Chapter Text
The sun was low, and it casted a golden hazy glow on the charming city. It was calm, as if the world itself was getting ready to wind down, and settle into a smooth and soft night. Some people however, were doing anything but settling down.
"Ok boys, remember," Toshinori starts, looking down at the two eager teens in front of them. They had just gotten off their flight so the two were ramped up., He never did get to finish his sentence
"Shut up! Let's just go already!" The blonde trainer shouts, dashing off down the streets. Charging headfirst into Lumiose City, where his Kalos journey was to begin.
"Dammit Kacchan! You don't even know where you're going." Shouts the green haired teen, clearly exasperated with his friend and rival ditching him. "I'm gonna go find him. Meet you at the pokemon center!" he throws over his shoulder to his stepdad, before sprinting off in the general direction his companion went in. Leaving his stepfather and mentor alone outside of the airport.
Are you serious?! The moment you’re allowed on your own you dash off like some headless chicken leaving me to chase after you. You really haven’t changed. Where am I?-
"Tch. Finally nerd. Where's your old man?" Bakugou asks, sitting on the wall outside the pokemon center. Unlike Midoriya, who is panting and clearly drained from chasing the tempramental boy halfway across the city.
Took him long enough. And he thinks he can keep up? Unbelievable
"Well Kacchan, I wouldn't have taken so long if you hadn't dashed away like that." Bakugou rolls his eyes. He stands and pushes past Midoriya, making his way towards the pokemon center
"Whatever nerd. Let's just get inside, it's getting late and we're battling in the morning." The green trainer follows blindly, trailing after Bakugou into the building.
A bit later Toshinori arrives at the pokemon center. He greets the trainers,
"Well, while we’re here let's get you registered for the kalos league." He offers, leading both of them over to the counter. Midoriya follows eagerly, while Bakugou grumbles about the time, and his obvious desire to get some rest.
«*•*•*•*•*»
When Kirishima woke up, it was not in his bed at home, to his mother's singsong voice calling him down for breakfast. Instead, it was to a gentle thrum of an engine, and the stiff, but not terribly uncomfortable seat. He turns, to look down the aisle at his friends,
"We should be getting off soon, are you guys pumped or what?!" The redhead grins, body filling with energy and excitement, effectively waking himself up. He notices that his friends are also in the stages of waking up
"I mean sure, anything to get out of the house." Todoroki shrugs, yawning
I really only agreed to come to get away from the island. I don't really have any other plans or goals. Maybe I’ll eat something other than cold soba, that's drastic and different right?
"Oh cheer up grump, maybe you'll find something interesting here. At least be a little optimistic." Jirou sighs, fiddling with her earbud cord earrings. She also looks like she just woke up, her eyes are unfocused and her face is lax. Todoroki just shrugs again
"Maybe. We'll see." He says noncommittally, his voice flat.
They disembarked the plane and proceed to go through baggage claim, eventually leaving the airport at last. As a group they walked the streets of Lumiose City. They wandered through squares, looking at fountains, and getting a general feel of the city. Eventually they walked past a pokemon center, where a battle was taking place.
"DAMN YOU! I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO BE A FUCKIN CHALLENGE?!" Shouts an arrogant and aggressive voice, repelling many passersby from the general area. One person is so startled they drop their drink.
"Woah, that guy needs to calm down some." Jirou snickers, she turns to her friends, expecting similar reactions. However she is the only one. Todoroki looks disinterested as always and Kirishima is grinning like a madman,
"Let's go watch! It looks like a super manly battle!" Kirishima says breathlessly, rushing forward to watch the battle. The battle was between a taller boy with a spiky blond mess atop his head, and a smaller green haired trainer who definitely didn't brush his hair that morning. The blonde was the one who shouted before, and his green haired opponent, who just rolled their eyes
"Seriously Kacchan, you say that but you haven't managed to land a hit on us either. Chikorita, razor leaf." The opposing trainer instructs. The greenettes pokemon leaps toward and launches a bombardment of leaves towards the blondes pokemon.
"Crap! I'm missing the battle!" He pants, hands on his knees, out of breath. He looks as if he just sprinted over. He turns to the other people standing to his left, "You guys watching too?"
"Uh yeah man, we heard the blond guy shouting and decided to watch. What are you doing here?" Kirishima asks the new guy, taking in his appearance. Styled mustard blonde hair, with a black lightning bolt insignia scorched in.
“Oh, I’m sorry if he woke you guys up! He's not the most polite person on the planet. He's my cousin and his version of waking me up in the morning is with his shouting, fists, or a surprise Ember to the face.” The boy explains, looking apologetic. He glances between the people in front of them and towards the blond, as if fearful he overheard and was coming to unleash fiery vengeance against him. “Anyways, my name is Denki Kaminari! It's nice to meet you all.” The electric blonde introduces, holding his hand out in a friendly manner.
