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“C’mon out, Bulbasaur.”
He appeared, ready and raring to go for a battle, only to stop and blink the minute his senses kicked back in. There was no stadium, no other trainer… not even a training circuit. He looked around, confused, only to meet Pikachu’s warm smile. “What’s going on? Are we training?”
“Hey, Bulbasaur. How are you feeling?”
He blinked again, turning to face his trainer as it knelt down in front of him. “How am I…? Have I been sick?”
“Pikachu says… well, never mind what Pikachu says. You seemed kind of upset, when we found out we’d been marooned on Pokemonland,” it said gently. “I just wanted to see if you were feeling okay.”
Not for the first time, Bulbasaur was struck by what a strange trainer he had. It liked talking to him, and seemed to think it would be able to understand him, if he ever really told it how he felt. It didn’t seem to understand how the rules of pokemon-human relationships were supposed to go. That the trainer was supposed to make you stronger, and while that could sometimes have the unforeseen side-effect of both parties growing fond of each other, it didn’t mean you could sit down and have a conversation.
“See? Ash is worried about you,” Pikachu said confidently. “I told you he wouldn’t have abandoned us.”
“Yeah right,” Bulbasaur shot back. “They all do, eventually. Even the good ones. They switch you out for something better!”
The trainer frowned, then rearranged itself into that strange position they sat in sometimes, bottom legs folded like an Alakazam. “You know… Brock says that when a trainer gets to know their pokemon, they can understand them as if they were human. I don’t know about that, but I’ve been getting a lot better with Pikachu. I can understand almost everything it says, now. But I gotta admit, I’m having a bit of trouble with your language.”
Bulbasaur looked at him sideways, confused again, then turned back to Pikachu. “What’s it rambling about now?”
Pikachu just shrugged, still smiling. “I’m not sure his brain his connected to his mouth. Just wait, I’m sure he’ll make sense eventually.”
“Hey – are you guys makin’ fun of me?” the trainer demanded, and Pikachu laughed, scratching the back of his head. The trainer scowled, then turned back to Bulbasaur. “My point is, if Brock’s right, then I can’t understand you properly because we’re not close enough. I think we should fix that. I want to be your friend, after all.”
Bulbasaur sighed. “Trainer…” It just didn’t get it. Humans and pokemon weren’t friends. They could work together, but in the end, his trainer was his trainer. That was all.
“I – Look, I may not understand everything you say, yet, but I want to learn,” it continued, and leaned down to look at him from a closer angle. “You gave me a chance to be your trainer, and I’d like to think I haven’t done that badly, so far. So how about giving me a chance to be your friend, too? Just tell me what’s wrong, okay?”
He huffed and looked away. “You haven’t done that badly. But you haven’t done that well, either.”
“Hey!” Pikachu shouted. “Ash is a great trainer!”
“No, it’s a useless trainer, and you know it!” Bulbasaur snapped back. “It’s weird! It never tries to level us up, it hasn’t even tried to teach me any new attacks, and have you seen how it lets Squirtle get away with stuff? It’s got no idea what it’s doing!”
“Just because he’s different –”
“Different? No, different is throwing a rock-type in a swimming pool to toughen it against water attacks! Different is giving us some weird human name. It didn’t even make Charmander train the first week he was with us!” he cried. “Is it training us for gym battles or what? It treats us more like pets that it’s taking on some stupid adventure! You just don’t care because it lets you wander around like a wild pokemon!”
“He doesn’t think we’re pets, we’re his friends!” he insisted. “And he lets me walk because I don't like the balls!”
“No, you’re just disobedient! And sooner or later, it’s going to realise that and trade you for a pokemon that will actually listen!”
“Ash would never trade me!”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah!”
“Then what about Butterfree? It traded Butterfree away just because it could! Then it traded back because it didn’t know how to handle a Rattacate! See, it’s just like every other human out there! It says it cares, but when it comes right down to it, we’re nothing but battle stats!”
“You little –!”
“Pikachu!” The trainer scooped Pikachu up just as he started to shock, and then cried out as electricity arced over its body and down into the ground. A full second passed before Pikachu noticed and stopped, after which the trainer coughed weakly. “Nice thunderbolt, buddy.”
“Sorry ’bout that…” Pikachu said weakly, and the trainer put him down again. Bulbasaur rolled his eyes. Yet another example of his trainer’s weirdness. Any other trainer would have yelled, if not hit him for such rogue behaviour, but this one…
After a minute, the trainer shook it off and petted Pikachu on the head. “You gotta calm down. Bulbasaur has every right to be upset.”
“He does?”
“I do?”
“You don’t!” Pikachu snapped, glaring at him for a moment before looking up at the trainer. “You don’t understand! Bulbasaur thinks you’re like those trainers that would just give us away no questions asked! He says –”
“Pikachu,” it said firmly, then looked around at Bulbasaur. “Like I said, I can’t really understand what you say, but I think I get the idea. On the island, you were upset because you thought I’d abandoned you, weren’t you?”
