CH115 (729), Bro, That’s Too Much (2)

*le sigh*

"Mika, you know what I think about big gifts like that, bro," Kinji finally said after letting out a slightly frustrated sigh. "Not to mention that you said that you kept the best one for me instead of taking it for yourself," he followed up, tussling his hair due to the slight agitation he was feeling. I had expected him to react like that so I laughed a bit before I pat him on the shoulder.

"Yeah, and she's actually the daughter of my Shadinja, so I can tell you that she has been trained pretty well," I said with a smile. "Well, at least as well as my Shadinja was able to train her," I rectified before following up without giving Kinji a chance to say anything. "I've tested her to see how much she learned, and she has a pretty good base for you to work with," I declared before pulling out Shadinja's ball.

"You're not making it easier for me to accept that by saying that stuff, you know," Kinji said with a chuckle, though I knew he meant that. "But you have to," I rebutted playfully. "You have to accept it cause I want you to have it since I know you deserve it and Shadinja deserves a great trainer like you," I stressed while hooking my arm around Kinji's shoulder because I had to say the next bit quietly and also because I knew that the next bit would likely push the wavering Kinji over the edge. Unfortunately, I was pretty sure that it wouldn't be in the direction I wanted.

"You'll find out at some point anyway, so let me be upfront with you," I began, progressively lowering my voice as I spoke until it was only a bit louder than a whisper. "Shadinja has 6-star potential," I admitted, and I felt Kinji jerk in surprise when he heard that. He turned his head a bit to stare me right in the eyes. "Mikail, there's no way that I'll accept that Shadinja," Kinji asserted, speaking unhurriedly with a no-nonsense tone that brokered no argument.

I had already expected that, though he was a tad more serious in his refusal than I expected. Just as I was considering whether I had to pull out the big guns, Kinji spoke up again. "Seeing how you have two Shadinja, you've likely stumbled upon their habitat," Kinji correctly inferred; "and knowing you, you have probably caught more than just the father-daughter duo, so just give me one of those other Shadinja instead," he said and I naturally refused his refusal.

"Kinji, bro, you have to accept her," I declared just as seriously; "I already praised you to the high heavens to her, her father, and the rest of her family. For them, this is already a done deal, and they all expect you to become her trainer. I can't just tell them that you didn't want her," I followed up, and in this case, the truth was the best weapon to soften Kinji's hard-boiled attitude.

"Dude, you can't just give out 6-star Pokemon like that. Who does that," he said sounding a bit frustrated, which meant that my words had worked to a degree. "The Alliance and the Regional Professors I guess," I replied even though I knew that he meant that rhetorically. "Oh, and me obviously," I followed up jokingly while poking him in the side with Shadinja's ball. He actually began to laugh after I said that.

"Only you would compare yourself with the alliance and the bigwigs AND mean it," he said with a shake of his head. "I still think it's too exaggerated," Kinji said with a shrug and I decided that it was time to use the big gun. "Kinji, bro, don't make me play the Bro card just to make you accept my gift," I joked/semi-threatened him and I knew that he had finally capitulated when his shoulders sagged a bit.

"Who goes around forcing people to accept exceedingly rare Pokemon?" Kinji complained before releasing a sigh. "Mikail, you know I see you as a Brother, but I can't just accept something like this for nothing; It just wouldn't feel right, Bro or not," he sounded a tad bit resigned which was funny to hear from a person that was being gifted a 6-star top grade Pokemon. "I guess I'll have to see about somehow getting you Larvesta in return," Kinji declared before releasing another sigh. 

"Hopefully I'll find one with the Volcarona I know, or it will be a pain to track down and capture one without getting roasted," he grumbled quietly, though I heard him perfectly fine. "You don't have to give me anything in return," I refused, but Kinji shook his head. "No, I have to," he insisted which I denied with "You really don't"; Kinji in return said "Yes, I do". "If you insist that I have to accept your Shadinja, and then I insist that you accept a Larvesta from me in return," Kinji asserted with the ghost of a smirk on his face.

"That's not the same," I refuted, "I chanced upon Shadinja and have a bunch of them at hand, while you'll have to explicitly look for Larvesta," I pointed out, and Kinji snorted. "It's the same to me," he proclaimed before shooting me a look. "You're not the only one that can act like a Mudsdale," he said tauntingly, calling us both stubborn mules in the process.

