Appetizer 1.4

Aaron FulanSlateport City, Hoenn Region

The boy named Enzo and I stood across from each other in one of the fields sectioned off behind the pokémon center. A surprising number of people had followed us out from the cafeteria, mostly so they could see just what the little ralts could do.

"Yo, you boys need a ref?" asked a pretty, older lady. Unlike Brenda, she was clearly a trainer, with pants tailored for hardiness than style. Her shirt and knees still had the dust of the road clearly marked on them.

"That would be appreciated, thank you," I nodded to her. "Enzo, right? Standard rules?"

"Yeah, Biter against your ralts!" The boy was all but jumping from foot to foot with excitement now.

"Okay, I'm Carrie, a fourth badge trainer," our ref told us. "To follow protocol: Introduce yourself, badge number, and your sponsor if you have one. Then, you'll let out Biter. Normally you'd release at the same time so no one has the advantage, but ralts is already on the field."

"I'm Aaron Fulan. No badges. Mossdeep Gym." That got several blinks in the audience. Then the whispers began.

"Mossdeep? Does… Does that mean he's a psychic too?"

"Fulan, dude! That's Leader Sharon's last name!"

"Holy shit, he's her son?"

"Wait, isn't Enzo in trouble now?"

I sighed and waved to Carrie to go ahead as the ambient aura coming from the crowd became even more excited by my admission. Sponsors really were a big deal, especially when said sponsor was a gym.

"Enzo Owley," my opponent said confidently. It was good that he wasn't cowed so easily. "No badges. No sponsor. And Biter's going to kick your butt!"

With that, he tossed his only pokéball onto the field, revealing a poochyena.

"Oh, a dark type." I looked it over. It was distinctly male judging by the tuft of fur along its spine. His fangs were large, almost too big for his face and jutted out like tusks. Red irises on yellow sclera gazed at my ralts hungrily. Suddenly, Enzo's eagerness to battle me made more sense. "Did you think having a dark type would let you win against me?"

"Regardless," Carrie interrupted, "this battle will be a one on one between Aaron's ralts and Enzo's poochyena. The match ends when one trainer withdraws their pokémon or when one pokémon is ruled unable to battle. My decisions are final. The prize money wagered will be the standard base value of 200 League Credits. Do both trainers understand the rules?"

"I do," I confirmed.

"Yeah," Enzo repeated.

"Then begin!"

Enzo wasted no time in calling an attack. "Biter! Bite!"

I rolled my eyes. "Nuki waza."

Although kendo was made for fighting other swordsmen, there was an important distinction between the kendo learned by me and the one I taught Artoria: She had no sparring partners. Beyond the graveler loaned to us from that friendly trainer on The Sour Qwilfish, she had never struck at another. But like most pokémon, she didn't hesitate. She'd grown up watching her father demolish challengers to the Mossdeep Gym after all. As adorable as she was, violence was in her blood.

Even better, she had no bad habits. She did not strike with the expectation of a kendoka's figure, center of gravity, or stance. She had zero expectations of her opponent and so could adjust to a four-legged foe just as easily as a humanoid one.

She swerved aside with a single, Mana Burst-aided step. The technique brought her to the left of the poochyena, who was already in the air and in no position to correct his course.

Her spoon found the pooch's snoot with a painful-sounding thwack.

"Pooch!" he barked as he was flung aside.

I tried to suppress a giggle at a dog shouting "pooch" every time it got hit but couldn't quite manage it.

Artoria took a ready stance in front of me, awaiting further orders.

"A poochyena named Biter rushes in to… Bite… How droll," I drawled, glancing dismissively at my opponent in that insufferable way my mother mastered.

"You! Biter, Tackle! Don't let up!"

I grinned as the poochyena and trainer barked as one. They were baying for blood now, oh so easy to rile. My opponent's aura was red and even though I couldn't read the pooch thanks to his dark type, I didn't need magic powers to see that he'd follow his trainer all the way.

"Dodge with Mana Burst. Play tag for a while and look for openings."

