My name is Max Bo.

I am 14 years old and I have been for a couple months now since the start of summer training. Summer Pokémon trainer training that is. It's the last day and they are having the 6 of us who are from my village of Forestree are each receiving our starter Pokémon that we asked for from the league. 

The main starters are the royal Pokémon of each of the main regions, Charmander, Treeko, Popplio and all the others like them. For them you just need to specify the species and the league ships a mass bred Pokémon to you through the summer training program. They do offer other Pokémon but for those you need to write an extra essay and plead with them to actually get it. I chose the second option as I knew for certain since I was 6 years old.

We are all pretty close since in this village you know everyone and everyone knows you. If you ever chopped a berry tree down all the neighbors would say how loud your chops were or how it took you forever to do it. 

While we were close I would go my own way like my older brother and sister had with their Timburr and Pawmi. Grandmother had heavily encouraged us to get a fighting type Pokémon as our starters, but they hadn’t liked their choices and took the other option as well.

"I'm proud of you guys and I will miss you a lot this year! Come back next summer to help train the next grade too like Brandon and Kelsy did!" my teacher said giving us a hug as our final session ended. I was all smiles and so were the others since we had finally gotten our Pokémon. The theory training on how to manipulate type energy, how to form a typing for ourselves and therefore a skill, and all the different types of Pokémon were the curriculum was tough, but it was all worth it.

"Go and hurry home, show your parents your new friends and have a fun filled journey this circuit!" she shooed us away, happy that her students had succeeded and hopeful that some of them would be talented. I was near the top of my class so I was feeling good about things, all I needed to do was form a connection with a Pokémon and the type energy would come flowing into me.

With what I chose I was about to get tougher and get a twinge of creepiness applied to me. I was exhilarated to finally get my hands on MY first Pokemon. Mom and grandpa would be happy to meet him. I already received my pokedex earlier in training to learn how it worked and it was really a simple thing with waaay too many upgrades available for purchase. Call for help with one button, arrows for selection, and scan Pokémon with another final button. The whole rest of what it did was mainly checking out moves, descriptions of Pokémon, and what ability a Pokémon had.

His ability was no guard which works weirdly, increasing reaction speed when he focuses but in that focus he only focuses on his offense rather than if he gets hit or not. The third Pokémon I planned to get had this ability as an option too but it seemed pretty good, subtle but good. I couldn't find it in the Strange Forest surrounding my village but the second one definitely could be as long as I looked high enough.

I kept grinning all the way home. I opened the door and yelled "I'M BACK, TO THE BACKYARD!" before quickly sprinting through the house with loud stomping. Grandmother was fastest of the adults in my family with her enhanced and absolutely ripped body. She was already in the backyard after dropping from the roof she was laying on. 

She gave me a mean look but didn't say or do anything. Her family was all about fighting types and she was tough as nails for surviving it until she met grandpa. She wasn't strict or anything, just heavily passionate about the tradition. I would be following enough of family tradition that she'd overlook this without giving me an earful. She knew I'd get one eventually and even helped me pick one out that she thought was a good choice for rounding out the 4 Pokémon I planned on getting.

I nodded to her respectfully and turned to see grandpa opening the door for my mom. The door slammed shut behind them as they walked over through the grass and flowers backyard. Carefully tended to by another villager's Floette. 

"Well let's see it then, need to know what I'm entrusting my grandson to before he leaves" grandpa said. Mom nodded like she was ready and waited to see what Pokémon I got. We all knew what it was but seeing it for ourselves was different.

Sawk watched from farther away as he had been ordered, as did the other family Pokemon, while I released a sword from the red and white apricot pokeball. Hovering there was a Honedge that was 2 feet of cold steel and almost 3 feet including its blue ribbon. I had already scanned him and knew he was a boy and the moves he knew already from his own training course. He hovered quietly as he looked at us with he eye and floated toward me since I had the pokeball. He bumped me with the tip of his scabbard and reached his ribbon around my back. The ribbon felt cold and I felt some of my energy draining as some touched my exposed arm.

