Chapter Text
If you asked Kanade Yoisaki if she had any childhood dreams of becoming a Pokémon Trainer, her answer would be definite no.
She could distinctly remember a past version of herself - a little girl running through a field of flowers, enamored by the beauty of nature. She also remembered a slightly older version of herself - crying hysterically as her mother was laid to rest. Then an older version of that, left to rot by the world when her father went catatonic because of her own actions. None of those girls would have ever said they wanted to be a Pokémon Trainer.
Pokémon didn't play a part in her current meandering existence, either. Kanade knew the four walls of her bedroom better than she knew the monsters inhabiting the world. She didn't resent them, she didn't love them, they were simply a part of the world that continued to spin around her. She didn't have strong opinions on the air she breathed or the color of the sky, after all.
And so Kanade lived on, having recently graduated from high school, never once considering chasing a dream that seemingly everyone else had. She still wasn’t sure if she deserved a dream of her own, anyway. She was better off supporting the dreams of her friends and others.
Said friends were sitting with her in a quaint diner, with the most excited member in the middle of grilling Kanade after offhandedly saying she didn’t care to raise Pokémon.
“You mean you’ve never even held a Pokémon? Not even once?!”
A shocked outburst from the girl sitting across from her, one Mizuki Akiyama. Pink hair, pink eyes, pink pants held up by pink suspenders, everything about her was pink - even her eyelashes had a streak of pink in them.
“Oi, Mizuki,” the girl sitting next to Mizuki hissed, “Not so loud, you'll get us kicked out!”
Ena Shinonome wasn't nearly as loud as Mizuki - as far as appearances were concerned. But she could handily trounce anyone in a screaming match, especially someone soft-spoken like Kanade (not that she ever would). Her short bob of brown hair was complemented by an outfit of muted green and tan.
“It's alright, Ena. Mizuki's fair to be a little surprised considering just how much Pokémon are present in our lives.”
But was it really that big of a deal? It's not like Kanade was completely ignorant to the world around her. She knew some Pokémon by name from listening to the occasional nature documentary (even if it was for its music). What did it matter if Kanade had never had her own Pokémon, or never bothered to invest so deeply in the culture surrounding them?
“Kanade still doesn't leave the house much, and has never had any as pets, so it really isn't that surprising,” the final member of the circle said in a flat tone.
To Kanade's right sat Mafuyu Asahina. The polar opposite of Mizuki as far as appearances go. She had a gloomy aura about her, with eyes like gaping portals to the vacuum of space. She'd taken to wearing baggy clothes with dull colors - a style that Mizuki had lovingly called ‘grandma drip’ (whatever that meant).
“Setting aside the casual roasting of our best friend,” Mizuki started back up,” I wanted to have you all here to tell you something important.”
“Yeah and you sure scared the piss out of me when you wouldn't just tell us over VC last night, so what? What's the big news that warrants rounding us up?”
“Weeeeeellllll,” Mizuki looked in her lap, then held up something that looked kind of like Kanade's hospital pass.
“I got my very own Trainer Card!”
Neither Kanade nor Mafuyu had a particularly explosive response, and Ena simply rolled her eyes.
“Is that it? That's the big news?”
“Hey! I studied very hard to get this, you know!” Mizuki retorted with a pout.
“Even elementary schoolers can pass their test for a Trainer Card, Mizuki. It's not that impressive.”
“You wound me, Enanan…” she dramatically clutched at her chest, “But the card itself isn't really the point, otherwise I wouldn't have asked to tell you all in person.”
A pause. Mizuki’s expression became uncharacteristically serious. The other three stared at her, waiting for her ‘big reveal’.
“I’m going to be taking a gap year from school and entering the Pokémon League. Which means I’ll be off traveling, so I’ll have to take a break from making music videos for you guys-”
“Not for us, with us,” Ena cut her off. She always hated Mizuki's tendency to downplay her role in the group, or hearing her put herself down in general. Didn't matter if she was interrupting Mizuki's big news, she wasn't gonna hear it.
”Don't get it twisted, Pinky. You aren't just a video editor. Just like Mafuyu isn't just the lyricist and Kanade isn't just the composer. We all play our part and I won't have you saying any bullshit like you make the videos for us . Like it's some kind of service and not, oh I dunno, being our fucking friend ?!”
“Ena, I think she gets the point,” Mafuyu bluntly stated, leaving Ena exasperated.
“Ugh, sorry I just. Fine. I’m sorry. You were saying, Mizuki?”
“Right,” Mizuki said with a soft smile, “So like I was saying, we probably won't see each other for a while. I didn't want to up and disappear on you all, y'know?”
“Yeah, that’d be a bit of a dick move.” Ena’s biting words didn’t quite hide the sadness in her voice. Understandable, considering she’d been close to Mizuki since before Kanade had even met either of them.
Mizuki was never subtle about wanting to be a Pokémon Trainer, but Kanade wasn't terribly well-versed in Pokémon League proceedings. You could take time off school for it? Is that how so many kids - many even younger than her - were traveling the region for the sake of battling Pokémon? Before she could inquire further, Mafuyu spoke up.
“Why do you want to be a Pokémon Trainer?” Mafuyu asked. Her usual bluntness was softened by… was it curiosity? Kanade couldn't tell.
“Ah, well, how should I put this…” Mizuki played with the end of one of her sleeves, a bit of a nervous habit for her, “Honestly it’s a bit of a silly reason, but here goes. I’ve been kind of an outcast for a lot of my life - all of us have, that’s kinda our thing , right? But no matter what happened my family never gave up on me. My mom and dad were always supportive, and my older sister gave me the courage to actually do those things that make me the happiest. You guys too! Even before you knew me for real, you had my back! And I guess I wanna… I dunno, pay it forward?”
“Pay it… forward?” Kanade asked with a tilt of her head.
“Yeah! So like, I’ve had people who inspired me to be who I am and do what I love, but I consider myself lucky. Other people like me… lots of them aren't.”
Kanade didn't have to press to understand what Mizuki meant by that. Mizuki’s queerness wasn't the sore spot it used to be, but she knew becoming comfortable in her own identity wasn't easy by any means. She couldn't imagine what other people like Mizuki would be going through without a support system.
“Don't you think it would be cool to see someone like you on the world's biggest stage? Wouldn't it be inspiring to see someone who's struggled the same way you have achieve something amazing? That's what I wanna do. I wanna show kids like me from all over that you don't have to be a boring, straight-ass normie to be amazing.”
Mizuki paused for a second and smirked, “Sorry for going all ‘hopes and dreams’ on you, I’ve always been a bit of an idol nut.”
Kanade smiled, “It's a nice dream, Mizuki.”
“Yeah, Mizuki, that's actually really awesome of you - even if I’m not totally convinced you aren't just looking for an excuse to drop out of school.”
“Enanannnn, why would you say something so mean?!” Mizuki pretended to sob, “Kanadeeee, Ena’s being mean to meeee!!!”
The conversation derailed for a while after that. Mizuki and Ena continued their comedy routine and Kanade would laugh softly, while Mafuyu watched on nonplussed. These moments were nice. It was a shame the group would be missing its most entertaining member for a while.
“Hey, so I was wondering,” Mizuki said after things calmed down a bit. She pointed fingers at Ena and Mafuyu, “Where do you two fall on the whole Pokémon League thing?”
“I couldn't care less, I just wanna concentrate on my art,” Ena said plainly. “Meanwhile Akito’s obsessed with Pokémon battling. Yet for some reason our old man doesn't give him any shit for what he wants to do…”
“Right, right, Little Bro is daddy’s favorite-”
“It's fucking bullshit!” Ena slammed the table, “Did you know he literally just gave Akito a partner Pokémon, no strings attached?! Like now you're supportive of your kid’s passion?! Meanwhile that old bastard doesn't care about anything I do!”
“Ena, you're being loud,” Mafuyu interjected. Ena grumbled something unintelligible to herself, though Kanade could pretty clearly hear a few more expletives sprinkled in.
“What about you, Fuyu? Ever think about being a Pokémon Trainer?”
“No.”
“Not even when you were a kid…?”
“I…” Like with most questions about her childhood, that question seemed to trouble her, “I don't remember.”
Mizuki frowned at Mafuyu's response. At this point Mafuyu's noncommittal or aloof responses to anything and everything were unsurprising, but it still sucked.
Mafuyu had lived her life up until now straight as an arrow. She was a responsible student, she was well-liked by her peers, she was talented… and she had no say in any of it. She had little in the way of her own opinions or ambitions - her mother decided on everything for her. Time spent in the ‘club’ she'd joined was her only escape from all that, but even that had to be fought for.
Kanade wanted nothing more than for Mafuyu's life to be hers and hers alone.
Mizuki let out an exaggerated sigh, “Well I guess I’ll be the only one going on adventures then. Whaaat a shaaaaame…”
Ena rolled her eyes with a fond smile, “Alright that's enough being dramatic, Amia. You gonna let us see you off or is this the last time we’ll see you until you’re battling on TV?”
“Oh right, I won't be leaving for at least another week. Gotta do some planning, packing, submit some paperwork to the school-”
“You haven't done that yet?” Mafuyu interjected.
“Typical Mizuki, running before she walks.”
Mizuki pouted, “Gimme a break! I was excited to share my plans with you guys!!”
“Yeah, yeah, alright,” Ena turned to Kanade, “Hey if Mizuki’s gonna need a few days, think we have time to slap one last song together? Then we can announce we’re taking some time off and have some kinda going away party.”
“Mm, I can come up with something and have a demo ready tonight, if you guys want to meet up at our usual time.”
“Oh hell yeah! One last hurrah for the gang!” Mizuki beamed.
“We’d better get going if we want to stay on schedule,” Mafuyu stated.
“Okay then,” Kanade said with a small smile. “Let's meet up again later like always, at 25:00.”
The following days came and went as they always did.
Kanade’s life was not particularly exciting for someone who lived in a bustling city like Castelia. She didn’t have friends outside of her music circle, she didn’t have a day job, and she didn’t physically attend school. Between the whole ‘not having parents’ thing and her knack for retaining information well enough to trivialize standardized testing, she didn't feel the need to. More than anything she opted to stay at home most days to give her time to focus on doing the only thing she was actually good at: composing music.
Her mother loved music, her father loved music, and Kanade… had a more complicated relationship with music. A toxic, one-sided love where she was on the receiving end. In some cruel twist of fate she was a prodigy, able to devour new musical knowledge and execute on it at a pace some professionals would have been jealous of. Or at least, that's what her father said one time when he thought she wasn't listening.
After the incident with her father, Kanade continued composing. If her music was going to hurt people, she would just have to keep going until it helped people. One or two or ten wouldn't be enough - she had no idea how many would be enough to bring balance to the damage she did. So Kanade kept composing.
What else would she have done with herself, anyway? School was easy to the point of feeling pointless, and it's not like she had any other skills to get a real job with. All she had was composing. The gift of music would have been a lifelong curse, had it not been for a change that came during high school.
Music showed her the slightest bit of forgiveness. She helped people. She made friends.