A ralts was slow, painfully so. In a dead sprint, a poochyena would win every time. But this wasn't a sprint nor was Artoria a normal example of her species. The constant suicides were paying off and though she was physically slower than her opponent, Mana Burst more than made up the difference.

She zipped around the field in straight lines, covering fifteen feet with a single step. She was literally dancing circles around her opponent, occasionally reaching out with a do strike as they passed each other.

"Kote," I called as the two were about to meet in the middle again.

'Yes, my lord.'

Her response was immediate. She switched to a side-grip and performed another nuki waza. This time, her spoon-sword lashed out low towards the poochyena's forelimbs as he charged. With a pained yelp, the poochyena stumbled and collapsed, dragging its chin against the ground.

"End it. Men."

"Sand Attack!"

It was my mistake. By the time I realized that the poochyena was faking, Artoria was too close and he had launched a wave of sand into her face.

'Aah!' her pained scream tore at our bond.

"Bite!"

The poochyena took a bite out of her arm, making her scream louder in my mind. He flung her aside and she rolled along the ground, spoon still gripped tightly in hand.

Shaking, she stood.

"Artoria, stand," I called firmly. I did my best to project reassurances through to her.

"What? I thought that'd end it," I heard Enzo complain.

"Why? Because she's a psychic? She's also fairy and she's not weak to dark types."

"Tch, whatever. Biter, Howl then Tackle for the finish!"

"Debana-men."

'Y-Yes, my lord!'

Artoria, barely able to see, stood at the ready. The poochyena was about to pounce when something changed between us. Perhaps it was the loss of sight on her end, but for the first time, our bond became as one. She started to draw from me, pulling her own mind into my body. It wasn't possession, not really, but for a moment, she used my eyes to view the world.

And that moment was enough.

"Mana Edge!"

She shot forward as Biter pounced. Even before his hind legs left the ground, her spoon, shining blue with the light of psychic power, was looming over his head.

She struck. On a normal person, a blow like that would have been a killing strike, the psychic energy sharpening the edges of the spoon like an ax. On a dark type, the bulk of that power fizzled away against Biter's inherent resistances. Still, the blow was augmented by a full-powered Mana Burst and his own leap.

Debana waza was like that. It was a technique which meant "to strike as your opponent attempts to." It was simple in theory; hit them before they hit you, but complex in practice. By timing the strike perfectly, Artoria was able to land a blow with both her own power and Biter's.

The residual psychic power of Mana Edge was enough to send the poochyena careening across the field to land pitifully at Enzo's feet. I could have been mistaken, but I was fairly sure I heard the crack of a fractured jaw.

"Enzo's poochyena is unable to battle," Carrie's voice pierced the silence. "Aaron's ralts is the winner!"

"What? No way, that's not fair," Enzo complained.

"Artoria, come here. Let's wash that sand out of your eyes," I said, ignoring him.

She dutifully trotted over and allowed me to lift up her green bangs so I could gently wipe her face with water from my water bottle.

'I was unable to deliver total victory,' I heard in my mind. 'I apologize, my lord.'

"What are you talking about? I think you won pretty decisively there."

'I got hurt because I was fooled by the dark one's deceit.'

"I was fooled too. I told you, honor is doing what you need to win. If you don't do everything in your power to win, I think that you're insulting your opponent. That poochyena made a gambit and it almost worked."

'Yes, my lord.'

"All we can do is learn from it."

Our moment was broken when Enzo stomped over. "You cheated," he accused.

"And why is that?"

"Your ralts is using a weapon!"

"Enough!" Carrie said. Suddenly, there was a rather impressive lairon between us. The steel and rock type growled warningly, sensing its trainer's ire. Enzo wisely backed off. "You challenged Aaron knowing that his ralts would be using that spoon. Everyone in the pokémon center knew about that spoon. You even had the advantage of releasing your pokémon second and had a dark type thinking you could win with one Bite. You don't get to claim anything is unfair."

"He has a weapon!"

