Pokemon : An Unexpected Journey

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[Author Note: Multiple chapter releases for missing uploads for the last few days. Also check out my original novel "Murim: Struggle of the Weak"]

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[POV Change]

[Celadon City - Subway]

Erika furrowed her brows as she gazed down at her empty purse, desperately searching for something that wasn't there. 

The subway station of Celadon City was a far cry from the glitzy, glamorous lifestyle she was accustomed to. Her once pristine clothing was now stained and wrinkled.

" Hey, eat before it gets cold. I'll give this to you because you remind me of my kid."

Erika heard as she looked to see Tom offering a bowl of noodles. Erika recoiled in disgust, appalled at the thought of consuming something so unappetizing. But her hunger pangs were too strong to resist, and she reluctantly took a bite.

To her surprise, the flavor exploded in her mouth, rich and savory.

" Hey, slow down. You ain't a bum."

As she slurped Erika asked.

" Mister, how can you afford this? You bought it with my money right." 

" You little brat, this is what I get for feeding you ?" Tom said while smacking Erika's head whose eyes widened.

As someone from the Amano family, no one even dared to raise their voice at Erika yet she was struck for the first time.

Erika placed a hand on her head.

" Hey, I didn't hit you very hard; did I ?" Tom asked with worry written on his face.

Even though she was hit, Erika still couldn't help but tear up at the genuine worry that Tom had for her.

It was like a father's worry for a child.

" Hey, I am sorry for hitting you." Tom apologized as Erika quickly rubbed her tears away and devoured the noodles.

Tom chuckled at Erika's actions.

" Brat, you should know that I am homeless but I am not poor," Tom answered trying to explain how he bought the noodles.

" You look poor." Erika blurted out as Tom glared at her causing Erika to resume eating.

Erika's eyes met Tom's as he pulled out a torn picture of a girl.

" Who's that ?"

Tom smiled with a longing look in his eyes," Listen brat! We all have our stories to tell, I used to be a big shot, I have a place to return... I am just taking the long way back so don't call me a bum." 

" Why are there so many homeless people here ?" 

" Everyone has a different reason to be on the street but if I wanted to say one reason that I would be that the world has forgotten us," he said, his voice tinged with bitterness.

Tom's words hit Erika hard, and she felt a wave of guilt wash over her. She had never given much thought to those less fortunate than herself. But Tom's kindness towards her, a stranger, was not lost on her. 

Tom hiccupped as a pulled a cardboard and said," ~ Hic ~ It's going to rain tonight. Let me make you something ~ Hic ~ "

Tom made a makeshift bed out of cardboard for her to sleep on.

"Why are you doing this for me?" Erika asked, puzzled.

Tom smiled sadly. " I have told you," he said softly. " You remind me of my kid."

Erika listened to Tom's rambling about his daughter until she fell asleep. 

...

Erika was roused from her slumber by the insistent shaking of her cardboard bed, the gritty ground of the subway station cold against her back. She opened her eyes to a sea of unfamiliar faces, all staring at her with varying degrees of disgust and irritation.

A burly security guard towered over her, his gruff voice breaking through the hum of the subway. "Hey, were you the one who pooped in here?" he barked, his accusatory tone sending a wave of shame coursing through Erika.

"No!" she protested, her voice small and feeble against the angry guard.

"Then pick up that cardboard and leave!" he roared, his finger jabbing toward her makeshift bed.

Erika scrambled to her feet, her cheeks burning with humiliation as she hastily gathered her things. But before she could make her escape, she heard the sound of approaching footsteps. She turned to see a trio of teenagers, all of them older and more worldly than her.

The leader of the pack was a scrappy-looking boy with blonde hair and a dirty military jacket. He regarded her with a mix of curiosity and disdain, his lips curling into a sneer. "Did you run away from home?" he asked, his voice dripping with contempt. "Nowhere else to go?"

...

The small public mall was a bustling hub of activity, with shoppers and teenagers weaving their way through the maze of stores and kiosks. 

Erika stood in the bathroom frozen in shock at the scene before her, chaotic and surreal. The group of runaway teenagers stood huddled around the sinks, frantically scrubbing their stained and torn clothing. One girl was even using the urinal as a makeshift toilet, much to Erika's disgust.

The air was thick with the scent of sweat and desperation, and Erika felt her stomach churn as she looked on in silence. The teenagers seemed to pay her no mind, their eyes focused intently on their task at hand.