Mizuki had been drawn to her music (and by proxy, Kanade herself) when she was at her most isolated. When they’d met, ‘he’ was still a middle schooler who was ostracized for simply wanting to be her self. Kanade wouldn’t find out until much later how much her defaulting to feminine pronouns meant to Mizuki. One request to use her music for an AMV later and Kanade had brought her onto the team as their video editor. Kanade’s music helped Mizuki by making her feel less alone.
Despite it being everything to her, Ena wasn't loved by art the way Kanade was loved by music. She struggled with fundamentals, she failed her art school entrance exam. However, her ability to convey raw emotions was unlike anything Kanade had ever seen. It was almost more like Kanade found Ena, reaching out to her to turn her fanart into ‘official’ cover art for her songs and visuals for music videos. Kanade’s music helped Ena by making her feel needed.
But before either of them, there was Mafuyu. She was a girl whose emotions had been completely dismantled by the expectations of her family and her peers. They found each other by pure chance - Kanade’s music resonated with Mafuyu, who wrote her own arrangement. She could hear the pain in that song, so she reached out and Mafuyu became her lyricist and partner. Kanade had yet to feel like she’d adequately helped Mafuyu with her music.
The four of them formed NiiGo, named after the time at which they met for work late in the night. Four girls, all of whom had their own demons to fight, but as long as they were together they would never have to go it alone. It wasn’t perfect, but after a few years of working together all four of them were better than they were before.
Though with Mizuki leaving, they’d be taking a break…
Maybe this didn’t have to be bad. Kanade’s general well-being had improved since NiiGo had formed, after all. These days making music was more of a personal ambition than a self-imposed penance. She’d even started putting on some weight, finally! Also, NiiGo had long since become irl friends who did more than simply make music together, so it wasn’t like Kanade would be totally alone. She could always have a day out with Ena or Mafuyu if she ever needed a change of pace. Mizuki and Ena - who had always been on her about overworking herself anyway - suggested that she should take a break to just live for a while.
Kanade still wasn't sure if she could.
“Kanade?”
Hearing her name called over the voice chat snapped Kanade out of her little daze. What was going on? She rubbed at her eyes and focused her vision on her monitor. Right, they were talking about the thumbnail for the new music video. Ena had a few different versions pulled up - all of which were good.
“Yoo-hooooo, Kanadeeeeee,” Mizuki said in her sing-song tone.
“Sorry, I just spaced out for a second,” she quickly looked at the thumbnails again, “I think they’re all good, Ena.”
“That’s sweet of you, Kanade, but we can’t have four thumbnails.”
Mizuki laughed, and Kanade felt her face warm up. That’s what she got for spacing out.
“Let’s just table this for later,” Ena said while shutting off her screen share, “It’s about that time, isn’t it?”
“3am means break time~!” Mizuki chirped, “Soooo, what are you guys doing tomorrow?”
For the next several minutes, the group talked about their plans for the following day. Kanade was going to keep tweaking the arrangement for the new song and pay her father a visit. Mafuyu was going to some school related interview with her mother. Ena was going to be accompanying Mizuki on what she called a “cafe lightning round”. Apparently Mizuki wanted to hit as many shops and restaurants as she could in Castelia before setting off in a few days to… wherever it was she was planning on going. For as excited as she was the other day in the restaurant, she sure hadn’t talked much about it.
“Hey so, while we’re at it, would you guys mind giving me a second opinion on something? And I guess a third and fourth at that, hehe.”
“What’s up, Mizuki?” Kanade asked.
“Well, K probably wouldn't know this, but there's a bunch of Pokémon reservations in Unova! It makes picking one super hard!”
Like Mizuki said, Kanade had no idea what she was talking about. “Reservations…? Are you pre-ordering a Pokémon?”
“What? No, don't be ridiculous,” Mizuki scoffed as if Kanade's question wasn't totally reasonable, “I think it'll be better if I juuuust - okay there we go. Take a look.”
Mizuki had sent a file - a map of the entire Unova region, marked with a few hastily drawn stars. They all seemed to sit on top of different spots of wilderness. There was one drawn over a forest, one drawn in the desert, and several more.
“That's called a reserve,” Mafuyu corrected, “If it's some kind of protected ecosystem for Pokémon to live in, it's a reserve.”
“Oh uhhh, whoopsies!”
“Kay, Yuki, thanks for the vocab lesson. Can we get back to Mizuki?” Ena asked.
“Right! So like I was saying, it’s recommended that new Trainers hit up places like these. I was just having a tough time picking where to go.”
“Let's see,” Ena muttered, “There's Floccesy, Striaton… wait Icirrus? That's hella far.”
“Yeeeaaahhh I wasn't really giving that one much thought. I think they only opened one there for people who already live north of the mountains.”
“Hey Mizuki, why not just pick this one close by? The one in the desert.” Kanade asked.
Just north of Castelia, there was a miles-wide swatch of sand called the Desert Resort. Construction years ago had formed a thin strip of metropolis between Castelia and neighboring Nimbasa, providing relatively easy access. Even to a layman like Kanade, it just made sense for Mizuki to start her trek across the region here.
“Mmm, this might be a stupid reason, but I don't really feel like starting off so close to home.” Mizuki paused for a second to collect her thoughts. “I think that if step one is further away, then it'll be less tempting to turn back early on. Kinda forces me to commit, y'know?”
“I see…”
“I just looked it up,” said Mafuyu, “Floccesy Ranch has a majority population of Grass-type Pokémon. Didn't you say you were partial to Grass types?”
“Oh! Is that true?” The clattering of Mizuki's keyboard could be heard from her searching as fast as possible. “Ohhh man, how could I have missed that?! I think that seals the deal guys, thanks for helping~”
“You didn't even let me give any input!” Ena shouted indignantly, much to Mizuki's delight.
While those two were bickering, Kanade felt compelled to look up more details on Floccesy Ranch. Mizuki's excitement always got her more invested in stuff than she normally would be. There were a lot of Pokémon in the image results that looked like plants. Kanade had enough sense to recognize that those were Grass-type Pokémon - even if she couldn't name any of them just from appearances.
“Hey Mizuki, what makes you like Grass-type Pokémon?” she asked.
Mizuki gasped dramatically, “ Kanade is asking a question about Pokémon?! The world might be ending-”
“Ha, ha, Mizuki very funny,” Ena said dryly, “Seriously though, why Grass types? You’ve got me curious too.”
“Cuz they're the cutest!” Mizuki said with a giggle, “There's so many that look like flowers or little fruity guys, I love 'em!”
“Oh, so you see a bit of yourself in them? You're about as fruity as they come.”
“Tsk, tsk,” Mizuki clicked her tongue at Ena, “Stones and glass houses, sweet Enanan. Stones and glass houses…”
As Ena and Mizuki continued their playful argument, something started to tickle at the back of Kanade's mind. Usually a brain itch meant inspiration was about to strike and she needed to get some music on paper. So like she would always do, Kanade pulled out a fresh page of sheet music and turned her attention to that.
When Kanade woke up the next morning she was faced with the same dilemma from the previous night. Something was gnawing at her, and it wasn't going away. She looked down at the piece of sheet music left on her desk, taunting her with blank bars.
Truth be told, Kanade had no idea when she went to bed. At 1 they met up to work on the new song, at 3 they took their break for the night to simply chat, and then at some point Kanade spaced out. The rest of the group left for the evening eventually and left Kanade to her own devices (which was normal), but there was no telling how long she sat there trying to rattle an idea out of her head.
Buried under bedding, a muffled alarm could be heard. With a tired sigh, Kanade picked up a wireless earbud from her desk and gave it a tap to turn it on. A familiar robotic voice began to speak.
“Good morning, Kanade! Just a reminder that your father will be expecting a visit this afternoon.”
“Mmm, thanks, Luka.”
“Of course!”
Kanade dug her phone out from under her sheets. A ‘good morning’ at 11:30, huh? Well, it was still technically morning. She took out her earpiece and headed to the bathroom to brush her teeth and give herself a once over. Nearly every morning she silently thanked Mizuki for recommending she pick up a virtual assistant a few years back. What started as something to encourage better eating habits had slowly become almost like an invisible housemate. Almost. Her virtual assistant didn't have much range, mostly speaking in canned phrases and basic responses. The only reason she called it ‘Luka’ was because she bought a voice pack for the app on her phone.
She was always fond of Vocaloids - NiiGo even ended up using them sometimes in their music production. Meiko had such a commanding presence, Len had incredible range, and of course Miku was just iconic. But Kanade held a particular soft spot for Luka. Hearing her voice instead of the stock sound bank made using the virtual assistant app much more pleasant. Reminders for chores, shopping, meal times, and appointments were more like a gentle nudge than a blaring alarm when they came from her sweet voice.
With her teeth brushed and clothes changed (into another pair of sweats, but who was gonna judge her for it?) Kanade grabbed her things and prepared for the city commute.
“Heading out…” she muttered to the emptiness as she shut the front door.
Kanade's hometown of Castelia City was… lively. Lively was a good word for it. The people who lived here seemed to constantly be on the move, from dawn to dusk and back to dawn again. It didn't overwhelm Kanade like it used to, but it was still a lot. Anytime she was out running errands, especially longer trips like today, Kanade preferred to keep her head down and her earbuds in.
For the last few years Kanade's father had been staying in a hospital, and once a week or so she'd take the long trek across town to visit him. When he was first admitted it felt like the world was ending, but just like her he was getting better little by little. These days he was awake at normal hours and able to carry a conversation, but he had trouble remembering what happened in his current day-to-day life. On top of that, his memory of most of the last 20 years was spotty. He didn't remember the death of his wife, or the birth of his daughter.
Sometimes Kanade wondered if it would be better if she stayed forgotten.
She arrived at her father's room to see him sitting up and reading a book. Upon hearing the door open he glanced over and his face lit up. From his perspective, his ‘friend’ Kanade had come for a visit. Saying that she was ‘friends’ with her own father was almost laughable.
“Good afternoon, Yoisaki-san.”
“Kanade-chan! It's good to see you again,” he said with a nauseating smile.
For the next half hour, the two talked with little urgency. Her father would talk about the books he was reading (one of the only things he seemed to be able to retain memories of), and she talked about her time spent with NiiGo, including the news that they were taking a break.
“Your friend is entering the Pokémon League? How exciting for her!”
“Mmm, and we’re all encouraging her to do her best. She's leaving in a few days to travel west, just as soon as she gets all her paperwork submitted.”
“What will the rest of you do? Anyone else going on an adventure of their own?”
The way he looked at Kanade made her feel like he was expecting a yes, but…
“No, the rest of us are staying behind. One of them has their art to focus on, and the other is pursuing university. And I’ve never really been interested.”
Her father gave her another one of his gentle smiles. He was such a warm man, he didn't deserve to be cooped up in this room.
“You know, my wife is a bit of a League enthusiast,” he laughed, “Some of our first dates were spent sitting in her living room eating snacks and watching matches on TV. She would get so excited that she went red in the face! It was the most intense I think I’ve ever seen her.”