"And? Certain held items are permissible under League regulations. Many psychic types carry mediums to channel their power. Hypno have their pendulums. Alakazam have their spoons. Hell, even fighting types sometimes have weapons. And if a conkeldurr, a pokémon with enough brute force to rival a machamp, is allowed to swing around two huge slabs of concrete at its opponents, a ralts can bring a spoon to a battle. Now pay the victor and shake on it like a decent human being before I get really mad."

Grumbling, Enzo slapped 200 LC into my hands before stomping away.

"Thanks for that," I said.

"Don't worry about it. Sore losers like that are everywhere. Most grow out of it, but some adult trainers aren't much better."

"Doesn't mean you didn't do a good thing."

"Heh, it was pretty fun to watch anyway. I didn't think a ralts could learn any moves like that."

"She can't, at least not normally. I've had to adjust different moves to fit her combat style."

"Shouldn't she learn better moves then?"

"Nah, this is what she wants so this is what we'll do."

"Alright then. I wish you luck, Aaron."

"Thanks, Carrie. And thanks again for the save."

I waved as I took Artoria to the counter for a checkup. While I waited, more trainers who watched the battle came by to ask me questions. Most were in the same vein as Carrie's and a fair number of them wanted to know what being a sponsored trainer was like. Annoying, but I'd have to learn to bear it.

X

I decided that the day before we left Slateport behind would be the day for exploring. I wanted the two of us to have some downtime before we hit the road. And, truth be told, I wanted to check in on some of the things I remembered from my past life. I'd spent the better part of two weeks jotting down everything I knew about the anime, games, and manga and wanted to make sure that at least some of the knowledge I now possessed was applicable.

There was an easy way to check if my knowledge from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were good: mega stones. I knew the location of several and one of them was in this very city. True, it wasn't a gardevoirite, but I'd be an idiot to pass it up, especially since it was yet another psychic type.

So, I scooped up my ralts and picked up two bagels to go before heading out the door.

'My lord, are we not training today?'

"Nope, today is a day of rest. Or really, a day of exploration. There are some things I want to do before we head out tomorrow." I couldn't see her, seated on my shoulder as she was, but I could see the trail of her emotional aura. She was pouting. "You're pouting," I teased.

'I am not! A knight does not pout,' I heard her huff in my mind.

"You are~"

'Am not.'

"Are."

'Are not.'

"Are."

The two of us kept up this silly bickering. I took it for the progress that it was. Three weeks ago, Artoria had been so awed by a human who believed in her, believed that a gardevoir could be a knight, that she had been deferential to the point of awkwardness. The Artoria of then would never have dared to argue with me for fear that I'd grow fed up with her.

I pulled out my journal and began to read as I nibbled on my bagel. Tearing a piece out, I offered it to my partner as we walked.

'Where are we headed, my lord?'

"Slateport Open-Air Market," I said.

The Market as it was called for brevity, was Slateport's compromise between environmentalists and urbanites. Developers wanted to build a mall complex but the HECF made such a racket that the land was left mostly undeveloped. Instead, a large lot was made to the southwest of Slateport and declared an open-air market for residents. It was the largest of its kind in Hoenn and boasted a constantly rotating roster of booths from major companies and locals alike.

To this day, it was managed by the Slateport Economic Development Commission, a commission made up of a mix of conservationists and locals on a volunteer basis.

'Forgive me, my lord, but I thought we had the supplies we needed for our journey?'

"We do. We're looking for something called a mega stone," I whispered to her. I pictured the alakazite "Peek in my mind so you know what it looks like then help me find it."

'Yes, my lord.'

I stepped into the overgrown flea market and picked up a pamphlet from the SEDC representative. It listed all the booths for the week, their location, and specializations as well as how much it would cost to buy a booth of my own if I wanted it.

I made my way to the furthest southwestern corner. Along the way, I passed everything from farmers market analogs, berries and smoked meats and the like, to TMs, herbal remedies, and clothes.

"Keep an eye on the ground," I told her. "The stone can be partially buried."

'How do you know someone hasn't already picked it up?'

