Paldean Knights - Chapter 8 (Patreon)

“-so, anyway, I thought hawlucha were supposed to be solitary?” Nemona asked, fingering the ball that contained her newest catch. “Yet the ones here seem to gather in groups?”

I clicked my tongue as we continued walking. “Ahh... yeah, the reason's kind of where we're going.”

“Oh?” Nemona asked, interested.

“Hawlucha prize space and quiet amongst their own own kind,” I explained. “They like to keep the other kinds of pokemon in the area as a private audience for their stunts so that there's no confusion about who's the best. When groups get together, they usually end up fracturing due to infighting and driving the weaker hawlucha off to other habitats.”

Nemona nodded slowly. “Yeah... that makes sense with what I've heard, I guess.”

I gave her the side-eye, unwilling to call her on her bullshit at the moment. “The exception is when you have other strong fighting types in the area. That creates ecological pressure to form a posse – which, yes, is the official term for a group of hawlucha – in order to fight back against whatever else is in the area.”

“And that's where we're going,” Nemona asserted, to which I nodded.

“Yep,” I nodded, then paused. “Fair warning, you're not going to be familiar with them and and they're going to smell the hawlucha on you, so keep your distance. They aren't as friendly to outsiders as the other species we've met.”

Lyra sighed deeply, her shoulders drooping. “I wish they weren't as friendly, period.”

I chuckled, then smirked. “We're close enough.”

“Oh my...” Lyra sighed again, putting her hands over her ears.

I set my feet double shoulder-width apart and popped my back and neck to get the correct posture, ignoring Nemona's surprised look. Inhaling deeply, I cupped my hands around my mouth and started shouting in a familiar cadence.

“OO-EE, OO-AH-AH! TING-TANG-WALLA-WALLA-BING-BANG!”

The forest, which had been filled with noise before, now hushed with pregnant silence, as if the entire area was holding it's breath.

“Mow?” Sprigatito asked, wide-eyed, looking around.

“Just watch,” I whispered, as I felt the call-back begin.

“KEE-KE, MANE-MANE-KEE! MANKEY-MANKEY!”

Nemona's eyes widened as the forest came alive with sudden noise, white fur flashing through the canopy above us as limber hands and feet swung through the high-branches.

“Mankeys!” Nemona's eyes widened in sudden realization as we were swarmed.

I snorted, beginning to slap my thighs as I kept the beat of the song and pacing my breathing.

“You want to learn something that I can teach to you You want to know a secret that I said is true-”

“MANKEY!” They all yelled as one, hooting and screeching in approval.

“Mankeys, we have more fun than humans ever do Ooh ee ooh ah ah-”

“Man-kee! Mane-mane-kee!” The barrel in the trees called back, then continued to chant as I went through the chorus.

“Ting tang Walla walla bing bang Ooh ee ooh ah ah Ting tang!”

I laughed as the mankeys all sang along, bouncing around the trees and jumping down on the ground and doing little shimmies and shakes as I continued to the next verse.

“Walla walla bing bang We learned to climb and swing before we leaned to run We like to party and there's room for everyone Come join us if you really want to have some fun!”

I could have gone on, I knew most of the song and what I didn't, I'd recreated to my satisfaction. But, with Nemona staring at the entire affair with shinning and gleeful eyes, I was getting a bit self-conscious. So I used the next chorus to wrap things up.

“Alrigh!” I clapped my hands, bringing the mankeys to attention. “Line up for snacks!”

That was all that needed to be said to distract the from their disappointment at the early ending to the song, my hands quickly diving into my pack for banana after banana. That continued for a while, each pokemon taking their treat and retreating to the side of the clearing to munch on it, until...

“Ape! Prime!”

Three large thuds rang out across the clearing, and I heard Lyra restrain Nemona from acting with a hissed command. Looking up, I found the few remaining mankey still standing in line parting urgently for the trio of primeape that had just dropped in on us. They were the leaders of this barrel of mankeys. One male and his two mates, and behind them...

“Mankey!” A final mankey screamed out, launching himself at me energetically.

“You dork!” I cried, my eyes widening as the ball of coarse fur flung itself at me. I felt sprigatito tense, ready to attack or defend, but a pulse of calm through our nascent bond sent her hopping off my shoulder in an exasperated huff.