“Really? She liked-” Kanade caught herself, “She likes Pokémon?”
“Goodness, she loves them. She gave raising her own a shot when she was about your age, actually! But that was long before we met.”
This was news to Kanade, though she wouldn't deny her memory of her mother being fuzzy. Tempted as she was to hear more, one of her father's doctors had recommended steering away from such subjects. Maybe now would be a good time to pack up for the day before they got any deeper into the weeds.
Kanade looked at the time on her phone, pretending it mattered. “I’d better be going now, I’d like to get to the supermarket before the rush. Mind if I take your laundry?”
“Of course, and thank you again for taking such care of me while my wife is busy. I do hope her work slows down soon so she can have time to visit.”
Kanade wanted nothing more than to blink away when he said things like that. He wouldn't remember saying that tomorrow, so he’d always think his wife was just a day or two away from visiting. He was stuck in a cycle of waiting for something that would never come. It made Kanade feel sick, lying to him over and over and over again. She quickly swapped her father’s dirty clothes out with some fresh ones and started out the door.
“I’ll see you again soon, Yoisaki-san. Take care,” she said with a bow.
“Wait Kanade, I just had a thought.”
Her eyes widened. He never stopped her like this. And dropping the formalities? What was happening?
“Next time you get a chance, you should ask my wife about her days as a Pokémon Trainer. She still has some photos and trinkets from back then tucked away, I’m sure she'd love a chance to share her stories!”
She offered him a strained smile, “I’ll do that. Have a nice day, Yoisaki-san.”
Kanade didn’t realize she was out of breath until she was at her front door. Apparently she’d been in quite a rush. Upon entering her house she dropped the bag of dirty laundry and made a beeline for the closet in her room. Before she took over the space this was her father's office and her parent's shared bedroom, and the closet still had plenty of their belongings in it. While he’d gotten rid of her mother's clothes when she passed, Kanade's father held on to the keepsakes. Whether or not that counted baubles from his wife’s days as a Pokémon Trainer, she was about to find out.
After some rummaging around, Kanade found a large cardboard box with her mother's name written on the top flaps in thick black lettering. She dragged it out of the closet and over to her low table, but hesitated before opening it. She’d never touched this box - heck, who knows when the last time her father opened it. Was this an invasion of privacy? No that’s silly, this stuff would have been put in a lock box if that were the case. Kanade was just… afraid.
There were things about her mother she never knew in this box, a story she’d have to piece together all alone. Digging through her mother's belongings with no one to help make sense of it all could just end up being an exercise in making herself miserable. Kanade took a deep breath and thought of a time when Mizuki stood behind her while she reminisced on the days when her family was whole. She remembered how much that day meant, how much closer she felt to her mother after that day, how much brighter and warmer the world felt. Even if staring her absence in the face could hurt, Kanade wouldn't turn down a chance to reconnect with her mom. Besides, her father had asked her to do this - with a smile on his face no less. She owed it to him to honor that request.
She opened the box.
Peeking inside there was a neatly arranged variety of items and some smaller boxes. Among the pile there was an elegant watch with its battery removed, a few envelopes stuffed with stacks of photographs, and two velvet boxes that contained an engagement and wedding ring respectively. She also found a gold hair beret, a reference book on flowers, and a few small notebooks. Quickly flipping through the pages revealed them to be little more than day planners. The next thing to grab her attention was an old shoebox emblazoned with the ‘DEVON’ brand name.
Opening the lid to the shoebox, Kanade laid her eyes on her mother's stash of Pokémon Trainer memorabilia. There was an old well-worn cap, and some leather thing that looked like it was made to hold soda cans together. Her mother's Trainer Card was also in the box, sitting on top of a stack of other photos. Kanade snorted before bursting into uncanny laughter.
Kanade's mother looked nothing like her when she was her age, to the point that it filled her lungs with bubbles. Her hair was chopped so short in a very boyish style, and her baggy clothes had a cheesy city streetwear vibe that was out of style even 20 years ago. It was so charmingly tacky . The rest of the photos in the box contained more images of her bad fashion sense, people Kanade guessed were old friends, and of course plenty of Pokémon - some she could name, some she couldn’t.
The last thing Kanade found in the box was a lone Poké Ball. She was familiar with them as a visual icon but had never held one. It was about the size of a baseball and felt light in her hand. The typical red and white color scheme had been victim to the passage of time - fading to leave the ball completely white. If this thing was really her mother's then it had to be at least 30 years old at this point. Mabe it had a serial number on it or some date stamped onto it-
Hold on.
There wasn’t… something in this, was there?
Kanade knew the primary function of a Poké Ball - capturing and storing Pokémon. Surely her mother wouldn’t have left a living thing inside of a shoebox for decades, right? If she opened it a monster wouldn’t pop out and destroy her house, or worse yet a dead body long since starved… Right??? Trembling, Kanade decided to press her luck - and the button on the face of the ball.
When she pressed the button, there was a click and a pop of air as it opened. Kanade sighed in relief.
“Empty. Thank goodness…”
A sudden knock at the front door made her jump. She’d really gotten wrapped up in the moment there and felt way too on edge. Hopping to her feet, she haphazardly tossed her mother's belongings back in the shoebox and rushed to greet whoever it was at her door. Looking through the peephole revealed an unexpected head of curly purple hair. Kanade threw the door open when she saw her friend, and it took everything she had not to gasp at her ragged appearance when she got a good look at her.
“Mafuyu, what are you doing here? Are you okay?!”
“…Can I come inside?”
An abrupt visit from Mafuyu like this was unprecedented. NiiGo may have shared their home addresses shortly after first meeting irl as a sort of ‘in case of emergencies’ check, but those emergencies never came. Mizuki would even later admit she only suggested so they had an excuse to hang out at each other’s homes. This was the first time Kanade had been visited without a heads-up text.
Mafuyu, currently seated at the low table in Kanade's bedroom, looked like shit. She was clearly buttoned up for a formal engagement, but wow. Her hair was ratty and her eyes looked as dead as they ever had. Some stuff clearly went down today, but it was anyone's guess how much she'd tell Kanade about it.
“Here,” Kanade set a glass of cold green tea down in front of Mafuyu, “Sorry I don't have anything hot prepared, though I imagine you don't have too much preference.”
Mafuyu stared vacantly at the glass without a word. Kanade sat down across from her and pulled her phone out to message the others.
K:
Hey guys? Mafuyu is here at my house. She didn't message me or the group chat, did either of you hear from her?
Almost immediately, her terminally online friends got back to her.
Enanan:
The fuck?
Amia:
The fuck?
K:
I take it that's a no then.
Kanade set her phone down and looked back to Mafuyu. She hadn't moved, still as could be. Maybe Kanade's best move for now would just be to sit with her in silence and offer passive comfort.
The ringing of Mafuyu's phone cut through the silence and she jolted into an upright position. Her pupils dilated and her mouth started to quiver as she stared at her phone. The ringing eventually stopped and Mafuyu put her phone on the table, gasping for air.
“Mafuyu?”
“... I ran away.”
“Ran away? From home??”
“I went to the meeting with my mother. They talked about my grades, my options for universities, scholarships I’d been offered…” she grimaced, “They just kept talking like I wasn't even there. It didn't feel like they were even discussing my future, but some other imaginary child’s.”
Kanade did her best to hold back a scowl. To put it in Ena's words: Mafuyu’s mother had always been a bit of a control freak. Her education and career path were chosen for her, along with the clothes she wore, the friends she could hang out with, the hobbies she could have… The only reason she was able to stay in NiiGo - or rather the ‘alternative music club’ - was because she was smart and an exceptional liar.
“At one point they started giving me paperwork to sign, and it felt like something inside of me was about to break. I felt like if I didn't get out of there, I was going to die . So I ran as fast as I could to get away from there. Why? It was just another parent-teacher meeting. I’ve sat through dozens of them, what made this time so different??”
Kanade knew what she wanted to say - that Mafuyu was moments away from signing her life away, and that deep down she knew she didn't want that path for herself. She wanted to acknowledge that Mafuyu had experienced a moment of fight or flight, and chose flight as the better option. She wanted to tell Mafuyu that it was okay to defy her mother's wishes if it was for her own happiness.
But she didn't say any of that. She sat and stared angrily at the phone sitting between them, knowing it would ring again soon. That damn woman…
“Kanade, did I mess up? Is there something wrong with me? A-am I a bad daughter…?”
Mafuyu’s voice was so small and sad. It twisted Kanade’s heart in a way she’d only ever felt when talking to her father. She shuffled across the floor on her knees to embrace Mafuyu in a gentle hug. Mafuyu didn't return the embrace, she was trembling and probably seconds away from hyperventilating.
“It’s okay, Mafuyu. You're just scared, and I promise you're safe here.”
Kanade tried to sound confident - like she would actually be able to protect Mafuyu if her mother started pounding on the door - but her voice was breaking from the weight of her own emotions.
Somehow this was simultaneously painful and filled Kanade with so much pride. She’d seen rare moments like this where Mafuyu would have an emotional breakdown, but this time was different from the rest. She didn't just vent out her frustrations, she took real action to do something for herself. A rare, beautiful moment of Mafuyu expressing her own will, even if it was under fairly dire circumstances.
Breaking the silence, Kanade's phone started buzzing. She let go of Mafuyu and checked it to see that Ena and Mizuki were calling.
“It's the others, I’ll take this and catch them up, okay?”
Mafuyu said nothing in response.
Kanade stepped out of her bedroom and picked up the call.
“Kanade!” both of them said simultaneously. Kanade winced at the volume.
“Hi. Uh, Mafuyu's not doing so hot guys. She walked out of that university planning meeting she was at with her mom.”
“Holy shit, no way.”
“What are you gonna do now?” Mizuki asked.
“I…”
Kanade hesitated. What was she even supposed to do in a situation like this? She’d wait for Mafuyu's panic to subside but then what? She couldn't take her home, that would just make things worse. She wasn't exactly equipped to take care of a second human - no virtual assistant app could help her there. What options were there ?
“I don't know. For now, I’ll wait for Mafuyu to calm down.”
“Sounds like the only thing we can do,” Mizuki said.
“You just keep us updated, alright? The second shit goes sideways you’d better goddamn call us.”
Kanade weakly smiled at Ena’s vulgarity. “Yeah, I’ll do that. Thanks you guys, talk soon.”
She hung up and walked back into her bedroom to see Mafuyu staring off into space again. At least she'd stopped shaking.
“What's all that?” Mafuyu asked, tilting her head towards the pile next to the table.
“It's stuff my dad kept after my mom passed,” Kanade said. She thought for a second, Mafuyu would probably calm down easier if Kanade gave her something else to focus on for a while… “I was looking through it when you got here, want to see some of what I found?”
Mafuyu weakly nodded.
Kanade opened up the main box and showed Mafuyu the more interesting stuff she'd found. The jewelry, the photos, and of course the shoebox from her teenage years. Mafuyu seemed to take particular interest in the old photos of her mom.
“Your mother is very beautiful, Kanade.”
“Oh. Yeah, she is,” Kanade smiled. She'd heard that sentiment countless times, it always made her feel strangely proud.
