A Good Deal
The crowd dispersed as the Dexs announced their decision.
The fairy trainer came running back to take her dex as it was mandatory for the battle participants' Dexs to be present when a warning was given, making her leave it behind to tend to her Snubbull first.
I couldn't help but feel complicated looking at her retreating figure.
The girl most likely was waiting for a warning from her Dex to recall her Pokemon, which happens only after a Pokemon receives a serious injury.
'Stubborn, instead of trying to prevent the injury she was waiting for a Dex notification to withdraw her Pokemon,' I thought, even though I disliked it I couldn't find a fault in her thinking.
I would have done the same if my dex had the same feature.
But she didn't notice that her Pokemon was taking hits on vital spots, making her waiting-it-out approach too risky.
I had this urge to curse at her, but truthfully, she hadn't done anything wrong. She was just ignorant of the state her Pokemon was in.
Mike recalled his Machop, walked up to me and spoke.
"You did a good job, man. But you and I would have been having a different conversation if the Snubbull was not knocked out. You could have waited for Dex to ping her you know," he said with a strained smile on his face.
I spoke nodding my head.
"True but I noticed the Snubbull's eyes closing, its body sagging and the final nail was the disappearance of the fire-type energy glow near its mouth," I said hesitating whether to say that his Pokemon was hair's breadth away from killing the Snubbull.
"I was afraid Mac was going to get knocked off first man. I mean he tanked a super effective move and two normal effective moves," Mike spoke trying to explain the reason for his delay in following the referee's command.
"I know, she was waiting for it too, though, without the Leer in the end, the match would have gone in her favour," I said, still undecided about telling him.
"True, Mac was not supposed to forget his training which he did in two instances of the match, his father and my father are going to make us go through the reverse world for that though," he said with a hollow laugh.
"I wouldn't have called for a stop in any other cases, but your Machop was focusing too much on the Snubbull's neck, making me order for a halt," I said deciding that it was not my place to control information about his match, especially information concerning a life-or-death situation.
"Oh," he gasped and continued.
"I guess it was his instinctual response to pain. It was his first battle after all, " he said shuddering and taking deep breaths to calm down, the Snubbull could have died after all.
"I love you and hate you, man. My already tough training will turn into a punishment for me now, as I didn't notice that Mac was going for vital spots on an unawakened Pokemon," he said, trying to joke, but his hands started to shake making him wrap them around himself.
"Seriously, thank you," he said jumping in his place most likely trying to suppress his nervousness.
"I don't think I can look at battling with the same enthusiasm if I have innocent blood on my hands," he said slightly sniffing, looking upset.
'It's not your fault, the battle was happening well into the opponent's side. You couldn't have noticed," I said going for a hug.
He looked too shook up.
He clutched me tightly for a second and backed off.
"Thank you, man. I needed it," he said.
'Wow! I just hugged- no I initiated a hug.'
What I did just registered distracting some of my nervousness at nearly witnessing a death.
Shaking my head, I cheered myself and spoke.
"That's it for bad news. Now I have some awesome news for you, depending on whether you think a Farfetch'd will suit your team."
After seeing his battle and the way the Machop's power nearly tripled after it started using martial arts, I unwillingly concluded, that I couldn't bring the Farfetch'd to its full potential.
Hampering its growth and filling a slot in my team with a Pokemon of low battle power didn't seem like a wise thing to do.
"I would love to. Free-handed martial arts and sword arts are my favourite. And with a Farfetch'd, I will have a sparring partner and a different typed Pokemon as my ace," he said, gushing.
"Well, how about a Farfetch'd for you, an elite offspring to boot," I said waving the Farfetch'ds Pokeball at him.
"Don't even joke about it…. Let me check," he said, looking at my serious expression.
As I handed him the Pokeball, he took out his dex and started typing something in it.
A blue light came out of his Dex and scanned the Pokeball.
"Really, NightSlash! You.. you just wait here for a second, I will be right back," he said and sprinted away, handing me the Pokeball.
"Wai..," I called out, trying to stop him. But he sprinted away towards his room.
'Hmm! At least he seems excited about the Farfetch'd,' I thought as Mike came sprinting back again.
"Ha, my father agreed to pay 30% more on the highest auctioned Farfetch'd until now," he said grinning, most likely wanting to forget about how close to his Machop came to becoming a killer.
'The Farfectch'd is a welcome distraction, I guess,' I thought looking at him.