"Bro, I just want to help you, not push you into danger," I tried, but Kinji shook his head. "I appreciate it, but I can't just accept it for nothing. That's just not who I am, and you know that," he said resolutely and all I could do was nod resignedly. While I was happy that he had accepted Shadinja, I was less enthused about the prospect of Kinji going into Volcarona territory for a return gift. Honestly, even though I knew that it was a long shot, I had hoped that he would accept it as is. Failing that, I had hoped that he would promise me the offspring of one of his bugs or something like that, which would have already been good enough, but he skipped right to the dangerous part.

"You know there's no need to hurry like that. You can just see if your Volcarona is interested in having a child and if she is, you can pass that one to me. Even if she isn't interested for now, that's no problem. We'll just note it down and go through with it when she's interested," I tried to at least steer him in the direction I had been hoping for. "No can do I'm afraid," Kinji denied. "Viona is not interested, and waiting for her to get interested is going to take way too long. I can't wait that long," he declared with a shrug of his shoulders, which also served to push my arm off his shoulders.

"Case closed. I'll be taking this" Kinji declared with a laugh before taking the ball from my hand; "And I should be able to find that Larvesta within a year at most, though hopefully it won't take anywhere that long," he declared sounding smug. I knew that he felt that he won our "argument" despite him ending up "owing" me a Larvesta as a result. Frankly, it made no sense, but the human mind did not have to make sense all the time I guess, and I could not help but laugh at the hilarity of the whole situation. I bet people who didn't know us would not believe this even if they heard about it.

Anyway, I saw Kinji smirk at my laughter and his next words made me nearly choke. "Honestly, Mikail you should have known better," he said faking disappointment; "The only ones that would accept a gift like that without feeling the need to reciprocate are YOUR girls," he said, stressing that your with some obvious insinuation. While his words cut off my laugh, the laughter was not cut off since he began to laugh just as mine cut off.

"They are not MY girls," I denied which had him stop his laughter to throw me an amused glance. "Yeah, right," he said, not hiding that he didn't believe me. "Either way, they are the only ones that would simply accept a gift like this," he declared with a smirk before pausing for a moment. "Actually, Yu might just simply accept it as well," he added a moment later. "But Yu's face is thicker than the plating of a Rhyperior so he doesn't count," he followed up jokingly before laughing again, and this time I joined him since that was funny.

"Come on, that's not fair, singling Yu out like that. Yu wouldn't do that," I spoke up after laughing for a bit. "Probably," I followed up after a brief pause before laughing again. "Alright, we've laughed enough,' I eventually said. "Call out Shadinja and take a look at your new partner," I followed up and Kinji nodded before releasing Shadinja from her ball. I officially introduced the two before watching them interact together with Shadinja (Dad).

Kinji and Shadinja checked each other out and conversed for around 10 minutes before Kinji recalled her with a happy smile. When he did that I followed suit and recalled the dad. I then asked him what he thought about her, Kinji told me that he was very happy with what he had seen and that he was looking forward to seeing how strong she could become in the future.

After that, he changed the topic and asked me when my next Gym Challenge was going to be. When I told him that it was the day after tomorrow he first chided me for not sharing that in our chat group before declaring that he was going to stay until then to watch the challenge. I did not mind him doing that since he was already here anyway, and Kinji accepted my reasoning after I told him that there were just too many Minor as well as Standard Gyms and that I had honestly forgotten about posting the date since I thought that only the Major Gyms were a big enough deal to post about it.

He actually laughed and said that only I would see earning B and A rank Badges as something trivial enough to justify neglecting it, but at least he did not bother correcting me, so that was a win in my book. We made our way to the inn I had chosen since Kinji wanted to check out the rooms first before strolling around the city. The rooms ended up being just as clean and nice as I was told by the locals and the net, so that was good. 

After that little check-in, we strolled around the city for roughly two hours before that dog Kinji actually shooed me away after getting into a conversation with a good-looking lady at the club we chose to check out on the recommendation of some locals before calling it a night. Well, I called it a night alright, but if Kinji did the same was another matter. All I knew was that he had not come back yet an hour later when I finally decided to enter Utopia after spending an hour meditating on the bed.

The next time I saw him ended up being during breakfast at 9 a.m., which we had agreed upon yesterday, and my man was radiating joy. Had he not said that they had simply talked until the club closed at 3 a.m., I would have thought he had gotten lucky, though considering how the two managed to talk for so long and how happy he was right now, I'd say that Kinji had gotten lucky anyway. He told me that he had saved Violet's number and that he had invited her to dinner, which she had accepted.

I congratulated him on that and wished him luck before asking him what we should do after breakfast. We ended up finding a secluded public battlefield and held a few practice battles with Kinji using only his (high) gold and (low) dark gold Pokemon like those at the Gym were going to while I used my gold stage Pokemon.

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