“She looks happy traveling with her Pokémon. These photos are from all over the region.”
“Are they? I hadn't noticed.”
“Mmm,” Mafuyu held up two photos, “In this one you can see the Celestial Tower in the background, and then this one's next to the Skyarrow Bridge.”
“Wow, mom was well-traveled.”
Mafuyu nodded, picked up the Trainer Card, and flipped it over a few times, seemingly looking for something.
“What's up?”
“Your mother's Trainer Card doesn't have stars on it. I think that means she was still a beginner when she retired, even though she traveled so much.”
“Oh. Is that so?”
Kanade looked down at the variety of photos again. Her mother didn't seem to have that much variety in the Pokémon she traveled with. There was a fluffy gray and white creature she didn't know the name of, as well as a small black bird Pokémon that looked like it was wearing a hat. There was also a funny-looking blue one with a big forehead, but it only appeared in a couple photos as far as Kanade could see.
“Dad said that mom was a big fan of the Pokémon League, but maybe she found out that she preferred watching the battles instead of participating.”
“Or she wasn't very good,” Mafuyu said curtly.
“Mafuyu!”
She shrugged, “I didn't say that to be mean, but it's a possibility.”
Kanade’s mouth pressed into a firm line. Mafuyu wasn't a mean person, but she lacked a filter for her bluntness. For once she knew how Ena felt when her art was mercilessly criticized. She took a deep breath. At least Mafuyu was making conversation, and visibly more calm than she was when she first came in.
“Hey Mafuyu, how do you know what the stars on a Trainer Card mean?”
“I’ve absorbed a little information from classmates and conversations I overhear. My father also likes to watch Pokémon battles on TV sometimes when he's home. I recall hearing it used as a sort of ranking system.”
“Oh, that makes sense.”
They both went quiet and went back to folding through the photos. There were so many that she could have filled a whole photo album. Mafuyu had picked up the photo of her mother at Celestial Tower again and just… stared at it. Something deep in her eyes seemed to be coming to life, Kanade just wasn't sure what.
“Do you like that picture, Mafuyu?”
“Your mother looks so happy,” she said, not looking up from the photo.
“Yeah, she does,” Kanade smiled at a picture of her mother sandwiched between her Pokémon, flashing a goofy grin and two peace signs. She chuckled, “It's pretty funny that she looks almost unrecognizable, though.”
She looked back up at Mafuyu's face, still laser-focused on the same photo of her mom. Mafuyu's eyes stirred with life in a way Kanade had never seen. Something seemed to have awakened in her.
“Something up, Mafuyu?”
“I think… I think I want to travel with my own Pokémon.”
“....Huh?”
A few hours after Mafuyu had surprised Kanade with her arrival, the two of them decided to call it a night. Mafuyu took Kanade's bedroom, and Kanade went out to the living room to sleep on the couch. Seeing as she was the guest and in the middle of a dramatic experience, Kanade wanted to make Mafuyu as comfortable as possible. Kanade's eyes felt heavy. It was a bit earlier than she would usually go to bed, but the emotional blowout was giving way to mental and physical exhaustion.
Oh, and she’d also just spent the last few hours helping Mafuyu with a Pokémon League cram session.
Needless to say, Mafuyu abruptly declaring she wanted to register as a Pokémon Trainer was definitely not the turn Kanade expected that conversation to go in. After a little while they called the others and planned for the following day (once Mizuki and Ena got over the initial shock, that is). That night, Mafuyu would spend a little bit of time before bed reviewing her study materials. The next day she’d be meeting up with Mizuki to go to a nearby testing center and take her test for her Trainer Card. After that, the two would go shopping for some travel essentials Mafuyu would need, and they would play it by ear from there.
On the one hand, when Kanade shared her mother's box of Pokémon memories, she was only trying to help Mafuyu calm down so they could deal with the whole ‘running away from home’ situation. Sending Mafuyu off to catch her own Pokémon and see the region all on her own was a pretty big departure from that. On the other hand Kanade couldn't help being happy for her. This was the first time since the formation of their music circle that she'd shown explicit interest in doing something for herself. They’d known each other for years and this was the most life Mafuyu had ever had in her eyes! Sure this wasn't what Kanade or the others would have expected, and the only thing driving the decision seemed to be impulse, but it was a big step for her!
Kanade lazily scrolled through a playlist to find some music to help her get to sleep. Her head was so full of Pokémon-adjacent information, she just needed some background noise. Right as she was about to lock her phone and roll over a thought struck her - she didn't recognize any of the Pokémon her mother had with her in those photos.
She could at least sate her curiosity before she went to sleep.
Pulling up a search engine on her phone, Kanade punched in their physical descriptions one by one. First, the fluffy one with a gray and white coat.
‘Minccino? No, it was fluffier than this… Cinccino? Yeah, that's the one.’
“Cute…” Kanade whispered to herself in the dark. Cinccino was such a cute Pokémon she was overwhelmed with the urge to pet one. Maybe someday…
Next on her mental checklist was the black bird with a witch hat. That one immediately popped up as Murkrow.
‘A Dark type, huh? That makes sense. Ena would probably make fun of it for being a bit on the nose aesthetically.’
Kanade giggled to herself with that thought. How Ena felt about different Pokémon mostly came down to her aesthetic sensibilities. Which ones were ugly, which ones were cute, and so on. She'd probably think her mother's third Pokémon was one of the ugly ones. Some funky, blue, pear-shaped creature, without arms no less.
‘Palpitoad…’ Kanade giggled again. A goofy name for a goofy Pokémon. Apparently, it was a midpoint of the life cycle between Tympole and Seismitoad. Kanade was vaguely aware that some Pokémon had the ability to change shape - or evolve. Growing and getting stronger in an instant, becoming a new and improved version, there was something magical about that. One of the image results for Palpitoad was attached to an article about its type. A dual Water and Ground typing, apparently particularly weak to Grass types but very little else.
‘Grass types are Mizuki's favorites. Guess she’d have no trouble battling one of these.’
Kanade surprised herself by intuiting that so quickly since she’d always considered herself a total novice when it came to this stuff. Then again she had spent much of her evening drilling Mafuyu on the basics of Pokémon battling…
Something clicked in Kanade's brain - she’d spent almost the entire day thinking about Pokémon . Digging through her mother's old stuff, researching the Pokémon League with Mafuyu, and now looking up random Pokémon and trivia on her phone in the middle of the night. Kanade hadn't thought about music almost at all since she left to visit her father. She hadn't touched that empty sheet music since morning, and yet she felt… oddly calm.
Kanade thought about what Mizuki had been trying to beat into her head for the last few days. If NiiGo can take a break, so can Kanade. Mizuki called her a workaholic, but there was a good reason Kanade didn't think she was capable of taking time off from composing. Music gave her mind something to focus on, something to do . She didn't indulge in other hobbies or interests, and schoolwork only ever distracted from her music. But now it felt like Pokémon were capable of scratching a similar itch. After all, they were fascinating creatures. There were enough idiosyncrasies in the world of Pokémon she could lose entire days just to research and learning, let alone training or battling.
She felt a faint spark go off somewhere inside of her. The gears in Kanade's head continued to turn late into the night, and all the way into the morning.
“Holy shit Kanade, what happened to you ?”
Kanade yawned, “I ended up pulling an all-nighter studying…”
Mizuki blinked a few times, processing the information, “Wait, you were studying for the Trainer Card test?!” She looked back and forth between Mafuyu and Kanade, “ Both of you are applying?!”
“Well admittedly I decided pretty last minute,” Kanade chuckled.
‘Last minute’ was an understatement. When Mafuyu got up in the morning she walked in on her hunched over her phone scrolling through Poképedia. 24 hours ago she had no plans of becoming a Pokémon Trainer, and she still wasn’t quite sure how far she was taking this. But for now, one thing had led to another and Kanade’s brain was left full of Pokémon trivia. She could almost physically feel it whirring like one of the dozen hard drives that sat on her desk.
“Maybe I’ll finally take your advice. You and Ena are always telling me to take a vacation.”
“I don't know if you’d consider a cross-country hike a vacation,” Mizuki muttered, “but hey, whatever! The more the merrier~ Let's get a move on, girls!”
Castelia being a dense metropolis, getting to the local Trainer testing center was just a short walk across town. Upon arriving, Kanade was surprised at how… small the facility was, considering how big of a deal the Pokémon League was supposed to be. It was no bigger than a post office, with one woman running a front desk, and a few seated computers to her left. Mizuki wished Kanade and Mafuyu luck and sat down on a bench next to the entrance, leaving the two to their exam.
The receptionist had the two fill out some paperwork with identifying information, then asked them to each take a seat at a computer. Kanade tapped on the screen to start her test and was prompted with a series of multiple-choice questions. The questions were… not difficult. She was quizzed on basic proceedings like how many Gym Badges a Trainer needs to enter a League tournament, the strengths and weaknesses of different Pokémon Types, among other things she felt way over-prepared for. The final part of the test was a virtual battle simulator that played out like a turn-based game. It was similarly easy.
Somehow the whole thing only took about 20 minutes for Kanade to finish, with Mafuyu even finishing a few minutes ahead of her. The receptionist gave their forms one last check, punched a few buttons on a fancy printer next to her, and printed off a Trainer Card for both of them. And… that was somehow it, to Kanade’s surprise. Then again Ena mentioned elementary schoolers were able to get their Trainer Cards easily so maybe this wasn’t quite the formal licensing affair Kanade had imagined. It all left her feeling a little silly.
Nevertheless, Mizuki congratulated them both with the same enthusiasm she had when they graduated from high school a few weeks ago. Both of them got a bear hug that hoisted them off the ground before Mizuki excitedly hurried them out of the office and down the street. They were brought to their usual diner, where Ena was waiting to greet them. Seemed celebrations were in order. The group took their usual seats and chatted away while enjoying their lunch.
“You guys can not be serious, you spent a whole night studying for a test meant for children ???”
Kanade chuckled at Ena’s animated reactions to the story of what had happened since last night. Mizuki - who had kept it together up until now - kept bursting into giggles at the whole turn of events.
“Leave it to Miss Cram School and her wife, Miss Overachiever to run up thinking this was gonna be as serious as taking the Bar. You two are too funny , seriously.”
Ena was checking out their Trainer Cards when something seemed to catch her eye. “Mafuyu, is there a reason you registered your name as Yuki Asahina? Did you really register to be a Pokémon Trainer under your online alias?”
Mafuyu shrugged, “I’m not sure.”
Mizuki gasped for dramatic effect, “Don’t tell me - ‘Mafuyu’ is a traditional family name passed down to all the women of the Asahina bloodline. So by choosing the name Yuki you’re casting it aside as a symbol of your individual resolve, walking away from-”
“What will you do now, Kanade?” Mafuyu asked, ignoring Mizuki's jeering.
“Uh…” Kanade was at a loss, “Honestly I’m not sure. Maybe we could all just travel together?”
“Wellllll-”
Three sets of eyes turned to face Mizuki, who was fiddling with the frills at the ends of her sleeves.
