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

Pachirisu’s tail stood high and twitched with anticipation, while across from him, Chatot’s tail rhythmically wagged back and forth, setting up the tempo for the battle to come, and Ethan stood there with worry.

“Let it happen. Adversity builds strength and creates bonds. Let them show each other what they’re made of.” Gardevoir spoke into his mind, clearly well aware of his thoughts about stopping the battle to come. She flicked her eyes toward him. “Support them. Create the rules and make sure they don’t go overboard.”

Ethan nodded, then walked up in between the two glaring pokemon, acting as a referee. “This battle is for the spot to rest on my right shoulder?” He asked, unconfidently. The two pokemon nodded with seriousness, lowered their postures, and tensed their muscles.

“This battle will end when I deem one side too damaged to continue. You will stop the battle when I say so, or you will be disqualified and lose all riding privileges. Chatot, no using Boomburst. Pachirisu, no using Super Fang. Do you both understand?” Ethan looked at each of his pokemon, getting nods in return.

“The battle will start when this berry touches the ground. Good luck.” Ethan grabbed one of the many berries he had, then backed up to give them some space. With a deep breath, Ethan lobbed the berry in between the two battlers and watched as both of their eyes tracked it through the air.

It rolled and tumbled, and as soon as the juicy flesh touched the dirt, the battle exploded into action.

Immediately, both Pokemon went on the offensive. Chatot hopped backwards, using her tensed muscles to spring and glide, while using Chatter. She chatted on and on in a melodic and repeated song. The pink, blue, and yellow sound waves traveled through the air at breakneck speeds, but Pachirisu wasn’t a slouch.

With decisiveness, Pachirisu matched the speed of sound with the speed of electricity. A faint thrum of electricity radiated forward in a circular beam, creating an eerie static crackling sound reminiscent of failing reception on a radio. Without waiting for his move to hit, he instantly tunneled into the ground, using Dig to evade Chatot’s sound waves.

The electric attack slammed into the flying type, but to both Ethan and Chatot’s surprise, she was unharmed. Ethan hadn’t ever seen that move before, and was curious about the effects.

Chatot flew higher to get away from the ground, scanning across the grassy meadow like a bird of prey, waiting for the moment Pachirisu came up from his Dig. While Chatot might have thought herself safe, as she was well over fifteen feet up in the air, Ethan knew what the rodent was capable of.

Pachirisu launched like a bullet out of the ground, launching himself toward Chatot with a cry. “Pachi!”

Sparks of electricity surged from his cheeks as he grasped the startled bird and mushed his face into her feathers, quickly shaking his head from side to side. Chatot’s muscles seized, and she began falling out of the sky. The paralyzing effects of Nuzzle settled in, but she could still make sounds.

Chatot latched her talons into Pachirisu’s tail, holding him in place as they both tumbled through the air toward the ground. She took a deep breath, her chest swelling from the intake of air, then screamed into Pachirisu’s face, causing him to grimace as the sound alone blew his fur backwards in forceful waves.

Ethan was about to call it right then and there, afraid for the safety of his pokemon, but to his utter confusion, the Hyper Voice was much weaker than he’d thought it would be, and half-way through the screams, another surge of paralysis, cut the move short.

They both crashed to the ground, both a little worse for wear from the impact, but still raring to go.

Pachirisu was the first to recover and used Quick Attack to surge the short distance into Chatot’s side. He then gathered his electricity and head-butted Chatot with a super effective Spark.

Chatot screamed not in an attack, but in pain. In desperation, she used Peck to jam her beak into Pachirisu’s forehead, knocking him away so that she could take flight into the air, escaping his range.

After flying well out of the distance of a potential Dig launched rodent, Chatot eventually turned to look down upon her grounded foe, only to see a sea of white stars. The Swift, a move Ethan had personally taught Pachirisu, flew through the air with unerring accuracy, tracking Chatot down without fail. She twisted, turned, dived, and rolled, but the stars were unrelenting.

But Chatot couldn’t evade forever. A surge a paralysis caught her mid flight, and the Swift stars hammered home. Ethan watched as Chatot tumbled out of the air, and decided that he should call it there. “STOP! Pachirisu is the winner.”

Ethan quickly grabbed Chatot’s pokeball and returned her before she could hit the ground, then immediately let her out to check her injuries. Chatot was still conscious, but she was upset about losing. She was missing some of her feathers, had some singed marks, and looked generally scuffed up, but she didn't appear truly injured. She still spasmed with paralysis every few seconds, and as if sensing his worry, Gardevoir’s eyes shined a bright purple, and from several hundred feet away from his berry farm, a lone berry hovered through the air towards him.

It was the shape of a cherry and was the smallest berry he grew on his farm. It was a bright orange with a hint of fiery red scattered in patches across its skin. Ethan had remembered eating a few here and there, and knew that they were spicy and had a very smooth texture. Gardevoir floated the berry down in front of Chatot with her Psychic, and Chatot gobbled it up with a single bite.