I did manage to shove the egg incubator off to the side.

I barely got my hands up to catch him, grunting as he impacted me and knocked me to the ground, hands fussing all over me and looking for anything that he could pick and eat. Mainly bugs, which... well, we were in a forest and had been walking through it for several hours at this point. It wasn't really a surprise that he found a few.

“Primeape!”

The declaration brought both of us hurrying back to our feet, standing in front of the grumpy pig-monkey as he crossed his arms in front of him, the steel shackles on his wrists clanking with the motion.

“Sorry,” I stated, dipping my head as mankey grunted something similar. Making up for our little tussle, I reached into my back and brought out a full bunch of bananas, one each for the three of the primeapes. The male leader, of course, got the largest bundle.

“Ape,” the leader nodded, stepping aside as the remainder of the barrel eagerly shuffled forward for their share.

“Mow?” Sprigatito asked, bouncing forward to look between the large apes and the mankey. “Mrow?”

“Ah... all this food's gotten you hungry, too?” I chuckled, pulling out a handful of berries. “We'll find your favorite later, but pick whichever you like for now.”

She pounced on one of the poke-world fruits and began tearing into it playfully.

“Mank?” The furball to my side asked, cocking... well, his whole body at the green cat. “Kee?”

“Yep,” I nodded, grinning at him. “My parents said I could have pokemon and be a trainer now.”

“Mankey!” My friend cried energetically, looking at his own parents, who were sitting across from us, eating their bananas as they narrowed their eyes at me. “Mank-man-kee!”

I kept my mouth shut... after I put some of the sweet berry sprigatito didn't seem to like into it. She wasn't the only one who'd gotten hungry with all this food being passed around.

“Prime-ape!?” One of the females grunted out, looking between her son and me.

I blushed slightly and looked away. “Ah... yeah, it wasn't supposed to be for a while. But... something bad happened. There was a party and a rogue human let a dragon in. I stood between it and my little sister, and my parents said that proved I was ready.”

One of the lady primeapes jerked and stood, hurrying over to squint at me closely, then breathed in my scent deeply. Her eyes widened and she choked, looking back to the others. “Prime! Ape-ape!”

I felt my blush increased as the leader of the barrel of monkeys blinked, standing and coming closer to me. Several mankey looked enviously at the remaining nanners left behind on the grass temporarily, but knew better than to try shenanigans. The other female was only a moment behind the barrel-leader, stooping in to sniff and snort.

On the one hand, I was a little surprised they could still pick up the scent after a week of bathing.

On the other hand, adult male garchomp was intentionally a scent that lingered as a warning to other pokemon.

“Ape-prime! Primeape!” One of the mothers screeched, pulling my arm this way and that and looking me over.

“I'm fine!” I protested weakly, the words almost a whine as I allowed myself to be subjected to a detailed examination. “There wasn't a fight! Not really!”

The leader grunted as he rolled his eyes, signs of primeape irritation boiling up as he crossed his arms again. “Ape! Ape-ape-prime!”

In a nutshell? 'Look, the boy's not even bleeding! What are you freaking out about, women!?'

Yeah, it be like that even with pokemon.

“Y-you okay, Aznaro?!” Nemona called out, making the primeapes turn and look at her with suspicious gazes.

“Mank-mankee?” My friend asked, nudging me and jerking his head towards the tanned girl, then pointing at the egg in the incubator.

“Mow-mow-mow!” Sprigatito snickered, rolling in the grass.

I palmed my face as I turned to Nemona. “I'm fine, just being fussed over. They smelled the garchomp on me and wanted to make sure I wasn't hurt!”

The girl stared blankly at me as I turned back to mankey. “And, no we are not!”

The juvenile pig-monkey snorted and shrugged, making me roll my eyes again.

“She's a... I guess a packmate. I told you about the school, right? The big place where humans send their children to battle and grow stronger? She's teaching me the stuff I'll need to know about the human-packs there,” I explained.

“Primeape,” the leader denounced, snorted irritably and turning away from the girl.

