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

Ethan continued to oversee the training of the pokemon for another few hours. He’d occasionally give some words of advice, which were probably completely wrong, but his words did appear to help… sometimes.

Gogoat was a shining example. The previously floundering goat was now well on its way toward mastering the move Bulldoze. Currently, the leafy goat was doing laps around his ranch, kicking up dirt and debris as its cloven hooves cause the ground around to shake and quake.

After spending the last two days in the thick of it, fully teaching pokemon for hours and hours, he’d come to appreciate the absurd energy reserves and powers pokemon had at their disposal. Gogoat ran laps around his roughly mile wide ranch and didn’t even appear the least bit winded. Every few laps, Ethan would catch the sight of Blitzle following after.

Another impressive pokemon was Hitmonlee. It was another powerhouse, When it came to stamina, he was up there along with Gogoat for number one. The martial artist was sweating, that much was sure, but its fluid kicks and precise form, which gave way to perfect leg sweeps, only made the brown nugget eager to continue—spurred on by its success. Hitmonlee was finished with his tutoring. There wasn’t much else to teach.

Sneasel could use Sucker Punch roughly eighty percent of the time now. The angsty dark type relishing the fact that he could sneakily and savagely pop a pokemon in the face. Ethan would be surprised if Sneasel didn’t have the move down and completed by the end of the day.

Chatot, after swapping from Thief to Knock Off, was coming along nicely in her training. Ethan estimated in another day or two, his singing companion would have the move added into her arsenal.

In preparation for their completion of their moves, Ethan stepped off to the side to make some calls. Calling their trainers earlier with a heads up was just a courtesy, but these trainers didn’t stay at his ranch and start up trouble. They earned the calls.

Right when Ethan whipped out its phone and went to dial some of their numbers, his phone rang. Seeing that it was Cynthia, Ethan answered immediately. He wasn’t sure if this was a call regarding the news this morning, or that she somehow heard about what had happened on his ranch. Either way, it was sure to be an interesting call.

Because if she didn’t know about the Ursaring who was about to run rampant because of poaching, she was going to hear it first hand.

Ethan accepted the call, and tilted his head to talk with his hands free. He went off toward his Oran trees and started to restock Chatot’s and Sneasel’s dwindling pile. “Hello?”

“Ethan, on behalf of the Sinnoh Pokemon League, thank you for your foreknowledge. I never expected to have such heinous criminals in the region. It was worse than I had previously imagined, and without your information, Team Galactic could have done an untold amount of damage to both our reputation, and pokemon around the world.”

Ethan coughed as he stop picking berries, he properly held the phone up to his ear as he awkwardly stood there wondering what to say. “You’re welcome?”

He could hear her laugh from the other side of the phone. “That was a little too formal, but I meant what I said. They… nevermind. It’s the past now. I called for two reasons. One, I wanted to thank you, and two, I was calling to ask whether you’d be willing to foster some of the pokemon we’ve recovered from their facilities.”

Ethan frowned as Cynthia carried on. “We’re currently reconnecting pokemon with their trainers… but some of them didn’t make it or are unreachable. We’re not just contacting you, but many other pokemon ranches, farms, or daycares. There’d be paperwork and other ribbons to cut through, and I know you just started, but I think I have a pretty good judge of your character.”

Thinking about the troubled pokemon was already enough to get him on board, but with how hectic his ranch was becoming, he needed to be sure he could properly take care of them. He was already being pulled around in many separate directions. He needed a schedule, plan, and solid foundations to keep everything he had going for him running smoothly.

“I’d be happy to look after some of them, but my ranch isn’t enormous, nor does it have biomes fit for all pokemon. With tutoring, the incoming fifty or so Oddish babies I’m going to get soon, trainer troubles, not knowing what the hell I’m doing, and poor organization… I’m worried whether I’ll do a good job. I don’t want already traumatized or lost pokemon to suffer because I can’t get my shi—everything on my end together.”

“I understand. I hope you didn’t mind my little advertising. I thought it’d be a solid jumpstart to your career.”

Ethan let loose an audible sigh as he took a seat on the ground, watching a few of the local Starly flutter off with some berries. “Well, out of the twelve trainers that came by yesterday, one of them tried to evolve their baby Aipom, another wanted me to teach their Gabite Frustration, and this morning, a trainer attempted to poach a Teddiursa from the local Ursaring who came to visit. I had to call the rangers and have her arrested…”

Unable to stop his rant, he continued. “If I’m being honest, your advertisement was a little too much trouble. I’m starting to think a slow and steady approach would have been much better… You do realize I’m winging all of this, right? I’m not a professional. I feel like a fraud.”