“Well, what ? We don’t got all day, girl,” Ena said, putting pressure on her. Kanade and Mafuyu were patient enough to let her speak on her own, but Ena had ‘stopped indulging Mizuki’s bullshit’ years ago and would force her to cut to the chase.
“I… kinda already invited a friend from school to come with me?” she said, looking more embarrassed than anything, “I figured with you guys graduating high school you’d have more adult-y things to do. Y’know like uh… college, getting a job, paying taxes, that kind of stuff.”
“Do any of us look like we know how to pay our taxes, dipass?”
“I know how to pay my taxes,” Mafuyu interjected.
“I’ll fuck you up, you know that?”
“A-anyways, if we all go our own way, I guess this makes the three of us rivals, huh?” Mizuki said with an awkward grin, “Oooh, unless Enanan also wants to abruptly change her mind and take on her own Pokémon League challenge?”
Ena scoffed, “Yeah, no. You guys can go tire yourselves out all you want. I have a portfolio that needs to be filled out if I wanna get into art school.”
Mizuki pouted and jostled Ena around in protest. Kanade couldn’t help but giggle at the antics unfolding. Never a dull moment when it came to those two.
“So we know Mizuki’s starting off heading west towards Floccesy Town, did you have an idea for your first stop, Mafuyu?” Kanade asked.
“Icirrus.”
“Hah??? That’s so fucking far away, why go there?!”
The shrill sound of Ena’s voice made her surprise clear to everyone at the table (and probably everyone in the restaurant for that matter). But she had a point. To Kanade’s memory, the only town further away from Castelia was Anville Town - and even that was little more than a train station. The Unova Region’s rail line was fairly far-reaching, but was an expensive and inconvenient mess of stops and transfers. And in terms of speed, it paled in comparison to the Kanto-Johto magnet train. It would take a while for Mafuyu to reach her destination.
“I’m starting in Icirrus because it’s far away. My family never travels, I want to see more of the region.”
“Mafuyu…” Kanade smiled, “I’m glad to see you so full of drive.”
“Is that what this is…?” Mafuyu stared at the empty space on the diner table between them. Even if Mafuyu couldn’t see it for herself, Kanade could see it, and she was proud of her for it.
“Cool, cool,” Mizuki hummed along. “Well Kanade, I know you still have to plan out your first steps, but you should still come shopping with me and Mafuyu. I refuse to let you travel with nothing but a duffel bag full of tracksuits.”
“I-”
“You should come too, Enanan!” Mizuki cut Kanade off, “With these two fashion disasters I can use all the help I can get.”
Ena rolled her eyes, “Can’t believe we can’t trust two adults to be able to buy their own clothes.”
“We’re going to be buying more than clothes,” Mafuyu interjected, “We’ll also need basic travel supplies, as well as Poké Balls and-”
“God, do you ever stop being such a pedant?!”
“It’s not pedantry, I’m simply clarifying that we’ll be buying more than clothes today.”
Considering the volume of the noise that escaped Ena’s mouth, it’s a wonder they didn’t get banned from their favorite diner on the spot.
That night, Kanade returned home with two arms full of shopping bags and a bad case of sleep deprivation. Mizuki and Ena had managed to heckle her into buying new clothes and travel basics that she still wasn’t even committed to doing anything with. Mafuyu hadn’t returned with her, instead being dragged to Mizuki’s place for the night, so she had the place to herself and no second pair of eyes to judge what she was about to do.
Kanade reached into a cupboard, grabbed a dry block of instant ramen, and started crunching on it like a cracker. She knew if she tried to cook anything, even a cup noodle, she’d fall asleep during the wait time. Tonight, shitty uncooked noodles were all she’d be getting for dinner before hitting the sheets. While she ate she tried to think through the days ahead, but it turned out that after over 30 hours without sleep, Kanade couldn’t even finish her snack without passing out. It also just so happened that sleeping at her kitchen table didn’t feel great, so she woke up bleary-eyed at who the fuck knows o’clock and dragged herself to her bed.
She woke up proper in the afternoon with a lock screen full of notifications and an arrangement to put finishing touches on. After assuring her friends she made it home and to bed safely the previous night, she got cracking. Kanade finished her work well before the time NiiGo’s meeting for the night arrived, so she sent the file of the final arrangement over to Mizuki early.
1am rolled around and the only thing left to do was to upload their new music video. As was tradition Kanade streamed her screen to the others and they all watched the upload bar tick up. It felt weirdly normal considering this was to be their last song together for potentially an entire year. The only non-routine part of all of this was the hiatus notice left in the video description. It wasn't even 2am by the time it was all said and done. Then the group hung up VC early knowing they'd be meeting the following day for the big celebration - their final pre-hiatus release dinner plus Mizuki and Mafuyu’s going away party rolled into one. It all felt like it was happening so fast, by the time of their meetup Kanade felt like she was on a conveyor belt going at its top speed.
When Kanade arrived at the usual place there were a couple surprises that forced her brain to slam on the brakes. The first, most obvious, was the boy towering next to Mizuki. His plain jeans and gray sweater vest were totally overshadowed by a shaggy head of lilac hair with loud teal highlights. Sitting on his shoulder was a Pokémon with purple fur that matched his own. It had a long tail with a large hand on the end of it.
Mizuki said she’d be bringing a friend from school but to Kanade's recollection, she'd never mentioned having a guy friend. Surprise number two was the other shaggy head of purple next to him. Mafuyu’s dark purple ponytail complimented by a brightly colored scrunchie was nowhere to be seen, replaced with a fluffy boyish look that… suited her quite well, actually. Mizuki turned to see Kanade approaching and broke into a smile.
“Well hey, hey, fearless leader! How do you like my purple posse?”
Kanade tried to find the words for the questions she wanted to ask. Thankfully, Ena arrived not a moment too soon to bail her out.
“Mafuyu what the fuck did you do to your hair?!”
“Hey, I take offense to that!” Mizuki replied with a pout.
“Oh so you’re the one who committed the crime against god?”
“Hey, I thought I did a pretty good job!”
“I um, I think it looks good,” Kanade said quietly.
“See?” Mizuki ran over and wrapped an arm over Kanade’s shoulder, “Kanade’s a lady of culture, she gets it .”
“I also think it looks quite nice,” said the tall boy. His voice was surprisingly soft for someone so big.
Ena groaned, “That’s so not fair, I don’t even know this guy and he’s already ganging up on me!”
He laughed, “Now, now. No need to send yourself into a tizzy, Shinonome-san. We’re all just having fun here. Though it does appear introductions are in order, hm?"
The boy held a hand to his chest and bowed in a cheesy fashion, like the caricature of a butler. His Pokemon stayed balanced on his shoulder and mirrored the motion.
"The name’s Rui Kamishiro, I’m an old friend of Mizuki’s. And this furry fellow is my ‘handyman’ - Aipom. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
Ena’s bewildered face said what her mouth wouldn’t, she thought this guy was weird. Kanade saw him as unique, just the kind of person Mizuki would be friends with outside of the music circle.
“It’s nice to meet you, I’m-”
“Kanade Yoisaki,” he stopped her mid-sentence, “Then the angry one is Ena Shinonome.”
“Oi-”
“And this one here,” he placed a hand on Mafuyu’s shoulder, “with the ‘crime against god’ haircut is Mafuyu ‘Yuki’ Asahina. Did I forget anyone or are we all introduced now?”
“Does my hair look bad?” Mafuyu asked, bringing a hand to her bangs, “I liked the way Kanade’s mother had her hair cut short, so I asked Mizuki to cut it like that.”
Mizuki started snickering to Kanade’s side, “Man I don’t think Ena’s gonna live that comment down. Your hair looks great, Yuki, don’t sweat it.”
Ena rolled her eyes with a sigh. Seemed she had accepted defeat.
The group went into the restaurant, sitting at a different table than usual to accommodate the extra body. Rui handed Aipom a small package of nuts and it squeaked in delight before hiding under their table. Food and drink were ordered and they each scrolled through the comments on their new release. Among the usual compliments and criticisms, there was an outpouring of support in response to the announcement of their hiatus. Some people were less savory about it, which Ena (the closest thing they had to a social media manager) encouraged ignoring.
“By the way, Ena,” Kanade said, “Is that a new bag? It’s nice.”
“It’s kinda bulky for your usual aesthetic, not gonna lie,” Mizuki snarked through a mouthful of fries.
“No one asked you, Pinky,” Ena shot daggers at Mizuki before softening again, “It is a new bag, Kanade, thank you for noticing. It’s spacious enough to fit my art supplies and a few changes of clothes, it’s durable enough to stand up to the elements while traveling, and it’s critically very fashionable.”
Mafuyu tilted her head in confusion, “Why do you have it with you right now?
Ena huffed, “Cuz I’m coming with you. Believe it or not I actually care about you a lot, and no matter how much I might trust you as a friend I definitely don’t trust you to go running around all on your own. So for now you’re stuck with me. Got it?”
“Ah. Okay,” Mafuyu responded nonchalantly as ever.
“Oh my god this is so yuri,” Mizuki said just loud enough that everyone could hear her, “Oh but dear Enanan, I could have sworn you said you were too busy with your art for a journey across Unova~”
“Never said that, only that I don’t have the time or giveashits to be a Pokémon Trainer,” Ena corrected, “Taking a road trip to see more of the region, though? As an artist, that’s something I can get behind. My portfolio’s gonna kick so much ass by the time it’s done.”
Rui cleared his throat, and the group turned their attention to him.
“On the subject of traveling companions, if I may interrupt?” He looked to Kanade as if asking permission.
“Oh right, I should thank you for accompanying Mizuki on her League challenge. It’s nice to know she has someone in her corner when we aren’t around.”
“Respectfully, Yoisaki-san, that’s not what I was going to bring up.”
Kanade closed her mouth and felt her face warm. She nodded to Rui, letting him continue.
“Now then, it appears you’re in a bit of a pickle, Yoisaki-san. Mizuki and I will be traveling together, as will Shinonome-san and Asahina-san. Leaving you all on your lonesome is hardly fair, is it?”
“Well, it does sound a little scary when I think about traveling with Pokémon by myself, but I have lived alone for the last several years and I’ve gotten pretty good at fending for myself-”
“You still forget to eat sometimes,” Mafuyu stated.
“And you sleep at a different time every day,” Ena followed up.
“I could call you out to finish the rule of threes, but I think you get the point Kanade,” Mizuki said through giggles. Kanade hung her head in shame.
“I have no intentions of continuing to splay you out over the fire like the others,” Rui said with a gesture that drew everyone’s gaze back to him, “Mizuki brought it to my attention that you use a virtual assistant app to keep up with your day-to-day needs, yes?”
“Um, yes that’s right.”
Aipom’s tail hand held a box out from under the table. Rui took the box with a quiet thanks and placed it in front of Kanade. “Well, dearest Yoisaki-san. Say hello to the upgrade~”
Kanade looked at the box, then up to Rui with a confused expression. He nodded and held out a hand to the box, encouraging her to open it. Sitting inside the box on a bed of crumpled paper were an earpiece and some kind of watch, both colored a matching pastel pink. Rui reached out and tapped a couple times on each device, which seemed to power them on.