I sighed, declining to comment. There wasn't much to say when he'd just said that she had shit taste if she'd captured one of those 'idiot show-off birds.' “But I'll be leaving for that place soon. Next week. I wanted to ask if mankey can come with me.”

The females and the barrel-leader traded looks, the male turning to his son and grunting a question. Mankey instantly nodded, hooting a reply. That went on for a few moments, the pokemon arguing and hashing things out before primeape.

I looked at mankey with a shrug, to which he returned the expression.

'Parents, amirite?'

Mankey reached up and scratched the back of his head, something he'd learned from me, but nodded. On the ground, sprigatito had finished her berry and jumped up onto my lap, then climbed up onto my shoulder. The grass-cat made a noise, tilting her head and licking a paw.

The monkey pokemon eye-smiled, nodding energetically and mimed shoveling food into his mouth. Sprigatito looked distinctly unimpressed and pressed for more details.

I sighed. Yeah, mankey was a great pokemon.

Just... a very uncomplicated one.

But I appreciated that he thought I was a good trainer, at least. Even if that evaluation was primarily based on the food I could source.

“Primeape!” The barrel-leader cried, stomping a foot down hard enough to send a slight rumble through the earth.

Lyra and Nemona gasped at the miniature earthquake, but made no move to intervene even as mankey and I sat calmly on the ground and waited for the conclusion. Besides, if his parents said no, I would have just waited outside at night for him to runaway. The hawlucha would have loved the chance to get one over on the old primeape by running interference. And they also loved kiwis, so bribing them was easy, too.

“Prime-prime-ape,” one of the females drooped a bit, then nodded, coming over to mankey and patting him on the head before moving over to me and narrowing her gaze. “Ape-prime!”

“I'll watch out for him and make sure he gets strong,” I nodded, meaning it.

She grunted, then turned around to give mankey a hug. There was another round of goodbyes with the other female, then the father gave a few grunts and gave me a soft tap on the shoulder that would have bruised most people, before nodding in satisfaction.

I pulled out a pokeball and offered it to mankey.

He tapped it with a closed fist, then disappeared in a flash of light.

I turned back to the three barrel-leaders, then bowed slightly. “I'll bring him back at least once a moon so you can see how he's grown.”

The big primeape nodded, waving me off as he returned to his bananas.

And that was that.

I sighed as I walked away, absently brushing coarse mankey hair off my clothing. Everything I was wearing was going to need a thorough wash after this. And I'd have to give mankey a thorough grooming session, too. Alice was not going to be amused if he shed over everything and she had to clean it up.

Yawning and stretching tiredly, I walked back to Nemona and Lyra, “Okay, tired now. I need to go get my team settled. Let's head back.”

Nemona twitched, looking between me and the primeape/mankey tribe. “H-how...”

Lyra coughed politely, patting her on the shoulder and shaking her head.

The tanned girl shook herself as I blinked, staring at her. “Anyway... let's go?”

“Yes, your highness, let's go back to the palace, please,” Lyra sighed, placing her hand gently on my back. “Before you destroy anyone else's worldview.”

I frowned, “Huh?”

“Never you mind,” she waved me off.

I rolled my eyes and shrugged. Yeah, I got it. Kind of, at least. What I did was a bit weird. I got along with pokemon better than anyone I'd met, which... I mostly put down to looking at them differently than most humans on this world did. They weren't just animals that were smart enough to take orders, they were... well, friends.

If a creature is smart enough to understand a complex and abstract concept like 'friendship,' then they're not a creature anymore and start being a person.

But once you start getting called 'adorable' and 'precocious' for espousing wild theories that no one listens to, you learn to just stop trying and do you own thing.

Either I'd change peoples' minds when I was older or I wouldn't.

Their loss.

It was a relatively uneventful walk back to the main palace grounds, thankfully. We could all hear the hawlucha celebrating off to the side and a few pokemon showed up to beg berries, but we avoided the other major territories within the King's Wood. That meant no more significant encounters.

Of course, I still had my sixth slot on my team open, especially since I didn't plan on evolving nincada anytime soon. I'd bug Father for an everstone from the family vaults later. They weren't all that useful an item outside of specific breeding programs, so we had a few tucked away. Since space-llama magic logic dictated that both shedinja and ninjask would have the same known moves once they split off as nincada did when it evolved, I wanted to save some time and train the little guy up to be able to use some more advanced stuff.