"I don't. I'm hoping that isn't the case."

To be fair, I was at least three years before canon. Tate and Liza wouldn't get their pokémon until they were thirteen and they were ten now.

Well, that wasn't strictly true. The twins were being groomed by mom, which meant they had a good idea of their partners already, even if the pokémon belonged to mom legally. Still, I had a few years to go. Seeing how it was just lying on the ground, I was hoping that was because no one noticed it being lodged there.

It could also be that the alakazite would be lost there by someone else some time between now and canon and that I was wasting my time.

"Only one way to know for sure," I mumbled to myself.

We were wandering around the southwestern corner of the Market when Artoria gave me a mental nudge.

'My lord, is that it?' she pointed. 'I sense some kind of psychic power coming from that gem there.'

She was pointing not at the ground but at a booth. I cursed under my breath because sure enough, there sat the alakazite amongst a small hoard of glass baubles and trinkets. The back of the booth was lined with shelves of dolls featuring cleffa, marill, and other cutesy pokémon. "Gavin's Great Goods," the sign said.

A man, presumably Gavin, stood behind the booth, really a wagon, with a newspaper and cup of joe in hand. He had a long set of mutton chops that made him look a bit like a bulldog.

No matter his appearance, he found it so I'd have to buy it from him.

'A souvenir shop…' I thought. 'He probably doesn't know what the alakazite is. If he knew, there's no way in hell he'd leave it lying around like this.'

"Artoria, let me do the talking, okay?"

'Yes, my lord,' she replied dutifully.

Mega evolutions were no secret. Steven was rather famous for his shiny mega metagross. Hell, all the Elite Four had one and so did the Lavaridge gym leader. In fact, the victor of the Ever Grande Conference or the Hoenn Grand Festival was given the option of receiving a key stone in lieu of prize money.

Most took the cash. After all, not only was the prize money substantial, key stones were useless unless the trainer had a powerful individual of a very select list of species, one with a close bond to the trainer, and of course, the mega stone itself. Without these two things, the key stone was just a collector's item.

Most people wouldn't recognize a mega stone on sight.

The key stone was ubiquitous. Every trainer who could mega evolve had one. Steven's mega stickpin was almost as recognizable as the Champion himself.

But the mega stone? That was unique to each pokémon and incredibly rare, so rare that each were rumored to be one of a kind.

No way would the common person recognize it. No way would some random peddler know what it was worth, certainly not an alakazite. Alakazam by themselves were exceedingly rare pokémon after all.

And that meant I had a chance.

I walked up to the cart with a grin. "Morning, sir. Are you Gavin?"

"Yea, who wants to know?"

"A customer. You know, my kid sister's birthday is coming up and she likes to collect marbles. I've never seen one so big before." I pointed at the alakazite. "You wouldn't mind selling that there to me, would you?"

He leaned forward and set his coffee to the side, alert at the potential for an easy mark. "Oh ho, you've got a good eye, kid. But I can't just give that thing away. No siree. That was something my pa made, you know? How 'bout four hundred?"

"What? For a marble? That's a ripoff!"

"Nah, for art. My pa was well-known as an artist, you know? Your sis'll be real happy to get this."

The bullshit this guy was slinging could bury a taurus. Still, the trick to haggling was to never directly call someone on their bullshit because then, that turned a conversation into a direct confrontation and it'd just make them more stubborn.

"Fine, it's art," I allowed. Four hundred was cheap compared to what it was truly worth anyway. "Still, it's made of glass. A bauble like that can't be worth more than two hundred."

"Are you kidding? Two hundred? Are you trying to insult my pa's memory? Look how perfectly made it is! Do you know how hard it is to hand make something like this?"

"Maybe, but it's still a marble in the end."

"Look, tell ya what? I can see that you want something nice for your kid sis, so I'll make you a deal. I'll give it to ya for three-fifty. Pa was a pretty famous artist from Johto. Trust me, it's a great deal."