"He's very nice dear, look at him even giving you a hug" my mom spoke up.

"Little soul stealing piece of metal bitch..." grandmother muttered.

"No need for that Patty, it's going to take care of Max for a while. Maybe even the rest of his life if they get particularly close" grandpa said, putting a hand on grandmother's shoulder and giving her a squeeze. It looked weird with how big he was as he had to lean over to get to her level.

"Do you like Ian?" I ask. Just to confirm approval but really just to name him. Supposedly Honedge were swordsmen that inhabited their swords so he likely had a name beforehand but doesn't remember it.

Ian slides his blade partway out once and rapidly shuts it once. "One sheathe for yes?" I question.

Ian does it again "Cool, well Ian, my name is Max Bo. Pleasure to meet you. This is my grandpa, mom, and grandmother" I wave my towards each of them in turn. Ian turns to face them but is otherwise silent except for a light humming that I can't tell where its coming from. 

"Before you leave tomorrow we need to figure out what Ian eats dear, Ian honey, can you say yes if I say something you eat?" mom asks politely. Ian sheathes his blade twice quickly "Oh, do you not eat because you're a ghost?"

"Honedge don't eat per se but they do use steel cleaners and get sharpened" I explain. My dedication to the Aegislash line wasn't for nothing and I looked up in a couple of the older Pokémon encyclopedias about them. We don't have the internet here, only landlines, but we know about it. One of the things I'm looking forward to most is actually checking out the library for the first time.

"That's nice dear" she responds, glad that my costs should be lower. I only have 1000 pokedollars to take with me along with a couple clothes, 3 pokeballs, and a potion. The items came with Ian and are good enough for now but pokeballs can be pretty expensive if enough Pokémon break out. The money amount was a family tradition. Grandmother was stingy with my siblings their first year do I didn’t expect to be able to convince her to give me more despite at least 3 attempts this summer to get more.

"Let's go get lunch, we can show Ian around and I can have a good chat with him before you leave, old man to old man" grandpa jokes, walking back towards the house.

"Wait, we should see the moves he knows first before that. What was his ability boy? No guard like Machops?" grandmother asks.

"Yes, and he knows 3 moves. They are swords dance, furry cutter, and scratch" I say without pulling up my pokedex again. Ian dances in the air, twirling about for a couple seconds before swords appear surrounding him. They're small but they also move in time with Ian before pointing at him.

"No absorb or anything? He feels like he's stealing energy from me" mom asks just as grandmother is saying something about Ian being clever just with curses and old languages that she picked up during her journey.

"That effect is just a species trait, one day it might get strong enough to be a named move or something but its just a passive effect" I answer. Ian goes and slices at a couple flowers, cleanly cutting them.

"Oh great, a fucking kitchen knife is his first companion. Come on and try me Ian" grandmother taunts. Ian doesn't see that he is getting played but before I can stop him I see light green energy start to hover around his blade faintly and he slashes at grandmother. She barely moves, pushing the blade aside each time before Ian gets a clean hit on her arm. It cuts deeply, about an inch into her muscly arm and the bug type energy infests the wound to spread to the rest of her body.

"Good, good..." grandmother says, pulling Ian out of her before flexing and spitting on the cut. Grandpa just throws his hands in the air and walks away.

"Easy grandma" I say.

"Grandmother, just because it's your last day here for a while doesn't mean I will let you slang my title away" she says while rubbing in the spit.

"Its not even a real title though" I try to argue. She laughs before placing her injured side hand on my shoulder.

"Titles have meaning boy, you know this" she says before giving my shoulder a sharp squeeze "and I very much like mine to be respected."

Ian just stares dumbly at her. I nod to him as if to say, lets have a good long journey before we return, as much as a nod can say that. Ian sheathes his blade without taking off the blood, draining the vigor from it and not caring about a stain. How could a swordsman treat his blade like that? I'll have to clean that you damn ingrate.