Plus, if memory served, there were a few moves that nincada could only learn before it evolved. Or, at least, learned a lot more easily.

In one regard, I missed the cold certainty of established move pools, learnsets, and numerical determinism clearly signaling a winner and loser before the battle could even begin.

In another regard, though, I really didn't like video-game style isekai. Who wanted their entire life to basically be one long 'number go brr' meme?

“Okay, I've decided!” Nemona shouted.

I jerked slightly, surprised by the sudden noise as I looked to where Nemona and made her declaration, her feet planted apart and her arms folded so her elbows pointed behind her. Her eyes, though, were pure fire.

“Okay?” I asked, cocking my head.

Nemona shook her head and reached into her pocket, drawing out... ah, right. That was that red glove... thing that she wore. It reminded me of an abbreviated carpel-tunnel arm brace, honestly. Fingerless black and red up to about her mid-forearm with a large reinforced ring at her wrist and another white one right before the elbow before swapping to a pure-black material until it hit her short-sleeve blouse. I'd seen her wear it before at a few televised matches, but...

Okay, look, I knew gym leaders.

They had far, far weirder fashion choices than just a slightly chunni battle-glove.

“You're my eternal rival! I've decided!” Nemona cried, dramatically pointing a finger at me.

I blinked, looked to Lyra... who very intentionally took a step back. Fine, traitor. Turning back to Nemona, I raised a finger at myself.

Nemona nodded eagerly, her wide grin slightly manic.

“C-can I ask... why?” I questioned slowly.

Nemona took a breath. “Because I've never met anyone who can communicate with pokemon like you. Plus, I know you're going to try and evolve that mankey into an annihilape! You're a ghost-type trainer trying to trick people into thinking you aren't one! That makes you a fighting-type trainer's natural rival!”

I mean... whether or not she was objectively correct, that logic was weird bullshit.

“No one knows how to evolve a primeape, and you think I do?” I asked, scratching my chin as sprigatito looked at me curiously, but I waved her off. We'd talk about it later.

“I think you'll find out if you don't already,” Nemona asserted, finally dropping her dramatic pose to plant her fists on her hips. “And you said you were going to catch another ghost type, too!”

I blinked, then nodded. Right, I'd mentioned that, hadn't I?

Eh, he could wait til tomorrow.

“What does eternal rivalry... entail, exactly?” I asked her curiously. “Is that a thing, actually?”

I'd looked at Lyra for the last question, who pulled a slight face and waggled a hand in an iffy fashion.

Right, so not really.

“If means we battle!” Nemona declared, stomping a foot forward and grinning with teeth. “Every day if we can! And at least once every two days if we can't! We'll practice against each other and meet up at the tournament and have a battle in front of the whole region! Then whoever loses can come back and win next year! That way we both keep getting better and better!”

I crossed my arms and hummed in thought. “I have a lot of private training to do. How about we start at once a week and we'll renegotiate things in a few months. Say, three? I don't know if I want to commit to a long-term arrangement like that if we aren't compatible.”

Nemona paused, adopting her own thinking stance as she cupped her chin and narrowed her gaze. “Hmm... I guess you're right. Even if my instincts say you're the one... I've been wrong before. Okay! We'll battle once a week for three months to prove we've got what it takes to keep up with each other! Then we'll make it official!”

“Sounds good,” I nodded.

“And we'll start right now!” Nemona grinned, pulling a ball off her belt and throwing it between us. “Go, quaxly!”

I raised my hand to order sprigatito forward, then paused. “Ahh... can I have like... five minutes to make sure I know sprigatito's moves?”

Nemona blinked, pausing. “Ah... yeah, I should do that, too. This is the first time I've ever trained a quaxly.”

The duck, who'd been psyching itself up for a battle, drooped as it turned to glare at its trainer, then folded a wing over its face.

“Alright, let's break for a few minutes,” I ordered, turning and walking away a dozen meters. “Then we'll battle.”

“Then we'll battle!” Nemona affirmed, grinning again.