"I’m Eijiro Kirishima, nice to meet you too!” The redhead greets, shaking his hand enthusiastically, followed by Jirous calmer introduction, and Jirous second introduction of Todoroki, who was nearly dozing off behind him. Finding themselves with nothing else to talk about, they turned their attention back to the battle in front of them.
"You really think you can beat me in a one on one!? Like hell I’ll lose to you! Cyndaquil, Flame wheel!" The blonde shouts, wearing a maniacal smile. The Johto starter launches its attack with precise aim, striking the leaf type starter and dousing the entire area with a cloud of smoke. The green trainer shouted for his pokemon, but to no avail. He had been knocked unconscious. "Nice try Deku, but you've still got ways to go before you can beat me in a fight." The blond grins, relishing his victory.
"Hey Bakugou! Hey Midoriya! Nice battling you guys. Welcome to the Kalos region!" Kaminari greets, walking towards the ashy blond. His steps were confident, but his overall posture was slightly timid. Kirishima however, had no such hesitation,
"Hey! That battling was super manly dude! Battle me next, I wanna try and take that fire attack you just did.” Kirishima challenged, mashing his fists together. The blond looks at him doubtfully, raising an eyebrow.
"Like you could give me a real fight Shitty Hair." The blonde hisses scathingly
"Aw come on man, don't be like that. You think I'm an easy opponent? Challenge me and find out." The redhead smirks, flashing his dangerously sharp teeth. Bakugou reads his face, looking on with doubt, before sighing
"Tch, fine. You want a battle? Let's go I’ll take you on." He growls out, causing a smile to flash across the Alolan trainer.
"Hell yeah!" he pumps his fist in the air. His body hums with energy and excitement, adrenaline for the upcoming battle filling his senses. The trainers set up on opposite ends of the field. Bakugou calls his Cyndaquil back, and lets out and silver Eevee. Observers did a double take at the oddly colored Eevee, and her equally odd trainer.
"Woah, what's up with your Eevee? I’ve never seen one that color before?" Kirishima asks.
"It's a genetic mutation. The nerds Eevee also has it. It just changes the color of the pokemon. Its not unheard of, pretty sure the professor here studies that sort of stuff." Bakugo snorts, "Anyway what kind of pokemon is that? I’ve never seen one, and I know my shit. While we’re asking useless questions what the hell is on your wrist?!" The blond spits back, defensively.
"This is Rockruff, he's an alolan rock type pokemon, and he's my partner! And this is a Z-ring. When a pokemon and its trainer are in sync and they have complete trust in each other they can use an extremely powered up move called a z-move. A z-ring holds a z-crystal that allows the move to work. Unfortunately this crystal wont work at the moment, since its meant for the evolved form of Rockruff." Kirishima explains, gesturing to specific spots on the wristband.
"Tch, its a shame you cant use it right now. Doubt you can win without it." The blonde says, glaring at his opponent. "Now lets get this battle started." As an observer attempts to go over the rules of a one on one battle, but is quickly shut up by Bakugou’s scathing words
"Hey, I'm Midoriya, Kacchan's friend. I assume you're friends with the redhead?" the green trainer asks, turning to the group of people who showed up to watch.
"Yeah, I'm Jirou, the pokeball lookin dude about to fall asleep over there is Todoroki." Jirou snorts, "The redhead your friend, or whatever he is to you, is battling is Kirishima.” she explains, uncertain of what to call Bakugou and Midoriya’s relationship. Then she grins, “I wish your friend luck, Kirishima is one of the best trainers his age in the Alola Region." Midoriya looks shocked, before shrugging,
"I don't know about that, Kacchan's attack power is a force to be reckoned with." Midoriya points out, before turning his attention back to the fight, which was just beginning.
"Bakugou right? You can have the first move." Kirishima offers
"Your loss dumbass. Eevee, swift." the blond commands, his pokemon going taking an offensive stance right from the start,
"Dodge!" Kirishima instructs,
"Heh, you don't know your stuff, Swift never misses." A genuine grin slashes the blondes face as the attack makes contact, forcing the puppy pokemon back a few feet. Kirishima just grins
"So it does, that's no problem! Id be a poor trainer if my pokemon couldn't take a hit or two. Rockruff, rock tomb." The pokemon shakes off the attack, and proceeded to press his own attack on the opposing silver Eevee.
Blows exchanged, back and forth, their battle lasting quite a while.
"Hell shitty hair, guess you’re not a pushover! Sucks that this is it for you, Eevee Swift again." The blonde growls out, voice growing tired despite the grin on his face and the adrenaline flooding is system.
"I'm not going down that easy man! Rockruff, rock throw!" The attacks sped past each other and land simultaneously, throwing the battle field into a cloud of smoke.