“Luka, would you care to introduce yourself?”
The watch face lit up, and in front of everyone’s eyes the image of a familiar pink-haired woman manifested. The projection stood at only a few centimeters tall, though it had no feet so it really floated more than it stood. ‘Luka’ looked around at all the surprised faces and gave a silent bow.
“Holy shit, that’s Luka !” Ena yelped out the obvious, “What the- How?!”
“Rui you son of a bitch you understood the assignment!” Mizuki said, shaking him by the shoulder.
“Thank you, really. Your awe and praise mean the world to this humble tinkerer.”
“So what exactly um, is… it?” Kanade asked. She mentally questioned whether to refer to this ‘Luka’ as an object, or a person, or something in between.
“Well Yoisaki-san, as it happens I’m something of an inventor. Mizuki has assisted with my various projects for years, and she’s very aware of how much I like a challenge. So when she proposed this idea I was more than happy to take a crack at it. When I referred to this as an upgrade of your everyday virtual assistant, I was speaking fairly literally.”
“So it - she - is like the app on my phone, but now I can see her face?”
Rui tapped on his chin, “Hmm, something a bit more than that. Your virtual assistant app is ostensibly a day planner with a voice box, but Luka here is a personalized A.I. companion with significantly greater functionality. You see, I've been toying with a mechanical lab assistant loaded with artificial intelligence as a pet project for some time. Being but one man, I can only gather so much input data to improve its capabilities. The foundation of her programming is a mishmash of similar models already on the market, and this latest version isn’t terribly far along-”
Mizuki waved a hand in front of him, “Alright I’m gonna cut you off there for a second Rui, we don’t need the whole backstory. Lemme skip to the good parts! Luka here can carry on a conversation, access the internet for information if you ask her questions, and the more you talk to her the smarter she’ll get-”
“In theory, that is,” Rui interjected.
“Right…” Mizuki continued, “So, as far as how you talk to her, there’s a mic on the watch and obviously one in the headset and you can talk to her through either. There's also a camera on both devices so she can see whatever is in the immediate area, too. Helps with the whole illusion of her ‘being there’. Oh, and I designed the outfit the hologram of Luka is wearing. You like it?”
Kanade looked back down to the tiny Luka, who waved hello. She unconsciously waved back. The character’s iconic black dress with gold trim had been replaced with a new look that was a clear reflection of the girl who designed it. This version of Luka sported a billowing monochrome gown with a very ‘Mizuki’ amount of frills. Her flashy gold headphones were also replaced with a more subdued headband.
“It’s lovely, Mizuki. Thank you both so much, really,” Kanade said smiling, “I’m not sure what to say or if I can even pay for these. Are you sure I can simply have them?”
“Tut, tut, worry not about the price of admission, my willowy friend of a friend. As was previously stated, simply using the program will be of direct help to me and my work. That’s payment enough for the devices and a lifetime warranty should you ever damage or lose them~” Rui seemed to realize what he’d just said and his eyes flashed with a brief bit of panic, “Ah, but I would prefer you not lose it. The Holo Caster had to be imported and I’d prefer to not have to deal with that again. I do hope you understand.”
“Right,” Kanade said, nodding, “I’ll keep her safe as best I can.”
“Very good!” Rui clapped his hands together, loudly , “With that sorted, it’s about time for the two of us to get on our train. Isn’t that right, Mizuki?”
“We’re on that same train, Ena,” Mafuyu said, “We need to go, too.”
The party gathered their things and made their way from the diner to Castelia City’s subway station with minimal squabbling. Reaching the station it was unsurprising to see people shoving and squeezing against each other to make their departure times. Castelia being the largest city in the region meant that the Unity-Nimbasa line was one of the most overcrowded of the whole rail system, not helped by the limited number of trains. Rui stopped and turned around as they approached the station entrance.
“We’d best say our farewells here. Don’t need dearest Yoisaki-san getting trampled in there,” he said.
Mizuki started to fake cry and pulled Kanade into a violent bear hug, “Kanadeeeeee!! I’m gonna miss youuuuu!!!”
Kanade hugged her back, laughing at Mizuki’s silliness. Ena came up from behind and turned it into a hug sandwich. Mafuyu stared at them, seemingly unsure of what to do.
“Come Asahina-san, let’s not leave the group hug incomplete,” Rui said, dragging Mafuyu into the huddle. She stiffly held her arms against the others. Even Rui’s Aipom was getting in on the group hug, patting her on the head with its tail. Kanade enjoyed the moment, even if she briefly felt like she was going to suffocate.
The group eventually broke away from Kanade and made their way into the station building itself. Mizuki continued to turn around and wave every few steps, as if she wasn’t going to spam the group chat on her entire trip to Floccesy. They disappeared behind the sliding doors, and Kanade was left to make her way home.
Even with the ability to message them at any time, Kanade already missed her friends.
Kanade woke up the day after seeing her friends off with a foggy feeling in her head. She checked her phone to see her friends had sent a few messages throughout the night with updates on where they were on their train routes. The last message had been sent a few hours ago, meaning the others were probably asleep.
She was definitely feeling lonely. Kanade only went to the hospital a few days ago, but maybe she’d pay her father a visit again today.
By the time she managed to drag herself out the door and to the hospital, it was already past her typical visiting time. Not like it mattered today, her appearance wasn’t expected anyway. Nevertheless, when she opened the door to his hospital room her father gave her the same easy smile he always did. She returned the smile.
“Good afternoon, Yoisaki-san.”
“Kanade-chan, you’re back again already!
Kanade froze. ‘What…?’
“Um, I’m sorry?”
“Well, you were only just here the other day. Oh, I was able to remember your most recent visit this time! Isn’t that nice?”
At least half a dozen grim scenarios of varying severity ran through Kande’s head in an instant. She had no idea what the implications of this kind of recovery were. After a deep breath, she tried to force the worst-case scenarios out of her head - there was no need to panic yet.
“That’s… Amazing!” Kanade forced the words through her teeth.
“I went and saw your wife. You were right, she really was a bit of an enthusiast!”
Her father laughed, “She still is, dear.”
Kanade wanted to puke hearing him correct her so casually.
“Were you surprised by her old haircut? Pretty shocking transformation, right?”
Upon remembering that scruffy haircut Kanade relaxed and started to laugh, “It really was a shock! She looked so different that she was almost-”
“Totally unrecognizable, right?” Kanade’s father finished her thought for her with a grin. She hummed and nodded in response. “And what about you? I know you weren't considering it before, but my wife can be quite persuasive. Think you’ll give raising your own Pokémon a shot?”
“Well…” Kanade proceeded to recap the last few days for her father. Mafuyu running away, finding that Pokémon were something she could mentally latch onto the way she could with music, the snap decision to take the Trainer Card application exam, all the way up to the goodbyes at the train station.
When she was done, he leaned back and seemed to ponder, if only for a moment.
“So what I’m hearing is you aren’t sure if you actually want to commit to being a Pokémon Trainer?”
She nodded. Her father chuckled, to which she looked at him with confusion.
“I’m sorry for laughing dear, it’s just… You sound like a child looking for permission to do what she wants.”
Kanade felt her stomach drop. She hadn't even thought of it that way but hearing him say it out loud she knew he’d nailed it on the head. And yet he had no idea how right he was.
“You’re your own person, so it’s your choice at the end of the day. Do you know what you want to do?”
Kanade grimaced and lowered her head with a hundred different things she wanted to say lingering on her tongue. Maybe she was just here to ask her father for permission, which her father had just given her in a roundabout way. Maybe she still didn’t know if she deserved to have ambitions just for herself, even if Mizuki, Ena, hell even Mafuyu would be first in line to say otherwise. Maybe she just needed a little more kindling to make the fire inside of her come alive.
She couldn't say the words, but she looked at him and nodded.
Her father smiled at her, “Well, I hope you have a fun time. Just make sure you remember little old me when you’re Champion, alright?”
Her father winked, and Kanade had to force down the urge to sob right then and there. It was a little bit of the playful side of him she hadn’t seen in so long.
"I never said I would be aiming that high," she managed to say without choking.
"Regardless," he chuckled, "Stay safe out there, and don't be a stranger. I want to hear all about your travels when you come home "
Kanade smiled hearing him speak so lightheartedly. Just seeing him in good spirits was enough go lift her own. She started for the door and as always, turned to face her father with a small bow.
“I’ll be seeing you, Yoisaki-san. Take care.”
“Good luck, Kanade.”
Just like she had a few days prior, Kanade felt herself rushing after seeing her father. It felt like the wind was pushing her towards home. When she arrived, she threw the door shut behind her, flew out of her shoes, and ran to her computer desk. The excitement started to wear off as she got hit by a bad case of choice paralysis.
At this point she still needed to pick a location to catch her first Pokémon, and she definitely didn't lack for choice. There were maybe a few too many, actually… When they helped Mizuki pick out her first destination there were three other people to talk to. Kanade stared at the marked-up map of the Unova region still sitting in the group chat from a few nights ago, wishing the others were here to help her narrow down her options.
It dawned on her that she did in fact have someone to bounce ideas off of. She turned around in her office chair to face the low table in the middle of the room, which was currently home to two boxes. One was her mother’s shoebox, and the other was the one from Rui. She took the soft pink watch from the box, impressed by the build quality of something supposedly scrapped together by someone her age.
Kanade pressed the power button and waited for the device to boot on, and nothing happened at first. Maybe the battery was dead? Wait if the battery was dead would she even be able to charge it? She then recalled the sort of ‘wake up’ gesture Rui had done the night prior and tapped the face of the watch twice. It lit up and the hologram of Luka faded in just as it had before. Luka looked up at Kanade with an easy smile and suddenly she was at a loss for words from how surreal this moment was. Maybe just start with introductions.
“Um, hello there, Luka. My name is Kanade. Wait, Kamishiro-san said something about you being personalized, do you already know who I am?”
Luka’s smile seemed more uneasy as she pointed to the side of her head.
“I’m sorry, I don’t… Oh !” Kanade picked up the earpiece, woke it up the same way as the watch, and put it in her ear, “Sorry about that, I forgot I have to talk to you through this.”
Luka… laughed? It was strange enough the first time Kanade heard one speak in full sentences, but hearing a Vocaloid laugh was even stranger.
“Don’t worry about it, Kanade. I’m not only limited to the headset, any speaker I’m connected to will do. The watch even has one built in, you just have to switch it on.”
“I didn’t notice, sorry.”
Luka laughed again, “You’ve apologized three times now and I’ve only been awake for about a minute. You’re a funny girl, Kanade.”
Kanade felt her face heat up, and it took every ounce of strength to resist saying ‘sorry’ again.
“As for your question a moment ago, Rui had Mizuki give me a primer when customizing me for your use. Would you like to see the slideshow she created? It was very cute.”
The warmth in her face seemed to increase tenfold, “That’s a bit embarrassing…”
“That aside, would you mind bringing out your phone and pairing me to it? I don’t want to be a bother, but it will make things easier if we get that out of the way now.”