"Bah, he probably wasn't that big if no one's heard of him. If he was, this thing would be in the Lilycove Museum of the Arts, not here in Slateport. Two-seventy-five."

He reeled back as though slapped. "Hmph, those snobs? They wouldn't know art if it crawled up their asses! Pops wanted to give it to someone who'll appreciate it, not some stuffy museum where it'll just gather dust. You look like a good kid so how 'bout three-twenty-five? It's the best I can do."

I could see the mounting confusion emanating from my ralts. Honestly, this took me back to my time in Japan during the Kendo World Championships. I visited a fish market there and got sucked into haggling with a fisherman. By the time I left, I paid three thousand yen for a bundle of saury and thought it was a good deal until my Japanese friend laughed her ass off at me when I got back to the hotel.

"You know what? Fine. Here's 325 LC. I'm sure my sister will appreciate it. Thanks, mister."

"Yeah, you run along, kid." He waved me away, already counting his money.

"Fucking scammer," I muttered under my breath. Still, I wasn't too mad. He just parted with a mega stone for what amounted to about thirty-two dollars. A lot for a marble. Damn near nothing for a mega stone.

We were a ways off when Artoria spoke up. 'My lord, I am puzzled.'

"How so?"

'You were both lying. You both knew the other was lying.'

"Well, I don't know what he knew, but yeah, I knew he was lying."

'Why? Father told me that lying was unknightly.'

"It is usually. So you want to know why we were both lying, knew the other was lying, and didn't have any malice?"

'Yes.'

"Remember our game of poker? Haggling is like that."

'I don't understand.'

"Well, you see, humans need and want a lot of things in life, from food to things that amuse us. To make exchanges simpler, we use a universal system of exchange called money. Or a league credit. But, a league credit is only worth whatever both parties agree on," I explained. "For example, a pecha berry would be worth about 10 LC in the market. There isn't any rule that says it's worth that much, but that is what most people are willing to buy one for. I could say that my pecha berry is worth 1000 LC, but no one would buy it. Do you understand?"

'So lying to each other was… a way to come to an agreement on what that stone was worth?'

"Kind of. It was also about having fun in a way, trying to get the other person to settle for more, or in my case, less. It's a game, like what we played some nights."

'I… see…'

I laughed. "No, you don't. But look around." Sure enough, there were more people out in the Market now. We passed by a woman waving a bundle of radishes and shouting at the booth attendant, another equally pumped up woman. "See those two? They're arguing about radishes like it's a matter of life or death when they could easily afford whatever small change in price they're fighting over. It's not really about the money as it is a way to socialize."

'Humans are strange…'

"Heh, yeah. Haggling can get serious, but most of the time in a place like this, it's just a type of verbal sparring."

Author's Note

I didn't really want to call everything pokédollars, so I decided to just abbreviate currency to "LC" for "League Credit."

First battle, and a rather underwhelming one at that.

As far as I'm concerned, there are very few true immunities in the pokémon world. A powerful enough bolt of lightning will lay out a ground type by overwhelming their rate of grounding. A powerful dragon can overwhelm a lesser fairy. It makes zero sense that a diglett can tank Zekrom's Bolt Strike. Or that a newborn spritzee can survive a Draco Meteor from Dialga. Likewise, a dark type naturally diffuses psychic energy, but a powerful enough strike can get through, which is a bit of what we saw with Biter.

As for how much Aaron knows about the games, he maybe knows where major items are like mega stones or a handful of evolution stones. He doesn't know where every rare candy or heart scale can be found, nor that some NPC or another will give him X item if you talk to them. Even for things like mega stones, the only one he remembers for a fact, for plot reasons, is the gardevoirite in Verdanturf Town.

He'll be rolling a lot of d20s to see what he remembers and who he encounters. For Slateport:

Initial roll to recollect: 18

Physically finding the alakazite/Negotiations: 15

Contest hall encounter roll: 16

He rolled really well and it's kind of weird because I'm never this lucky in the D&D campaign I'm part of. So much so that my character, a dragonborn warlock, has a reputation for being the party idiot.