“Ethan. Calm down. You’re not a fraud.”

Ethan released another sigh as Cynthia carried on. “You’re not a fraud… You’re just new. Do you think I’d go out of my way to talk about you if I didn’t think you’d do, or are doing, a good job? While it might have been a tad much, that much I can readily admit, I do think it’s taught you a lot. If it helps, that Gabite trainer had his license revoked after some investigating. He’d been abusing his pokemon… What I’m trying to say here, is that you’re learning that those younger trainers are going out on their journey. They’re still kids. I was that kid once upon a time, but you weren’t. They’re young, reckless, and think they can take on the world. This is where they learn consequences—One second.”

Click

Ethan checked his phone, seeing that the call had ended.

“As I was saying—” The voice of Cynthia spoke from up and behind him. Spinning around, Ethan saw Champion Cynthia on top of a beautiful Togekiss, who hovered without effort above the berry trees with a crinkly eyed smile. Apparently, her Togekiss liked to sneak up on people.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Ethan hissed as he peeked through the singular line of trees toward his training grounds, where the pokemon and trainers participating in his tutoring looked on with awe at the hovering Champion.

As Ethan ran a hand down his face, Cynthia smiled smugly. “I’m here to see your little operation. Doesn’t look very fraudulent to me.”

Togekiss let out a small crooning noise as it hovered lower to the ground, its large flapping wing/arms tucking in slightly to not get in the way of the nearby trees. Cynthia hopped off from where she stood on its back and gave a silent ‘thanks’ to her pokemon as she returned it into its UItra Ball.

Cynthia picked one of the nearby toy-top-like Figy berries and plopped it in her mouth. “You do realize you have a hefty fortune in berries on your property, right? You should look into training your pokemon to defend your berries.”

Ethan gave her a deadpan look. “They literally grow on trees, and I have too many to count. So, why are you really here? I doubt it was to check up on the random person who appeared out of thin air one day.”

Cynthia picked a Leppa next, before she explained. “Well, with Team Galactic ruined, we’re in the process of cleanup, and you can’t transfer eggs through the GTL.”

Cynthia reached into the small bag on her hip and withdrew two melon-sized eggs. One of them had small pink stars and lines of silver across the shell. The other had arcs of yellow lightning streaking up and down the shell, and gentle wind currents.

Ethan admired the first pokemon eggs he’d ever seen, surprised that the outside shell was so colorful and detailed. As Cynthia had one egg in each hand, she raised the one with lightning marks. “This one I personally picked out for you. I’ll leave it as a surprise. The other—We don't know for sure. I only brought these two, as I wasn't aware of how big your ranch was. I should have brought some more.”

Ethan blinked. “Wait, they’re for me?! I didn’t even agree!”

Cynthia walked forward and handed Ethan the eggs, which he cautiously grabbed as gently as he could. “I didn’t think you’d say no, and I was coming over to see what you were getting up to out here. Now, tell me about this Teddiursa poaching…”

—--------------------------------------

After Ethan regaled his morning woes about how he caught the Teddiursa and sent them off with Ursaring, and how the fine on Joanna didn’t stick, Cynthia wore a frown and shook her head. “You need proper organization and actual contracts if you want any of your fines or rules to be properly enforced. I daresay, the only reason this Joanna got in trouble was because there were eyewitnesses and Ursaring is watched by the rangers for this very reason. What do you need?”

Ethan was nodding along, having learned his lesson about being unprepared and agreeing with what she had to say, but her ending comment threw him off. “What?”

“I asked what you needed. Do you have a computer? Internet? A printer? A name for the ranch?” Cynthia raised a brow, confused at his confusion.

“I mean… no?” Ethan winced at the champion’s disapproval.

“I’ll contact Looker to get you sorted out. I heard you asked Joyce to visit… You know she’s addicted to the internet right?” Cynthia asked, arms crossed.

That threw him for a loop. “What?”

“You know, you should expand your vocabulary. ‘What’ is a nice word, but you seem to use it all too often.” Cynthia checked her fancy pokegear watch, and tsk’d. “I’ve got to go, I've been delaying my duties for too long. I’ll be in touch, Ethan.”

With a casual, well practiced ball toss, Cynthia released her Togekiss once again, who crooned softly as it apparated.

“Toooge”

“Shuck?”

Togekiss did half a backflip, turning himself upside down. “Toge?”

