CHAPTER 10

The next few weeks were a blur. I spent most of them getting closer with Frillish. I discovered that even though ghost types didn't need to eat, he was a glutton. He’d eat anything I threw toward him, and his stomach was seemingly bottomless. There was unfortunately still no progress on him letting me touch him. Surprisingly, he didn’t misbehave when I introduced him to dad, or Jubilife city, although the sensory overload was too much for him, and he asked to be put in his ball soon enough. Dad, for all his praise about me catching a second team member so soon, seemed to dislike him. When I asked him why, he simply said he hated ghost types. How silly.

Denzel was changing up his strategy, deciding to train in the wild on route 202, going out for days at a time before coming back. Togepi’s jumping Headbutt— which was now her main attack— was getting stronger and stronger. I didn’t want to put all of my eggs in the rollout basket because when she evolved, it would be impossible to use the move. We also started working on a new move called Fairy Wind. My Pokedex told me it was one of the fairy moves Togepi could learn, and it would be great to give her a bit of variety and range. Unfortunately though, it was kind of a shot in the dark. Togepi tried her best, but the amount of wind she was making was barely enough to even bother me, so right now, it would do nothing against another Pokemon.

Finally though, September 1st rolled around. Children younger than fifteen would be going back to school, but for us? It was time for the League Circuit to begin.

“You’ll call me when you reach Oreburgh, right? Straight away!” Dad sobbed.

“Yes, dad, I will. Please don’t cry, you’re embarrassing me,” I said, trying not to tear up. “Plus, when we’re done in Oreburgh, we have to go back through Jubilife anyway, so cheer up!”

Dad sniffled and then nodded. Denzel stood by my side, acting like he couldn’t see what was going on to spare me the embarrassment. We stood at the gate to route 203, along with hundreds of young trainers and their parents going through the same thing we were: saying goodbye. Some trainers had already left days, or even weeks earlier, to be able to challenge Roark as soon as the Circuit began. Denzel and I had decided against it so I could spend more time with my father. I was thankful for that because I could tell he wanted to leave early. Something was bothering him, but I couldn’t tell what.

“And call me before your gym battle! Both of you!” Dad continued.

Denzel’s eyes widened. “Um, of course, sir.”

“Come on, Denzel. Enough with the sirs. You’re just making me feel old,” Dad said. He clapped both of our shoulders. “I believe in both of you. You’ll go far. I can feel it in my gut.”

I hugged dad and told him I loved him. He did the same. We started to leave before dad called out one more time.

“And Denzel! Take care of Grace for me!”

My cheeks reddened, and I dragged Denzel past the gate’s exit before he had time to answer. Route 203 lay before us, along with hundreds of trainers and their Pokemon. It was honestly overwhelming to see this many people, all heading in the same direction. The route was relatively simple and well maintained by Rangers because it was often the first route a trainer would actually go through, so unless we strayed off the road, there would be very little to worry about in terms of wild Pokemon until we reached Oreburgh gate. Denzel and I had estimated it would take three days to get to the cave if we weren’t stopped by too many trainers looking to battle, and another day and a half to get through Oreburgh gate.

The first few hours were uneventful. We mostly kept to ourselves. There were a few incidents between trainers, however. Apparently, someone’s aggressive Phanphy had gone on a rampage and wounded a few people and their Pokemon further up the route, and had to be neutralized by four trainers at the same time. Phanphy’s owner had gotten furious and started a fight, and chaos ensued. It was scary to hear about, but it also taught me a valuable lesson. Not every trainer would be as diligent as I had been with Frillish, making sure that they stayed in their ball if I wasn’t confident there wouldn’t be an accident. Some trainers were rash, or immature, and didn’t think before they acted.

We had to take a few breaks after a few hours of walking. Route 203 went permanently uphill, so it drained our energy faster than a normal route. We sat near the side of the forest that surrounded the route.

“You know, this is kind of anticlimactic so far, isn’t it?” Denzel said.

“I’d rather this be anticlimactic than too dangerous. This was expected. There’s no way the League would still exist if a bunch of teenagers died every year at the first route they went through.”

“Yeah…” Denzel answered, trailing off. “I was thinking though, how about not following the route for a little?”

I frowned. “How? It’s a straight path to Oreburgh gate, so it’d make no sense. We would just be wasting time.”

“Well, it isn't exactly a shortcut. In fact, we might be wasting a few days in there, but there’s a certain Pokemon I want to look for. Remember when I said I already had a team in mind?”

I nodded and took a swig out of my water bottle.

“The first one on my list is a Budew, and they can apparently be found here. I thought I’d just find one on the normal route, but the Rangers seemingly went extra hard on keeping wild Pokemon out of the way here this year. If I ever want to beat Roark’s rock types, then I’ll need a new team member anyway. You already have Frillish, but I only have Eevee.”

“Ah,” I said, suddenly understanding. “Well, I don’t like it, but I said we’d travel together right? So I’ll follow you and help you out.”