"Are you sure, you want the Farfetch'd? It doesn't have a known evolution," I said looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes! Professors are very near to finding an evolution for Kanto Farfecth'd by studying its Galarian counterpart. So, about the price…," he said trailing off.
The offered price was very generous, as the auction house also takes a cut out of the final amount.
I didn't want to auction the Farfetch'd as I wanted it will belong to someone who would help it in its path to power.
It didn't seem like it was the right thing to do- auctioning off a driven Pokemon who was challenging every trainer on the route and even came back for more after suffering a defeat.
Not to mention the ickiness of auctioning a Pokemon. I knew animals were sold and bought even in my previous life- I didn't have much contact with that though- But an auction seemed somewhat demeaning to a Pokemon which will develop sapience soon.
"I don't care about the money, I just want you to promise me you will help Farfetch'd reach its highest potential," I said staring into his eyes.
"It is a given, no Pokemon of mine will ever waste their potential," he said, conviction shining through his eyes.
I nodded at that. We finalised our deal and went through some legal mumbo jumbo with the help of our Dexs.
After completing our deal, Mike looked at the Farfetch'ds Pokeball with stars in his eyes.
"I don't believe my luck. I always wanted a Farfetch'd or a Honedge but with the Honedge so far out of our region, I was hoping to catch a Farfetch'd in my journey."
"I'd have counted myself lucky just snagging a regular Farfetch'd. But getting one with an egg move? The odds of a non-elite offspring—especially a Farfetch'd with no known evolution having an egg move are practically zero!" He gushed, brimming with excitement, hardly able to believe his stroke of luck.
"You are my lucky charm, Leo," Mike said, punching me in the shoulder.
"You could have gotten a Farfetch'd from the auction, right?" I asked.
"Yes, and it would have been a normal Farfetch'd though. In the past decade, there were only two times a Farfetch'd with an egg move was auctioned."
"The last year and 5 years before. My father offered you the extra 30% because the Professors are supposed to be nearer to finding the evolution compared to the last year," he said finally calming down.
"Hmm! Did you ever attend the auction before?" I asked, curious about the auction.
"Yes! Every year. They mostly sell Pokemon of different regions and some Kantonian Pokemon with egg moves. Last year, I continuously pestered my father about buying the Farfetch'd. But he was adamant about me not having a Pokemon until I turned ten."
"He is superstitious like that," Mike said shaking his head.
"What do you mean superstitious?" I asked confused.
"Oh! Some trainers think that having Pokemon before you reach 10 makes bonding with them take more time. I know how it sounds. But most of our stories of ancestors suggest this too." He said clearly disagreeing with the said stories.
"And do you know something suspicious about this?" he asked.
"What?"
"There are no research papers about it. Trust me I searched like a mad person last year after my father didn't buy me that Farfetch'd," he said gritting his teeth.
"Though my father stopped me before I could use his access to search. I always felt like my parents are not telling me something, you know," he said shrugging his shoulders.
'This again! It looks like he also doesn't have a clue about this 'Aura', only the royal duo and maybe Celia know,' I thought quite vexed at this mystery.
"I am going to start training the Farfetch'd in some basic sword stances. You can watch if you want," he said moving towards an empty battlefield.
"Huh!" he exclaimed, facepalming.
"Just a minute, I will be back," he said before running away, again.
He came back running with a duffle bag on his back.
"Ok, I am ready," he said and tossed a luxury ball.
"Medi," the yoga Pokemon said appearing in front of us.
"We have a new member joining our team, let's get ready to welcome them," Mike said before tossing the Farfetch'd Pokeball.
The Farfetch'd appeared on the other side of the battlefield- away from us.
"Far.." it said taking in its surroundings and pointing its leek at the Meditite.
"Medi-tite," the blue Pokemon took a battle stance at that.
"Psybeam, variant-2 and close in," Mike ordered.
The Meditite glowed with psychic energy for 2 seconds before firing a huge disc of psychic energy at the duck.
The Meditite fired a second disc of energy at the fighting duck and started running towards it.
The discs covered the Meditite from the sight of Farfetch'd.
'Hmm! The Meditite just spread the psychic energy instead of concentrating it and cut it into two parts, instead of a continuous one.'
"Awesome control," I exclaimed impressed.
The Farfetch'd dispersed the Psychic disc with huge swings of its leek using Nightslash, not noticing the Meditite behind them.
"Thunder punch, finish it," Mike called out.
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Drop some stones, if you like this fic.
I will release the two bonus chapters whenever we cross 143 stones.