Ethan’s berry buddy dropped the Oran berry he had in his noodle limbs as he stared, mouth agape, at the flying white manta. Cynthia turned around, glancing down at his dear friend Shuckle. “Well, hel—”

Annnnd Shuckle was in his shell, the blue coat of Withdraw flashing brightly. Ethan walked over to his berry buddy and picked him up to cradle in his arms. “Do you want to go in your ball Shuckle?”

“Shuckle-Shuck!” Another blue coating of Withdraw, and Ethan understood what he wanted. He unclipped Shuckle’s pokeball and withdrew him inside.

“Huh. I didn’t expect to see a Shuckle around here, and I didn’t know you had more pokemon. But, now that I look at your belt, you have quite a few now?” Cynthia checked her pokegear once more, then looked to the sky, weighing the consequences of her actions. “Oh, well. I suppose I can stick around to meet your pokemon.”

Ethan clipped Shuckle’s ball onto his belt then began feeling self conscious. This was the champion. All of her pokemon were the best of the best when it came to battling. His were his friends and family, not battlers. He wasn’t ashamed of his pokemon, not one bit, but there was a stark difference between her pokemon and his.

“They’re all out of their balls—well, not Shuckle but you saw that. Give me a second.” Ethan cupped his hands around his mouth. “Pachirisu! Chatot! Come over here for a second!”

Ethan lowered his hands and stood there gazing around as Cynthia casually picked another Leppa. After around twenty seconds, Ethan spotted Chatot flying across the tops of the trees, searching for him. Ethan whistled, catching her attention, causing her to swerve and land on his left shoulder.

“♫ Chaa-tooot-tooot-tooot! ♫”

Chatot nuzzled the side of his head, making him smile as he stroked her head. “This is Chatot. I think you two have met before?”

Cynthia waved at Chatot, who sang another note. “♫ Chaa-tooot! ♫”

“Yes. We’ve met.”

“PACHI!” Pachirisu announced his arrival as he ducked and dived between the thick brown tree trunks of his trees. Following Pachirisu was Smeargle, who held its orange-tipped tail as it walked over, curious about why Ethan shouted out his pokemons names.

Pachirisu smirked at Chatot, who was chilling on Ethan’s left shoulder, then climbed up Ethan’s leg to take his rightful spot. Smeargle paused a few feet away, unsure if he was supposed to be here. Ethan waved him over with a smile, causing Smeargle to ease up and walk over to stand next to him. Ethan rubbed his beret as he looked toward Cynthia.

“This is Pachirisu, one of my very first friends. He’s the first pokemon I ever taught any moves, and the one who helped me plant too many trees.” Ethan gestured to his shoulder, where Pachirisu rubbed his nose haughtily.

Ethan turned, then patted Smeargle. “This is Smeargle. Although I have his Great Ball, he is not actually mine. He’s staying at the ranch until he finds out what he wants to do, or where he wants to go. He split up with his trainer three days ago. It was amicable.”

Cynthia smiled at them both, then gave Ethan a discerning look. “Impressive. While I’m not an expert on any of these pokemon, I have a pretty good eye for power. Do you happen to know which of these pokemon is the strongest? In a battle, of course.”

“Well I thi—”

“Pachi!” Pachirisu cut Ethan off and proudly patted Ethan’s right shoulder.

“Togekiss-tooooge?” Togekiss, still upside down in the air, crooned questionably.

“Pachiri-pach-pach-pach!” Seemingly answering a question, Pachirisu nodded proudly.

Togekiss righted himself by finishing its backflip as it let out a very familiar sound he remembered from the anime. “Prrrriiiiiii!”

Cynthia watched the pokemon converse, then nodded. “Do you agree with Pachirisu?”

Ethan shrugged, causing Pachirisu to look affronted and disgusted, like Ethan had gone and killed its whole family. He ignored the electric rodent for now. “I’m not sure. I’ve never battled before. Pachirisu and Chatot battled once, but it wasn’t super serious. I called the match very early on, just to make sure nobody got seriously hurt out here where the nearest pokemon center is three days away.”

Ethan side eyes Pachirisu. “While you were banned from using Super Fang, Chatot couldn’t use Boomburst. I think if she used it at the start of the match and could safely use the move without harming herself, you’d have serious trouble. Who knows, next time she might get my right shoulder.”

“♫ Chaa-tooot! ♫” Chatot nodded along. She one-hundred percent agreed. Next time, the right shoulder would be hers.

Cynthia checked her pokegear once again, then took it off her wrist and stuffed it in the small satchel she took the eggs out of. “Well, then. I think it’s time you had a battle for real. You even have a nice battlefield right over there.” She smirked. “I’ll be your first.”

Ethan winced at the declaration, then sheepishly looked to the ground. “Word that better next time.”