5. A terrifying night
All three siblings quickly ran over to the berry trees they had growing on the farm and grabbed a few Oran berries each. After they had enough, they headed over to their favourite spot to play. It was directly west of the hill, a little into the jungle there was a big clearing of about 20~25m wide. Even from the hill, it was hard to see because of the thick jungle trees and bushes.
As they were chatting and heading over to their little hidden play area, Robert couldn't help but lament how much of a child he was just now. After all, he might be five here, but his soul is 35 now, that's not including all the time he spent in OP. He realized long ago that the body has a profound effect on the soul. When he was first born, he thought it was rather awkward trying to pretend to be a baby. Drama and acting is always something he's weak at, he was even worse a lying. He just never sounded convincing to anyone, so he gave up trying to be all together. This time he had to be convincing, otherwise, they might have thought he was a defective baby!
Knowing his family now he knows they would never think such a thing but for him back then it was a real concern. It wasn't long before he realized he was sometimes acting like a baby without even realizing it. Turns out the connection between body and soul is deeper than he thought, plus it works both ways. Just like a soul controls the conscious mind, which in turn controls the body, it also influences the soul. Normally a soul and a body grow up together so it's hard to feel this two-way influence road, but Robert is different. With time he's come to understand it more. Because his soul is so much older and more developed than his body its caused aspects of his body to develop sooner than normal.
It's not a major difference, things like higher fitness, more developed dexterity. Miner stuff like that. These can be helpful but nothing major, and he doubts anything major like hitting puberty early will happen. The biggest effect has actually been on his soul. A body is a physical thing with its own rules it has to follow so it's a lot harder to influence, the soul however is not.
Souls are ethereal and much more easily influenced, especially something as direct as the body that holds it. It's not anything drastic like becoming a different person, all his memories and knowledge is there, and he still thinks the same way as before. It's more like the body and soul have trouble meshing sometimes, especially under high stimulus situations. Like his thinking has been influenced by the age of his body.
At first, it annoyed him but now he's learnt to just roll with it. Nothing he can change about it anyway so may as well make the most of it and have a second childhood. It'd be a lie if he said he wasn't enjoying himself. What's more, he's pretty sure this will all fix itself during puberty. After all, that's the age that both the body and soul go through the most changes for anyone. As Robert notices that while he was daydreaming they have almost arrived, he throws it all to the back of his head and goes back to being the cute little brother again. Nothing he can do about it now anyway.
As they walked out of the path and into their secrete little clearing the girls both looked at Robert. "So little Roby what do you want to do first. Me and sash are letting you pick first, although I think we know what you will pick ". As Robert heard that he looks a little embarrassed but still looks at them and quietly says "I want to be a referee again". After hearing that the girls nod, fully expecting that answer. "you were right Steph, he really did pick it again". Both sisters looked at each other with a confused look and then looked back at Robert.
Robert, wilting a little under their stairs like he'd done something wrong "if you don't want to battle, we don't have to". Yes, when Robert said he wanted to be a referee it to a Pokémon battle between his sisters. This has always been his favourite thing to do, even if he is still scared of them because of that incident. It would seem as though this has led to some confusion for his sisters. Sasha just shakes her head and says "that's not it Roby, Steph and I have a lot of fun battling each other. It's just well…" Sasha then looked at Stephanie, she was the softer of the two and more tactful. It would be better if she took over.
Stephanie nodded at her sister and continued "you see Roby we all know you love Pokémon, actually that would be an understatement since you chased away all the farmhands from the hill by bomb barding them with questions about Pokémon for any little detail that they might know" both sisters chuckle at the memory of the looks on the farmhands faces as a three-year-old Robert drowned anyone in questions that were brave enough to join him on the hill before they quickly fled back down. Robert was incredibly embarrassed by that memory and turned beet red.
Stephanie chuckled before she continued "but ever since that night almost two and a half years ago you've become scared of them. Sash and I are just confused. We don't mind if you're scared of Pokémon, you'll still be our little Roby. We just don't get why even though you're so scared of them, you still want to be close to them. You even want to watch them battle". Sasha simply nods, yup her sister is definitely better at this than her. As the sisters wait for Robert's response his face goes from fear to horror back to fear and then settles into sadness and a little grief.
The sisters were quite surprised to see all those intense emotions on his face, whatever he saw had a huge impact on him. As the sisters waited, Robert eventually managed to calm down, he took a deep breath and then looked at his sisters with a determined and unyielding look in his eyes. The sisters were really surprised now, they were prepared for him to start crying at any moment just then but now he seems to be showing a side of him that they've never seen before. Facing his sisters astonished gazes, Robert spoke out something he's kept buried inside him for a long time "ever since my first memory here my dream has been to be one of the greatest Pokémon masters. On that night though I snuck out to look at the special Miltank in the barn, and for the first time I saw a Pokémon kill someone".