" Yo, Erika! You can go into the shower next !" As the door swung open once again, the leader of the runaways emerged from the bathroom completely nude, holding onto her spare shirt.

Erika noted how the runaways used a bottle that had punctured holes in its bottom as a shower head.

" Ah! This is your towel right ?" The leader as Erika answered hurriedly, " You can keep it." 

"Really? Thanks! I'll pay for breakfast then !"

Erika raised an eyebrow at the word " Breakfast" as she thought.

'He is paying ?'

.....

The soup kitchen was a cacophony of activity, with volunteers bustling to and fro, ladling out bowls of steaming soup and doling out slices of bread. Erika and the runaways had stumbled upon this joint in search of a hot meal.

"By the looks of it, there's a whole lot of folks here," Erika observed, taking in the throngs of beggars lined up for a bowl of gruel.

"This is the usual scene," replied the runaway leader, "The church of Mew down the street serves meat today, so they're probably all over there."

One of the girls in the group grumbled, "Geez, how are we supposed to eat here? All the spoons will be taken by those old farts!"

A commotion from the back of the room drew their attention. A disabled man was screaming obscenities at another beggar, his wheelchair shaking with fury.

Erika felt a pang of empathy for the man, imagining the hardships and pain that must have led him to this point.

"We should help him," she exclaimed, but the runaway leader scoffed at her naive gesture.

"Leave it," he replied.

"Huh? Look closer, he's faking it," the leader continued. Erika drew closer and realized that the leader was right. The man's movements were too fluid, too precise. He wasn't truly disabled; he was feigning it.

She looked over to the other beggar, who cowered under the disabled man's onslaught. He was a pitiable sight, with sunken eyes and tattered clothes. Erika felt a surge of anger at the sight of him being bullied by someone who was gaming the system.

"No way, that's a scam!" she exclaimed.

"Scam?" replied the leader with a cold glare. "Why is that a scam? Did he ever say he was disabled? All he did was lie down."

"But he's not disabled. He should earn his money honestly. When he has four limbs, his actions are nothing but cowardly and unfair," Erika retorted.

The leader chuckled and said, "Unfair? Work honestly? What is honesty?"

"What?!" Erika questioned.

"People look down on those who get plastic surgery, but have you ever seen a naturally good-looking person? Why is one fair and the other unfair? Why do people go to cram school? Why do they get tutored? If fairness was so important, they should just go to school and study. If you want to survive in this world, you have to fight for it...by any means necessary, with the intent to kill."

Erika felt as though she was trapped in a box entirely made of darkness yet she didn't lose her will to speak. 

Erika spoke up, "I...I don't think that's right. You guys might be right...I don't have any arguments against it...but still, I don't know why, but I think that's wrong."

The leader looked at Erika with silence before asking with a smile that hid malevolence, "Then do you want to make money the fair way?"

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[Omake Paragraph]

In war, a Heracross horn can serve as the catapult or a battering ram; indeed, both weapons were invented to free up powerful Heracross for hand-to-hand combat. In the popular sport of Goal Roll, it has made them great scorers, a fact true of many other sports throughout the ages. And in Pokemon battles, it allows them to use Megahorn, an astonishingly powerful bug attack that knocks out countless Pokemon in a single strike, especially psychics, grass types, and the forces of darkness.

It is for the latter reason that when a Heracross dies its horn is typically removed and used as a totem to protect the holder from evil. The horns themselves are fairly large but are lightweight enough to allow Heracross to swing them around and humans to lift them without difficulty. Their carrying case must be clear, however: a hidden horn is no protection to anyone. Their power is partially explained by the fact that dark-type Pokemon fear not Heracross but their horns, for a hornless Heracross is nothing but easy prey, yet most accounts suggest it defends against bad luck and villainous humans just as well as from dark-type Pokemon, and an enormous body of evidence suggests this is no mere superstition.

Although it protects the holder from evil, however, it often simply trades one type of foe for another. To large flying Pokemon such as Pidgeotto and Fearow, a Heracross horn is not frightening, but delicious, and these birds are often found mobbing those who rely on them for luck. It is not wise to seek a Heracross horn for protection unless one is prepared to defend it from flying Pokemon, but many Bug Catchers who outlive their Heracross do so to honor their memories and maintain a piece of their power all the same.