Chapter Text
Ingo stared.
The man in white stared right back at him.
A surge of familiar rose within him as he continued to gaze at the silent, visually hazy and mysterious figure in front of him. Ingo felt like he should have already known him, he should have instantly recognized him the moment he saw him.
But alas, he did not.
A month has passed since Ingo had began living with, Camie, the young teenage mermaid one who found him unconscious onshore.
He had been quite shocked at the fact that people with the characteristics of fish, especially, mermaids, actually existed. However, he absolutely did not let his shock of their appearances do anything to alter his perspective of them, because physical appearances didn't really matter to him (Once he had learned more about the world, he also concluded that he did not want to be like the other humans who looked down on Fish-men simply because they were a different race), additionally he had already owed them a great debt for aiding him.
When Ingo first awoke, he recalled nothing except for his name. Despite their initial wariness due to him possibly being a pirate, the Fish-Men doctors and nurses, including Camie and Pappag, continued to help him in his recovery. He was eternally grateful for that.
Unfortunately, due to his memory loss, he was completely clueless at what seemed to be common knowledge for the people of this island. The others were quite surprised when it was revealed that he didn't recognize the map of the Blue Sea, and they were definitely shocked when he didn't even know what a marine was.
When the decision as to what to do now finally came, Ingo didn't know how to proceed. That was when Camie and Pappag offered to give him a living space if he was still unable to decide, which he gratefully accepted.
However, he felt incredibly uncomfortable when he learned that Camie's living space is a dormitory for workers of the Mermaid Cafe, even the doctor and nurses protested Camie's idea. But she and her starfish reasoned that the citizens were still quite affected by the aftereffects of Whitebeard's death, so it was best if Ingo stayed with a bunch of friendly faces like her coworkers instead of ones that will pin him with suspicion due to being a human.
It had been difficult to convince the landlady to get him a room at first, which was understandable. But they quickly made it work thanks to Pappag's influence and wealth. Ingo was quite surprised to learn how famous Pappag actually is in the island.
Before he knew it, a month had already passed.
(He did not imagine that he would be allowed to continue living in the underwater island for nearly 2 years. However, that did not mean that no progress in his memory was made...)
"Stop what you are doing right now! You are only making it worse!"
Ingo was sure that his booming voice could be heard all over town, with his tone naturally loud for some reason. He could hear Camie and Pappag gasp behind him but he did not pay it any mind, as he was completely focused on the scene before him.
The soldiers turn to him in surprise and confusion, some recognizing him as the stranded human a month ago. Weapons being held in their arms, ready to strike the adversary that was causing a rampage in Gyoverly Hills.
Which is a bipedal sea otter-like creature whose height couldn't even reach any adults' waist.
"Oshawott." His brain instantly supplied him. "A sea otter Pokemon that uses the scalchop on its stomach as a weapon."
Pokemon? Scalchop? Why did he knew these things? He mentally shook his head, it did not matter for now, these questions can be answered later. Right now, he needed to slow the tracks down to prevent the situation from derailing further than it already is.
The little Oshawott was as battle ready as the Fish-men and merfolk soldiers, but turned its attention to him in guarded confusion. Despite the Razor Shell pointing menacing at them, he could clearly see the fear in the Pokemon's eyes as it took a step back, a fear that looked familiar to Ingo but he did not know why. Without any disturbances distracting him for a short second, Ingo was able to clearly see the many wounds that have been inflicted on it, to the point its head is bleeding. However, he's sure that the soldiers are not the cause of the wounds, as they had only just arrived before he did.
"Look at it, it's clearly wounded and fear us! It's lashing out because it's in an unfamiliar environment and violence will only make it fight back and potentially cause more collateral damage or casualties!" Ingo speedwalked pass the soldiers, not bothering to listen to their protests before stopping in just a short distance away from the Oshawott, as to not make it feel even more overwhelmed. He knelt down to close to its eye level and ignored the chattering crowd and perplexed soldiers.
"Hello there." Ingo tried to tone down his voice, but was still loud enough to make the poor Pokémon flinch slightly, "My name is Ingo. Please calm yourself, I am not here to hurt you."
The process of convincing the little Pokemon continued for many minutes, with Ingo repeating reassurance that he did not held any ill intentions to hurt it, even going as far as to discard his own coat and empty his own pockets to prove he did not held any weapons, which led to great success as the Oshawott slowly lowered its Razor Shell. Thankfully, not once did any of the soldiers or crowd interrupted him, with Camie and Pappag preventing anyone from coming closer, so he was able to run the tracks smoothly.
Once Ingo asked the Oshawott if it was hungry and wanted to get its wounds treated, he held out his arms, waiting for the little one to come to him.
After a full minute of staring in hesitation, Oshawott slowly waddled towards him, his scalchop now placed securely on its stomach. He gently picked it up, careful not to touch any of the wounds, and the small weight felt very familiar to him, though he did not knew why.
Oshawott didn't know what was going on.
He was wandering around in the Obsidian Fieldlands with his fellow pokemon when they were suddenly ambushed by a group of humans who wore blue clothes, but in a much lighter shade than that group of humans who called themselves the Diamond Clan.
They were from that newly built village and unlike the Diamond and Pearl Clan, the humans who came from beyond the sea that lived there actively sought them out, many times attacking and capturing them with those strange balls of theirs. Despite the number of other Pokemon in the area, they were aiming for him specifically, probably because he was a rare species in the fieldlands.
Some Pokemon under the humans' command battled him and he was outnumbered, causing the injuries that he currently had now. He probably would have fainted if hat strange thing in the sky hadn't happen.
All of a sudden, the sky had cracked and everything was becoming dark despite being under broad daylight. The humans screamed and immediately ordered a retreat as they ran. That was the last thing Oshawott saw before everything went dark.
And then he was here.
Oshawott immediately became alarmed and afraid of the unfamiliar scenery. He was surrounded by beings that looked more like humans than Pokemon. He didn't know how that was possible. Humans aren't supposed to have tails like fish. No, they weren't supposed to look like fish at all.
Once all the... fish humans(?) noticed his presence, Oshawott, still affected by the previous encounter with humans, let fear and anger take over his mind, attacking anything and anyone that came close to him. He barely registered what exactly is happening, just slashing with his scalchop mindlessly to protect himself, not even noticing that many armored fish humans(?) arrived.
It was only when someone yelled (with a VERY loud voice) at everyone to stop that caused Oshawott to snap out of his fear-induced rampage, looking at the source of the voice.
Out of everyone he sees right now, the strange black clothed person was the only one who looked much like the humans from earlier. However, what really confused the little otter was how unlike the humans that attacked him earlier, this one did not look at him with fear or caution like how he and the other Pokemon at the fieldlands were used to.
That man was really strange to say the least, and that's not including his naturally loud voice. He approached Oshawott and kept his distance, as if knowing that Oshawott was scared of him. Despite his perpetual frown, his eyes looked so sad and gentle and Oshawott didn't know why. He was really surprised when the human kept trying to prove that he didn't want to hurt him by showing that he didn't have any weapons on him.
Oshawott was so tired and hungry, but he still had enough sense that he knew that he wouldn't last long in his rampage due to his injuries. And the human... He was different from the ones he was used to seeing. He didn't trust him yet, but whether or not the human was telling the truth of his intentions, Oshawott didn't really have a choice since he was injured in the middle of an unfamiliar land.
Thus, Oshawott made his decision and waddled into the human's open arms.