head and Chatot’s body, shoving his way in. Ethan tilted his head away to give Pachirisu some extra room, but Chatot was an immovable object.

They both began bickering with one another. Over the next fifteen seconds, it ramped up in intensity. But eventually, they both seemed to come to the same conclusion.

Pachi jumped off his shoulder with a twirling flip and landed with a slide on the tall grass. Chatot flew up into the air, doing a lap from up above before she fluttered down to stand several feet across from Pachirisu. They both glared at one another.

They prepared for battle.