Denzel’s face brightened. Had he expected me to say no? “Thank you, Grace. How about leaving the route after our break? I want to catch one as early as possible so I have time to train it before Roark.”

“Sounds good. I’ll use the opportunity to see if Frillish feels like fighting any wild Pokemon.”

“How’s it looking with him? You were almost always out of Jubilife when you used him,” Denzel asked as he glanced at the Pokeball on my hip.

“I like him. He’s certainly stubborn and weird, but he’s my stubborn and weird friend, y’know? Plus, he’s kind of cute if you look at him the right way. We’ve been connecting more and more.”

Denzel scoffed. “I wouldn’t call him cute. Menacing, maybe. Anyway, I certainly hope the Budew I catch is easier to manage than that. Otherwise, I’ll have to spend weeks in Oreburgh just trying to get it to listen to me.”

“You were good with Eevee, right?” I asked.

“Yeah, I was,” My friend said, looking at the sky. “I told you I rescued him, right?” I nodded. “I don’t know what he got attacked by, but when I found him on route 201, he was barely breathing. I took him back home and my family and I nursed him back to health. I tried releasing him afterward, but he wouldn’t leave my side,” Denzel continued, putting his hand on his Pokeball affectionally. “So I decided to keep him. He didn’t even have a Pokeball for an entire year.”

“Woah,” I said. “You did a great thing. I don’t know if I’d try to save an injured wild Pokemon I randomly came across.”

Denzel sighed. “Pokemon… they can be your greatest friend, but the world they live in is ruthless. It’s kill or be killed. I honestly feel bad for them. Could you imagine Togepi trying to survive in the wild?”

I shook my head.

“Hey y’all,” A short trainer waved toward us. “Fancy a battle?”

“You can go ahead,” I told Denzel. He had battled much more than me back in Jubilife, and I expected him to do the same during our journey.

“Uh— I’m good, actually. Not feeling it,” He stuttered with a nervous laugh.

“Mind if I take this one, then?” I asked, noting his strange behavior. I thought I was imagining things, but he had been… timid when it came to battling for a few weeks now.

I faced the challenger and sent out Togepi. I considered sending out Frillish, but I decided against it. It would be better to be safe and try him out in a battle against a wild Pokemon instead of a trainer. A quick Sweet Kiss, Headbutt combo made quick work of his Plusle, but not before it shocked Togepi with Thundershock. It was a quick battle, but I was surprised at how much damage a single attack had done on Togepi. I thought about it for a while as we finished our break until I figured it out. Togepi’s shell was excellent at mitigating damage from physical attacks, but she was still vulnerable to special attacks. There wasn’t much of a solution to this problem right now, and Togepi was slower than most attacks, so there was no way she could dodge unless she was using rollout and building up speed for a decent while. Luckily, rock type moves were mostly physical, so I wouldn’t have to worry about it for a while.

We passed through the thick tree line and started looking for a Budew. Denzel released his Eevee, and I released Frillish, who looked extremely irritated that he was in such a dense forest. I was starting to be able to tell how he felt using his body language. It mostly had to do with how bright or dim his eyes were, and how tense he was while floating.

“Sorry buddy,” I told him. “Togepi’s resting right now, so I wanted to ask you if you were alright with helping us out?”

Frillish’s eyes dimmed, and he slowly bobbed his head.

“Thanks,” I told him. “I’ll give you a lot of food later. Maybe we can even get some poffins when we get to Oreburgh.”

“Fri…”

We continued looking for hours. Luckily for us, this forest was relatively well maintained and it was nowhere near as hard to walk through as the woods on route 202 had been. Frillish dealt with most Pokemon from a distance with a few Bubblebeams or Night Shades, while Eevee took care of the grass types with Bites and Quick Attacks. To my delight, Frillish was starting to listen to what I said during battles. Only starting, because sometimes he’d follow every move by the letter, and other times he would just do whatever he wanted. I had to stop him from killing a few wild Pokemon— apparently, that’s how he was used to eating. He would knock a Pokemon out and then start draining all of its energy with Absorb. I suppose that was why he was so enamored with the taste of normal food. I doubted pure energy tasted like anything.

“Grace! Stand still and quiet,” Denzel whispered, interrupting my train of thought. He pointed to my right with a trembling finger.

Five green Pokemon looking like plant buds with yellow faces on their bottom half were waddling through the forest alongside a small pond. I scanned them with my Pokedex.

Budew, the Bud Pokemon. When the sun’s light strengthens, the bud atop this Pokémon’s head opens, releasing toxic pollen. This can be a sign to the people that the harsh winter is over, and the season of budding has begun.

Type: Grass, Poison

“I’m going to need your help keeping the rest of its group off of Eevee,” Denzel whispered to me. I responded with a determined nod.

Denzel gestured to Eevee and called him to his side and then gestured toward the biggest Budew of the group. He grabbed an empty Pokeball, and Eevee started to shine.

TEAM:

Togepi - Pound, Sweet Kiss, Rollout, Growl, Headbutt

Frillish - Bubblebeam, Night Shade, Absorb, Water Sport