"Whoa!" Midoriya shouts from the sidelines,
When the smoke clears, the outcome is obvious.
Both attacks left each other's pokemon unconscious, the battle was tied.
"Damn, not bad Red" the blond calls, as his pokemon returns. "We'll have a rematch later. I'm heading inside." And with that he strode of the field and into the pokemon center. Kirishima trails behind him,
Can't believe he nearly beat me, this guys got spirit! Doesn't matter anyway, I’ll train up some and kick his ass another time.
"Holy crap he almost defeated Kacchan!" Midoriya whispers, awestruck. He pulls out a notebook,
He managed to take Kacchans hits, long enough to counter with his own attacks. Since Kacchan is an all out offensive battler it's a perfect counter. I'll have to talk to Kirishima about this.
"I can't leave him alone for a second! Damn it Kiri where do you think you're going!?" Jirou shouts, pulling the mumbling trainer out of his daze, and proceeds to chase after her friend. Kaminari follows after her, leaving Midoriya with the sleeping trainer. He flounders around for a moment, unsure of what to to, before lightly tapping him on the shoulder.
"Uh hey? Todoroki was it? Could you maybe wake up? Your friends went inside and I don't want to leave you out here but I'm not keen on getting an earful from Kacchan for staying out too late." The greennette says shakily, when he's met with no response, he taps his head.
"Mmm huh?" The dual haired boy mutters, eyes bleary and unfocused due to sleep. He looks around before settling his gaze on the greenette in front of him
"Your friends went inside, I didn't want to leave you out here. My name is Izuku Midoriya." He introduces, smiling.
"Shoto Todoroki." He deadpans, then flinches, noticing how flat and cold his voice is. "I didn't mean to come off harsh.”
"Oh no, that's fine! Anyway, everyone's inside. Let's head in." The boy smiles, before turning and leading the other into the pokemon center. He spots his friend and new acquaintances sitting together at a table off to the side, and makes his way over. The redhead trainer who was battling earlier spots them first.
"Hey, Midoriya right? Nice to meet you man, I'm Eijiro Kirishima!" The taller redhead grins, waving his arm to invite them both to the table, much to Bakugou's disdain.
"Hi! Your battling is amazing! I can't believe you almost beat Kacchan!" He praises, before pulling out his notebook and fixing the redhead with an intense gaze "But about your wristband, you called it a z-ring? Are those common in Alola?"
"Not really, they're usually only for those who participate in the island challenge there. I only got one because my mother is an island Kahuna. It's kinda our version of the gym challenge." The redhead explains. He looks at the green trainer, who is writing this down in his notebook.
"And z-moves? Could you explain those?" The boy asks, startling Kirishima, with the complete demeanor shift.
"Uh sure man. A z-move is an extremely powerful attack, used when a trainer and Pokémon's wishes are combined. Of course, you need a z-ring and crystal. The crystals you can use have one in every pokemon type. Others are specific to certain pokemon. The one I have is lycanium z, which only works for Lycanroc. Lycanroc is the evolved form of my Rockruff." The redhead clarifies, rewarded with the furious sounds of the green trainer scribbling notes down
"Wow that's amazing! I wonder if it has any connection to mega evolution? I'll have to talk to professor aizawa about this I wonder if———" he keeps mumbling on, Bakugou just scoffs, before turning to ask a question of his own.
"Damn nerd could talk for hours, surprised it took this long for him to ask. Anyway, you.” He points a finger at Jirou, “You're also from Alola right? You have one of those z-rings too?" The blond asks, politely. Well, as polite as he can with a finger in someone's face and practically growling at them,
"No way dude, I'm nowhere near that level. All I have is my starter Popplio, and a Chatot I caught a week ago. We’re nowhere near that level yet." She shrugs, before continuing. "Besides, I'd have to participate in the island challenge to get one, and I'm not technically old enough to do so. The only reason Kiri has one on the first place is ‘cuz his mom is an island Kahuna."
“That's really interesting, could you share some of the pokemon that have their own special z-crystals?” Midoriya asks, done with his muttering and note taking from before.
“Sure thing!”
«*•*•*•*•*»
"Shigaraki. Toga. I'm reassigning you both to Kalos. You both are to explore, research, and collect pokemon there. Do you understand?" A deep, rich voice instructs. It holds the dim warmth of promise, and the chilling steel of punishment. The two kneeling in front of the call shiver,
"Yes sir." The two respond simultaneously, the call shorts out and leaves the two in silence. They both stand up, and brush themselves off.
"I'm so excited Shiggy! Last I heard Izuku was supposed to be in Kalos." Toga squeals, jumping up and down in excitement. She begins to get her stuff together, talking to herself about how much fun she gets to have.
"Well if he is, his dear buddy Bakugou should be there too. Maybe we will finally be able to put our plan into action." Shigaraki mutters, his raspy voice falling upon deaf ears.