“Oh, sure. Let me just…” Kanade pulled out her phone and connected the devices, aptly identified as ‘Luka 2.0’. A corresponding app started downloading to her phone once she was paired up. “Okay, you should be connected now.”
The projected Luka seemed to stare off into space. The image froze, then blinked a couple times before she stood in a more natural position again.
“Don’t mind that, I just needed a moment to reboot. Let's see… you were searching for Pokémon reserves?”
Kanade looked up at her monitor, then down at her phone. “Wait how did you-”
“Oh, I don’t have access to your computer, just your phone. You do know that your search history syncs across clients, no?”
“R-right, I know that. It was just a little surprising, I didn't realize you would have access to things like that.”
“What good would a virtual assistant be if I was locked up inside my own little data bubble?” Luka seemed to be giving her… puppy dog eyes?
“Fair point,” Kanade giggled, “You know, you remind me of my friend Mizuki.”
“Really, now…” Luka looked around the room and gestured for Kanade to come in closer. She knew the physical distance definitely didn't matter but humored her anyway.
“Don’t tell Rui I said this,” Luka whispered, “but all prior models of the headset were also pink. Remind you of a certain someone?”
Kanade laughed, “So it is intentional. Wow, Kamishiro-san is a genius.”
“He prefers ‘savant’, but yes he is quite intelligent.” Luka shifted her weightless form to the side, “Let's get back to you . You were looking for somewhere to catch your first Pokémon, correct?”
“Right! That's right,” the marvels of modern technology had completely derailed her train of thought. She picked up Luka and took a seat at her desk, scrolling through her options again.
“The Desert Resort is the closest reserve, but probably too physically demanding for me. Then Pinwheel Forest is only a bus ride away but is largely untouched, unmanaged wilderness… What do you think?”
Luka tapped her chin, “Well as luck would have it, you have an option even closer - and less physically demanding, too. How would you feel about a visit to Castelia Park?”
“Well I know of it, but…” Kanade typed the location into the search engine and was presented with images of people playing and relaxing in open fields. The immediate results didn’t seem to have any images of wild Pokémon. “Are you sure?”
“Castelia Park is not densely populated but does have wild Pokémon in it. Bird Pokémon will perch there from time to time, and there are even Bug and fish Pokémon if you look hard enough. Care to take a look?”
Kanade thought about it for a second. Being able to catch her first Pokémon in the city she lived in did sound convenient. The park wasn’t terribly far from her house, either. If things didn’t work out, she could at least take some comfort in being able to sleep in her own bed that night. And if things did work out, she could still sleep in her own bed that night!
“Thanks Luka, that sounds like a good idea. I'll just need to grab something before we go.”
Kanade got up from her desk and lifted the top off of her mother’s shoebox. Mizuki may have convinced her to buy some Poké Balls the other day (she still hadn’t unpacked the bags from her shopping spree), but Kanade wanted to catch her first Pokémon in the Ball her mother had left behind. The fact that it still worked despite the obvious age was a borderline miracle.
With a faded Poké Ball in her jacket pocket and Luka’s watch hooked to her wrist, Kanade took a step out the door, quietly muttering her usual ‘heading out’ to the vacant home.
If someone looked at an old map of Castelia, the city’s park would appear as a mere speck of green inside of a labyrinth of gray. If they looked at a map from modern times, the picture would be quite different. Several years ago the park had been expanded from its spot in a small plot of land squeezed between nearly abandoned buildings. Some old nearby buildings were demolished, grass and trees were planted, and it began to resemble what one would imagine when hearing the word ‘park’. There was even a manmade pond and a small wooded area, but most of the park was an open field.
This was a perfect place for families who wanted to spend a day getting some fresh air - not that Kanade was an expert in that field or anything. But as she walked around aimlessly, the chances that she would find her first Pokémon here started to feel less and less likely. From what Kanade understood, most wild Pokémon that lived in ‘territory’ occupied by humans were either adapted to be around people or did their best to stay hidden.
While the scattered patches of tall grass seemed to be a bust, Kanade thought she might find better luck at the pond near the center of the park. She wasn’t so sure if she would be able to find any fish Pokémon without specialized equipment, but maybe she could find something hanging out around the edge of the water.
Walking along the pond perimeter, she stopped in her tracks when she came upon a familiar gray and white Pokémon.
‘Minccino… it’s so cute…’
If Kanade was more superstitious, she’d believe her mother’s ghost had been following her around. The Minccino hadn’t noticed her approach yet, taking a drink from the pond with its eyes closed. It looked so relaxed, so peaceful. Not exactly the picture definition of ‘feral’. Kanade fumbled pulling the Poké Ball from her pocket, squeaking as she nearly dropped it into the water. When she got a grip on the Ball she looked up to see the Minccino staring back at her. She froze.
“Kanade, throw it,” Luka whispered into her ear.
Without saying anything in reply Kanade haphazardly tossed the Ball. To say she overshot it was an understatement. Despite her below-average physical fitness, she threw it clear over its head. The Ball landed several feet away from its target, who was now scurrying away.
“Wait, come back!” Kanade cried out, running to retrieve her Poké Ball as the Minccino got further and further out of sight. She sighed. Her first time trying to catch a Pokémon and she couldn’t even throw the Ball right.
“Don’t get too down,” Luka said to console Kanade, “This is your first time catching a Pokémon, it’s okay for it to take a few tries.”
Kanade hummed in affirmation, looking around for the Minccino to no avail. Since it was closeby she decided she’d take a quick look through the park grove next. The comfortable shade provided by the trees made Kanade feel a bit more at home. Catching a Pokémon that prefers to roam in the dark would be ‘on brand’ for her, as Mizuki would probably say.
A red Bug Pokémon emerged from a bush and scuttled past Kanade’s feet. She only stumbled back a few paces, but the Bug had disappeared into another patch of shrubs before she could get a good look at it.
“You alright, Kanade?” Luka asked.
“Mmm, just a bit startled. Did you see what that was?”
She felt a buzz in her pocket. Kanade checked her phone to see a notification on the Luka 2.0 app. Luka had sent her a little spread of information on the Pokémon, which was apparently named ‘Venipede’.
“Woah, fast.”
“Just one of my many talents~”
Kanade giggled at that. She took a quick look at the info she had on Venipede. Half Poison type, three stages of evolution, and apparently very fast. Seemed like it would be an alright choice... if it hadn’t just run right past her. Very fast, indeed…
She heard a rustling behind her and turned to see a wild Patrat (finally, this one she was familiar with). Ena always said she hated Patrat because it was ugly and stole food from her once, making off with an entire slice of cheesecake in its cheeks. Kanade didn’t find its appearance particularly offensive, but this one seemed to be in the middle of taking a snack home since its face was so puffed up.
‘I’ll just let this one be,’ she thought as it ran out of sight.
Kanade was now 0 and 3. Not a great start, but she’d keep going and see what else she could find. Shame the streak just kept on going. She ran into a Sewaddle, but noticed it was with a family of others and she didn’t want to separate them. A Pidove landed in front of her to pick up some food that had missed the trash can, but then a dozen other Pidove descended onto the scene. Kanade was overwhelmed and decided to get out of there instead of getting caught up in the flock’s fight over fried potatoes.
By the time the sun was starting to set, Kanade was worn out. Part of it was her poor physical stamina, but failing at catching even one Pokémon for an entire afternoon was mentally exhausting. It would have been so much worse if she had actually left town for this, so she was grateful for Luka’s suggestion.
Kanade leaned back against the bench and sighed. Every attempt at catching a Pokémon replayed in her mind, and she started thinking of ways she could work on improving. As she did, she felt herself starting to nod off, an obvious sign that it was time to go home. But not before a tickle against her ankles scared her halfway to death.
She jumped off of the bench, turning around to see what had touched her. Her senses of fear and curiosity were best friends, it seemed. What she saw was something brown and fluffy peacefully taking a nap under the bench, tail twitching in its sleep. She must not have noticed it before when she sat down. Upon closer inspection, she immediately recognized the Pokémon as Eevee. There probably wasn't a soul alive who wouldn't recognize it.
She reached for her Poké Ball and a thought hit her. Catching a Pokémon that was asleep and defenseless like this felt… shitty. She hadn't put it to sleep by battling it, heck it didn't even know she was there. The opportunity was perfect, and most people would have jumped at this chance, but it just didn't sit right with her.
“Um… hello?” Kanade greeted the sleeping Pokémon. She was well aware of how silly this would look to anyone passing by. Not talking to a Pokémon, that part was normal, but hunching over with a Poké Ball in hand and asking permission to catch one.
“Hello? Eevee?” she tried again. The Eevee’s ear twitched and it peeked up at her, its eyelids heavy. For as jumpy as the other wild Pokémon she’d seen today were, this Eevee didn’t seem to have a great sense of urgency…
Kanade held out her Poké Ball so that the Eevee could see it. That seemed to catch its attention, its ears were sticking straight up and its eyes were wide awake now. It still hadn’t made a break for it, so Kanade took her shot with a soft underhand toss. The Eevee watched as the Ball gently fell in front of it, rolling the last few inches before making contact. In a flash of light it disappeared inside of the Ball, which shook a little before Kanade heard a clicking sound.
“Hey Luka - that click means it worked, right?”
“Yes, Kanade. Congratulations on catching your first Pokémon~” Luka cooed.
A childlike sense of joy had welled up from deep in her stomach. Kanade couldn't fight down the smile that broke out on her face upon hearing those words.
Kanade returned home that evening after a quick stop at a nearby convenience store. Eevee was going to need something to eat, after all! Placing the plastic bag on the kitchen table, she pulled out her pale Poké Ball and pressed the button. The flash of light it produced blinded her for a moment as Eevee emerged. It sat in place and looked around, a significantly more relaxed response than Kanade had expected. She’d assumed it would have been more alarmed, considering she woke it up from a nap, captured it, and brought it to an unfamiliar place. Eevee curled up on the floor, seemingly ready to go back to sleep. Kanade crouched down to get closer to eye level with it.
“Hi there, Eevee. My name is Kanade. I’m new to all of this, but I’ll be your Trainer from now on.”
Eevee looked up with a tired, almost unimpressed expression. Kanade wasn't sure how she was supposed to get a response out of it. She knew Pokémon had a decent understanding of human speech, despite not talking themselves, so that probably wasn’t the problem. Maybe offering it food would work? She grabbed a bowl from one of her kitchen cupboards and filled it with some generic dry Pokémon kibbles she’d bought earlier.
“Are you hungry? It’s nothing fancy, but I got you some dinner,” Kanade said, gently placing the bowl in front of Eevee. It peeked up at the bowl and sniffed the air for a moment. As soon as it recognized the kibble as food it nearly dove in to start eating.
It was so cute! Kanade wanted to pet it, but she also didn’t want to be rude.
For herself, Kanade defaulted to old reliable - cup noodles. Feeling lazy, she microwaved a mug of water tonight to cook the ramen with. As she internally counted up to three minutes, she watched as Eevee finished its food and looked up at her. Its big fluffy tail was swishing back and forth, which she could only assume meant it was happy.