“Yeah,” he muttered, glaring at Pikachu’s feet. “You wouldn’t’ve been the first.”
“I can’t imagine doing that, but I’m starting to get the idea it’s not that unusual. Not to mention you came from that place, where you saw all those abandoned pokemon all the time,” it continued quietly. “And… and it happened so close to when I almost traded Butterfree… it’s no wonder you thought I’d done it. So yeah, I get why you got mad.”
He gazed at it warily, waiting for the punchline, but the trainer was silent, its eyes unseen beneath its hat. He hesitated, glancing at Pikachu, who reached out to pat the trainer’s knee.
“Ash…”
“I… I felt terrible about what I did to Butterfree. And even if I did trade it straight back, nothing I ever do is going to make up for what I almost did,” the trainer murmured. “But everyone else acted like it was perfectly normal. Like trading away friends is something you do every day. And I don’t know, maybe it is. Maybe that’s the sort of thing that makes a good pokemon trainer. I don’t know. Misty’s right. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Bulbasaur looked back at Pikachu, unimpressed. They should have known this was coming. He’d seen it with other pokemon a lot – a new trainer starts out, full of dreams, then realises this isn’t the life for them and gives up. With such a weird trainer, they should have expected it.
But Pikachu was still staring up at the trainer, as if waiting, so Bulbasaur did too. It was a nice human, if nothing else. It deserved to have them listen to its realisation. Pikachu would probably go back with it and become a pet, or something.
“I read all the books, watched all the matches and specials,” it continued. “I thought I knew everything. But they never tell you all the little things about training. How you’re only allowed six at a time, and how it’s all about having the biggest pokemon, not the best. They don’t talk about how lonely it’s supposed to be. I thought being a pokemon trainer meant building a great team of friends, but it seems that being a real pokemon master means going it alone, and only ever caring about who your strongest pokemon is.”
Bulbasaur frowned, his resignation melting away into confusion. This… wasn’t how this speech usually went.
“Everyone keeps telling me that’s how it is, but that’s not the kind of pokemon master I want to be!” it said, then looked up again, expression surprisingly firm. “I’ve decided. Sure I want to be a pokemon master, and of course I want to train strong pokemon, but if that means I have to trade away my friends and force them to evolve into things they don’t want to, then I’m not gonna do it! I’m gonna be a different kind of pokemon master! The kind that cares about his friends, and makes them stronger for their own sake!”
“Huh?” Bulbasaur asked blankly, while Pikachu cheered.
“Yeah! That’s the spirit!”
The trainer looked down at him again with a smile. “Bulbasaur, you decided to come with me because you needed to grow, right? Well, that’s what I’m here for: to help you do that! No matter whether you want to grow up, or down, or even sideways, until you evolve into a Snorlax!”
“What?” Bulbasaur asked, and Pikachu laughed.
“He’s trying to say that he’ll train you as long as you want to be trained. However you want to be trained.”
“You mean… he’s not giving up?”
“This is Ash! He’s never gonna give up!”
“I can’t promise everything’s always gonna be great, or even normal. I’m pretty sure most trainers don’t get stalked by Team Rocket,” the trainer added absently. “And to be perfectly honest, I can’t even promise that I’m always gonna be your trainer. After all, there are a lot better trainers out there than me, and I’ll only train you as long as you want me to.”
Bulbasaur blinked again, completely lost. “You… are you releasing me?”
“Thing is, I don’t want you to leave,” the trainer said, and Bulbasaur wasn’t sure whether it had understood or not. It reached out and picked him up, gently pulling him forward and into its lap, then curled its top legs around his bulb and leaned over so Bulbasaur could rest his head on its shoulder. “All I can promise is that I’m gonna try to be there whenever you need me. You just say the word, and I’ll do everything I can to help. I’m gonna train hard, and become the best trainer I can be. But more than that, I’m gonna be the best friend I can be, too.”
There it went again, talking about friends… But, nestled against the trainer’s warmth, listening to that strange, earthy thrum that he could always hear around this trainer… Bulbasaur could almost believe it.
“So… so it’s okay that you got mad, but just remember. I’m never gonna abandon you. Never on purpose, and if it ever happens accidentally, I want you to remember that I’m looking for you,” it said, and pulled back enough to look him in the eye. “You and Squirtle and Butterfree and everyone… you’re all my friends. And I promise, I’ll never leave any of you behind. Okay?”
“You… you say that,” Bulbasaur said, struggling to remain firm even as he wanted to bury his head in his trainer’s shoulder and sob. “But what if we don’t get strong enough? What if… I don’t want to evolve, so… when you see that, you’ll abandon me just like…”
“Hey, it’s okay,” The trainer brushed at his cheek, and he was mortified to realise he’d already started crying. “Like I said: I’m here for you. I’m here to help you be as strong… or even as weak… as you wanna be. So… so that’s why it’s okay you got mad, and it’s okay to be sad, too. You can totally fall apart, and I’ll still be here, helping pick up the pieces. I’m always gonna be here. No matter what.”
And the worst thing was… Bulbasaur believed it.