Gardevoir’s eyes returned to normal as she turned to Ethan. “The green ones call it a Cheri berry. They can cure paralysis. She’ll be fine in a minute or two. Her wounds will heal in a few hours.”

Pachirisu ran up to him and clambered up his leg to sit on his hard fought spot with a self-assured smile. He wrapped his extraordinarily fluffy, poofy tail around Ethan’s neck as an anchor and smiled smugly. “Pachi” He said with a nod of the head as he crossed his arms in victory.

Chatot glared from her spot on the ground, looking disdainfully at Ethan’s left shoulder. Ethan cleared his throat and tried to mend any lingering ill will. “You both agreed to the battle and the rewards, and I stopped the battle before either of you got seriously injured. The results are final, but I think both of you did great. Maybe after some more training, you both can try again to see who can claim the throne? Say… a month from now?”

They both easily agreed. Chatot because she wanted her spot back, and Pachirisu because he wanted to prove himself. He was taking this ‘not being stolen’ thing rather seriously.

“Shuckle?”

Shuckle looked back and forth worriedly between the two winded pokemon, but Ralts patted him on his shell and spoke to him with cute sagely nods. Gardevoir watched on and smiled, proud of whatever Ralts was saying. Shuckle listened raptly, then closed his eyes with a slight smile of relief.

Shuckle withdrew one of his noodly arms to grab a berry and handed it to Ralts as a thanks. It was one of the few berries Ethan actually knew about, a Sitrus berry. Shuckle then did the same, but offered it to Chatot, who, of course, gobbled it up.

Gardevoir turned to Ethan. “May I take some berries home with me for the others?”

He waved off toward the trees. “By all means, feel free. You’re welcome back anytime if you’d like some more. I’m opening a ranch here. So, I’ll be teaching pokemon moves, breeding pokemon, and keeping their eggs safe. I don’t plan on leaving.”

Gardevoir listened carefully. “I understand, kind one. Breeding pokemon is something that is known to many of us. The safety of offspring is paramount to the continuation of lineages. You are a caretaker and protector. We share similar roles. Perhaps you can watch over one of mine some time in the future.”

She finished by giving him a nod of respect and then floated off toward his berry farm to collect some berries. Ralts waved goodbye to Shuckle as he gnawed on the Sitrus berry. He sprinted and tipped over his toga, but blipped out of existence just before face planting, appearing next to Gardevoir like nothing happened.

“Well, that was a lot of excitement. Pachirisu, I think its time for some proper introductions. You’re familiar with Chatot, but this here is Shuckle. He’s shy, but he loves berries and keeps them safe for us,” Ethan said, causing Pachirisu to look down at the red shell of Shuckle with a wave. “Pachi!”

Shuckle carefully smiled and flailed one of his forelimbs in what amounted to a wave of his own. “Shuckle…”

“Remember how I taught you all those moves so long ago? I’m trying to teach Shuckle here some moves as well, but he needs a partner. Do you want to be his partner?” Ethan asked.

Pachirisu straightened his back and jabbed a thumb at his chest. With gleaming eyes and a confident nod, he said his trademark, “PACHI!!!” before jumping down to train.

Ethan had Shuckle try to focus on his power, and the difference between it and Pachirisu’s. As it was a psychic type move, Ethan figured it was more of a mental thing. He tried to get Shuckle into the mindset that he could literally even the playing field. Shuckle was weak right now, but in the future? He’d be strong. They didn’t get anywhere with the training in the next few hours, but this was most definitely not a move a young pokemon learned in a single day. He’d be surprised if Shuckle learned it in a week.

Chatot had fully recovered halfway during their training session, and Ethan still couldn’t believe the speed at which pokemon recovered, Sitrus berries helping the process or not. She was currently perched on top of a berry tree, watching the construction crew finish up for the day. She was very interested in them for some reason, but they didn’t seem to mind the attention.

Pachirisu quickly grew bored standing around while Shuckle thought hard in his direction. So, he’d taken a nap. His thick, fluffy tail wrapped around him, causing it to act as a pillow and mattress as he gently snoozed in the meadow. The high stakes battle and emotional day must have tuckered the little guy out.

Ethan had to give some inputs on where he wanted the well and pond, and the construction crew finished the surrounding fencing in a single day. They had just left for Eterna City, done with the day's work, as Ethan sat down on his log and gazed about his slowly transforming clearing.

So much had happened in such a short amount of time. A little over a week ago, he was still a man lost and afraid, sitting on this very log, thinking about the end. The end of it all and the end of being alone.

Now? Now, he had a purpose. He had family, friends, relationships, and most importantly, will. He wanted for all of… this to work out. Ethan wanted for all pokemon, strong or weak, to know that this place would be a safe-haven for them and their children. He wanted to be known to trainers as a person they could trust their partner to, and know that the pokemon would trust him to believe that he knew what he was doing, so that they could become strong for their trainers.

He’d cut away a slice of this massive forest for his endeavors, and he would try his best to make his new dreams come true.

This was the most important moment of time in his new life.

This was a new beginning.