It was then that Dr. Kureha and Chopper introduced themselves. Chopper came towards me with a sense of comradery. I didn’t know, but I could feel that he felt like we were already close. “Hi! I’m Chopper!” He said, cutely as he shook my paw with his hoof. It felt strange to not have normal hands anymore. ‘This will take some time getting used to.’ Chopper looked at me with a happy smile. “What’s your name?” I looked at him for a bit before smiling back at him. Even with a horrible sob background story, he was still one of the most chipper of the crew. ‘I’m still me on the inside. I haven’t lost what’s the most important thing about being human.’

“My name is Calvin.” Chopper was giggling and happy about having a friend of a feather. I could feel his happiness. The feelings made me happy. I smiled and patted him on the back. I looked at the doctor who was smiling at the two of us. I didn’t really have anything much back home. My parents were gone for a long time, and the day to day was grinding. Even with this body, I felt like I could enjoy my life with the Straw Hats. I wanted to look past my body and look at the bright side, I could tell that I had at least some of the abilities of Riolu. That hopefully meant I could join for my fighting capabilities.

I started formulating a plan to join the Straw Hats when they got here. I just had to wait, and train. It was at this point we all left the bathroom. Kureha and Chopper were leading me back to my room. Once we made it there they had me lay down and get some more rest. After I calmed down, I actually felt really tired at the moment. I laid down and quickly fell asleep while thinking of ideas of training.

I woke up in what seemed like the middle of the night. The fire was smoldering, and no light was making its way inside from the windows. I could still see though. My new eyes could see well in the dark, but I also could feel something else. Like a 6th sense. It then came to me. ‘My species has aura abilities, and Haki is very similar to that idea. Does that mean I’m already using Haki right now?’ I was lost in thought of what I should do, when I was startled by a sudden movement by my bed.

I looked over to see Chopper sleeping on the side of my bed. I smiled just seeing him taking care of me until he passed out. I petted his head while smiling for a bit before going back to my thoughts. ‘Pokémon come with moves, but how do those moves activate? What if they used Aura, like with my species. We use attacks that are just made with aura. So it stands to reason that as long as my Aura is compatible, I should be able to use the moves.’ I was nodding at my conjecture and was ready to test it.

The only question now was, how do I test it? I thought for a moment while staring off into the bookshelves. I then thought of an idea. ‘If I can feel Aura, then that means I’ll know if I can at least control it a bit.’ I sat up in my bed and started to meditate. I felt inside myself as a first step. I could feel my body brimming with Aura, and smiled at that knowledge. I brought my right paw out, and tried to move my Aura towards it. I could feel my Aura move, and congregate towards where I wanted and opened my eyes to see what I was doing.

I saw a small swirling ball of Aura floating above my paw. It wasn’t much, but I had a large smile at what I was doing. I felt magical. I giggled, and then had the Aura be brought back into me. The ball disappeared and I could feel the energy swirling around back inside me again. I nodded at myself as I was going to start proving my hypothesis’. Luckily Lucario was my favorite Pokémon, so I knew most of his moves. The only thing is, now all of the moves that were bad in the RPG, could now prove useful here in real fights.

I thought of an easy attacking move, and after thinking for a bit, I realized something. ‘Some of the abilities are essentially just coating a certain part of your body with ‘Armament Haki’. If that’s true, then I should work on those last. I may be more intuned with Haki and Aura, but that doesn’t mean I can learn strong Armament Haki in a week, or a night.’ I decided on ‘Quick Attack.’ as my first move. It was one that most Pokémon could learn at early levels, and I could use the speed boost not to just attack, but evade as well.

I got up from my bed silently. I noticed I could be much more quiet and nimble now that I was a Pokémon. The longer I was in this form, the more I could only see benefits. I shook away my thoughts and focused on training. I began to allow my Aura to coat my entire body. I could see a white sheen surrounding me, and I could feel my body becoming lighter. I began to hop and move silently around my room. I was already quick before, I knew that from running around the castle, but now I felt almost twice as fast. The surprising bit was how little it felt like it was taking. I could keep up this speed for a while. 

After feeling content with my new move, I decided to move onto the next one. ‘That first one was really easy. Must be because almost all new-borns could use it. The higher the level requirement for a move, the harder it might be to learn.’ I came up with an idea of how I might get bottlenecked if I couldn’t get experience. ‘This isn’t an RPG, so it may just take time, and actual experience to learn new moves.’ After thinking about how long it might take for the strong moves, I cleared my head, and focused on the next easy move I could practice.