I sighed and sat down with my starter, staring at the cat who stared back, just as nonplussed as I was. “Yeah, tell me about it.”

“Mrow,” she agreed, nodding solemnly. “Meow?”

I shrugged. “Hey, at least you're not in quaxly's place?”

Sprigatito's eyes widened with alarm, then she jumped into my lap and rubbed her face on my torso. I chuckled, petting her briefly. “Okay, let's go over your moves...”

Lyra sat off to the side on a stone bench as I pulled out a thermos to drink from, offering my starter the cap full of water to refresh herself. After a bit of back and forth, we hammered out some quick and dirty tactics, her known move set, and her overall level of fitness.

The moves were nothing impressive, but a solid spread nonetheless. Scratch, tail whip, leafage, bite, hone claws, charm, fake tears, and copycat.

I especially liked that copycat.

A few minutes later, Nemona and I were standing across from each other once again. Sprigatito and quaxly had each taken the field, looking ready to battle.

“This will be a one-on-one match,” Lyra called out, standing in as referee. “Til surrender or knock-out, no swaps. Begin in three... two... one... Go!”

“Terastalize, quaxly!”

“Fake tears!” I ordered, squinting slightly at the gleaming shine of the duck pokemon taking on a stained-glass appearance.

Sprigatito glowed with dark-type energy, blinking cutely as it cocked it's head and held up a paw, as if injured.

“Shake it off, quaxly!” Nemona ordered. “Water gun!”

“Dodge!” I cried, watching with satisfaction as my cat began bouncing around. Nemona had obviously planned to use the bonus STAB from terastalizing her quaxly to finish the match as quickly as possible. The extra boost would make up for water's type disadvantage and keep sprigatito at bay.

“Keep it up, quaxly!” Nemona ordered, spraying more blasts of water as the field began to – Ah.

“Take the attack!” I ordered my cat, unwilling to let her start muddying the field enough to undercut sprigatito's mobility. “Then leafage!”

My cat was pushed back, but not off her feet, by the attack, looking irritated as it unleashed a blast of leaves. Nemona ordered the duck to dodge, but it took a few leaves to the face anyway, the damage evident as its defense had been lowered by fake tears.

Nemona hissed and grimaced as quaxly got up, looking battered but determined.

“Water jet!” She called out, and I blinked.

What?

Quaxly spun on it's webbed feet and turned to water-gun directly away from spirgatito-

“Copycat, now! Keep the duck away!” I ordered, my eyes widening.

Nemona spat as quaxly's water-gun propelled flight was cut short by sprigatito launching another blast of water, killing his momentum and making the shining pokemon shake water from itself in irritation. The attack had done barely anything, only slightly slowing the pokemon down as it had closed the distance between itself and sprigatito.

“Wing attack, now!” Nemona called out.

“Leafage!” I cried-

And one, then two, then three-

The leaves were cut out as quaxly impacted with a glowing wing of energy on sprigatito, both pokemon knocking each other down.

But, after a moment, sprigatito was able to shake it off, breathing heavily, but standing.

Quaxly... did not, clearly unconscious as it laid there on the grass.

Nemona and I both exhaled as she brought out her pokeball. “You did good, buddy. We'll have to work hard to overcome that type advantage.”

“You were amazing,” I praised sprigatito as I pulled out a towel from my bag and picked the cat up to dry her off. “Let's get you clean and then we'll head to the pokemon center.”

...and that was pretty much it for my first day as a trainer.

Granted, Nemona was super jelly that we had a pokecenter built into the palace. She kept complaining that she'd have so much more time for battling if she had one at her home.

One-track mind, that girl.

~~~

More pokemon!

Aznaro picks up his final Day One catch, then he and Nemona have a battle!

...is anyone surprised?

Anyway, that's a good stopping place for this 'arc.' Next up will be Aznaro doing some training, celebrating his birthday, and picking up his final member for his main team. I have plans to expand to a second-string soon, though, so this won't be the final lineup of pokemon Aznaro brings to the field.

I mean... gotta' catch them all!

Next update will be more Mind Games! I'll have that out for... probably Saturday? Sunday at a stretch, but around then. As usual. Hope this chapter finds everyone in good health and getting through the week alright.