Her internal count hit 180 seconds so she peeled the lid off of her cup ramen and started digging in with her chopsticks. Out of her periphery she saw Eevee perk up. Its ears and tail were sticking straight up and its eyes were wide. Kanade swallowed her mouthful of noodles.
“Sorry, did I startle you? I’ve been told that sometimes I slurp a bit loud…”
Eevee hunched over and jumped all the way from the floor to the surface of the table, which surprised Kanade.
“Oh wow, you can jump pretty high, huh?”
She watched Eevee step closer while sniffing… her cup of noodles. Its tail started wagging again, it must have thought the noodles smelled good.
“Do you… want to try some?”
Eevee made an affirmative barking sound. Well, who was Kanade to turn down a fellow noodle enthusiast? She was willing to share. Kanade crouched down to pick up Eevee’s bowl, and when she looked back up it had already helped itself to her noodles. Seeing the precious broth spilled out over the table left a crack in her soul.
“Eevee?”
It looked up at her with a stray noodle sticking out of its mouth. It slurped it up as well as it could and maintained eye contact with Kanade, tail wagging.
“I know you're excited, but you're making a bit of a mess…”
Eevee looked down at its feet, which were currently planted in a puddle of soup. It lifted a paw and tried shaking the moisture off of its fur, but just ended up spraying Kanade. She flinched at the sudden splash in her face, thankful that it wasn't straight-out-of–the-kettle hot.
“Please stop,” she whined. Eevee looked at her, then obliged and stopped flicking broth everywhere. Kanade felt a little pathetic. There was spilled soup in her lap, her Eevee was chowing down on her dinner, and she was still hungry. This was all going very well so far.
She sighed, louder than she meant to, and Eevee looked up at her with curiosity in its eyes. It had a noodle stuck to its nose, making it look like it had a ramen mustache. Kanade laughed and took out her phone to take a quick photo. It looked so cute. Even while it was making a mess, Kanade couldn’t be that upset.
“Here, let me help you with that,” Kanade reached out and pulled the noodle off of Eevee’s face. It responded quickly, snatching it out of her hand and smacking its lips together. It looked so silly trying to chomp down on a single noodle like that.
“You sure like to eat, huh?”
Eevee trilled in response.
“Well if you’re still hungry, I’ll make one for each of us.”
With two mouths to feed and two cups that needed hot water, Kanade opted to use the electric kettle this time. To kill the time while the water boiled she cleaned up the mess from a few minutes prior, and Eevee ran in circles at her feet while she did. It nearly tripped her when she walked back over to the counter to fill each cup.
The two sat at the table waiting on their noodles to cook. Eevee tapped its feet in anticipation, and Kanade opened the NiiGo group chat to share the good news.
K:
[Image attached] Hey guys, just letting you know I caught my first Pokémon today. It’s an Eevee! :)
Amia:
:O
Amia:
wtf??? lucky?????
Enanan:
is that a noodle on its face
Enanan:
K
Enanan:
please tell me
Enanan:
you aren’t feeding your Eevee
Enanan:
cup noodles
Kanade opted not to respond to that, knowing it would end in Ena rage-spamming the group chat for several minutes. She instead took the lids off of the two cups on the table, keeping one for herself and pouring the contents of the other into a bowl for Eevee. It started wagging its tail in excitement and bounced up and down on its front feet.
“Wait,” she said, holding a hand over the bowl. Eevee flicked its head between her face and its bowl and made a high-pitched whining sound. Kanade waved her other hand to get its attention.
“Please eat slowly, and try not to make a mess this time okay?”
Kanade pulled her hand away slowly. She wasn’t sure if this would get the point across, but she hoped it would get the idea. When her hand was completely out of the way, Eevee gingerly stepped forward and started to eat its second helping.
‘It actually listened,’ Kanade thought with eyes wide.
She remembered something Mizuki said to her once - ‘When you talk, it’s impossible not to listen’. She always thought Mizuki was just being respectful because she was her junior, but maybe there was more to it? Come to think of it, Ena and Mafuyu also saw her as the de facto leader of their circle - even if she didn’t always feel like that was her place. Whatever the case, Eevee had listened to her and that’s what mattered.
After they’d both finished their respective dinners, Kanade drew up a bath. She needed it from the workout she’d had today, and Eevee needed it because it still had soup matting up its fur. Eevee sighed with content as it floated in the tub.
“I’d read that lots of furry Pokémon hate getting wet, but it looks like you really like the bath,” Kanade said. Eevee made a pleased mewling sound in response.
As Kanade got out of the tub and rinsed off her endlessly long hair, she was struck with a thought.
‘This is going to get inconvenient. I should have had Mizuki cut my hair, too.’
She knew that the Yoisaki household didn't have any hair clippers to speak of, and she didn't feel like chopping through all of it with safety scissors or a box cutter. As much as she would have preferred to do it herself, she wasn't going to be able to cut her own hair. For now, she'd just have to settle for tying it back in a high ponytail.
For as much as Eevee enjoyed the bath, getting it dry was another matter. If the bathroom door weren’t shut, it would have run around the house getting water everywhere. It was a miracle Kanade managed to catch and bundle it up in a towel.
With a full stomach and relaxed muscles, Kanade felt the call of sleep in her bones. As she collapsed onto her bed she told herself that packing her bags could be a job for Future Kanade. Considering the warm weight that settled on her midsection not long after, it seemed Eevee agreed.
Kanade had never started her day being bapped in the face by tiny paws, but there’s a first time for everything. It seemed her Eevee was intent on filling her life with all kinds of new experiences. Even if this was a slightly annoying one.
She grumbled as she blindly waved a hand in front of her face, “Okay, I’m awake…”
Kanade was never one for having a true morning routine, but brushing her teeth and eating breakfast was… something. She chewed on a bland breakfast bar while Eevee wolfed down another bowl of Pokémon kibbles. Thankfully it wasn’t picky, just a big eater. It sat content after it ate, watching Kanade and wagging its tail.
As she shook off the last bits of sleepiness with an energy drink, it all started to sink in. She was leaving home for an unspecified amount of time. She wouldn’t be here in her house, sleeping in her bed. She wouldn’t be checking in with her father, leaving him to be cared for exclusively by hospital staff. Kanade still had only the slightest concept of what being a Pokémon Trainer meant to her. All these turns in her life taken on a whim left her feeling spun out. The scale of it all…
Eevee patting her leg with one of its front paws snapped her out of the daze. It looked up at her with a curious head tilt.
“Sorry, I was just thinking about everything,” she said, “I’ve never actually traveled before, so I’m a little nervous. I hope you’ll bear with me, Eevee.”
Eevee yipped in response. Somehow it made Kanade feel a little better.
After a few days of leaving her shopping bags on her bedroom floor, Kanade finally started sorting through all the things Mizuki had her buy, starting with the pile of clothes. While she was fine with wearing her usual sweats on this trek across the region, Mizuki insisted on giving her a new look. It’s not like she never wore anything other than a track jacket and shorts… it just wasn’t a common occurrence! Nevertheless, Mizuki did have good taste. The layered sweater she’d picked out was to Kanade’s liking, as were the jean shorts. Of everything she’d purchased that day, this ensemble was her favorite.
Kanade pulled a long abandoned rucksack from the closet and started packing it with essentials. She knew she wouldn’t be strong enough to carry an extra well-stocked bag, so she tried to keep it light. A couple changes of clothes, the first aid kit from her bathroom, a portable electric kettle, a few spare Poké Balls, the works.
As she was zipping up the bag, she looked over at her mother’s shoebox, still sitting in the same spot on the low table. Shuffling through the stack of photos she found the one she was looking for - the picture of her mother posing with her unit of three Pokémon. Kanade had spent hours over the last few days looking through these pictures and this one was by far her favorite. It was possible to feel her mother’s joy through the image. She slipped it into a pocket in her bag, considering it a little good luck charm.
With that, there was one thing remaining in the box that still struck her as odd. She picked up Luka’s earpiece and woke it up with a couple taps.
“Hey Luka, do you know what this is?” Kanade asked. She held up the item that looked like it was designed to hold together a six-pack. It was made of black leather and had a few metal clasps on it. Luka hummed in her ear, seemingly… thinking? Did Luka need to take time to think?
“Ooh, how old school! That’s a style of Poké Ball holder from some years ago. These days most trainers leave their Poké Balls in their travel bags or hook them onto belts made for carrying them, but these used to be in fashion.”
“I see. In that case, I think I’ll hold onto this,” Kanade said, hooking it to her waist. She looked back down at the pile of photographs when an idea struck her.
“Eevee, come here please,” she called. Eevee trotted over and jumped up on the table’s surface.
“See these photos?” Eevee nodded. “I want you to pick your favorite, and we’ll make that our first destination.”
Eevee looked down at the photos as Kanade laid them out one by one. Kanade didn’t recognize every place in these photos, but she knew some. The desert, Nimbasa City’s Ferris wheel, Celestial Tower… Eevee eventually put one of its front paws down on a photograph and trilled. Kanade picked it up to see for herself what Eevee had chosen. It appeared to be an outdoor cafe sitting on a deck with ornate wooden paneling. Her mother’s Murkrow sat perched on top of a big shady umbrella, with a large wooded area visible in the background.
“Luka, can you tell me where this picture was taken?” Kanade asked. There was another pause for ‘thought’. Kanade realized that a pause like that must be from Luka searching the internet for an answer. Seemed she could grab some types of information faster than others.
“That’s the outdoor seating area for Café Warehouse in Nacrene City. Nacrene is located to the east, on the other side of Skyarrow Bridge and Pinwheel Forest.”
“Nacrene… What’s the easiest way to get there?”
“There’s a shuttle that crosses Skyarrow Bridge every 40 minutes. The next departure is in just under half an hour. Want me to reserve a seat for us?”
“Please do. Thank you again, Luka,” she turned to Eevee, “Guess we’d better catch a bus, huh?” Eevee barked.
Kanade threw her bag over her shoulder and did one last scan of her bedroom for anything she might need. As she did, a strange feeling grasped onto her heart. While she was packed and even a little excited to start her journey, she felt sad leaving her home like this. Her father wasn’t coming home anytime soon, her mother wasn’t here anymore to keep things tidy. This house was going to sit frozen in time until Kanade returned.
She quickly wiped away the tears that had started to form in her eyes. Enough dawdling. She’d already made up her mind when she spent hours wandering the park to find her first Pokémon. And before then, when she visited her dad to clear up her uncertainties. And even further back, when she stayed up all night reading about Pokémon to satisfy her newfound curiosities. She took her first step days ago, this was just one more.
“Alright, come along, Eevee.” She pressed the button on the face of her Poké Ball and held it out towards Eevee. A beam of light shot out, and Eevee disappeared into the Ball. Kanade placed it in the top slot of the holster at her waist with a click.
As she stood on the threshold with one foot out the door, she turned to face the empty house one last time. She took a deep breath and called out to no one in particular.
“I’m heading out now!”