Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Luck ❯ Chapter Four ( Chapter 4 )

Luck

 

Chapter Four

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I watched Kokennin as he walked ahead of us. It was the first time I got a good look at his clothing. His dark brown pants were made of rough cotton, as was the lighter long-sleeved shirt. I could just see the tips of his knives' sheathes under the hem of his jacket, which was made of tough leather and colored a dark brown. His pack was made of tan burlap, with old-style buckles on the pockets. Inside, I knew there was food, water skins, a couple bags of silver coins, and a few other things that I didn't see as he packed it. As we were walking, I kept expecting him to pull a pair of boots, or sandals, or some kind of footwear and start grumbling that the forest trail we were on was too rough to walk barefoot, but no. He just kept walking at a pace I could barely manage, though our pokegirls seemed just fine with it.

 

I certainly hoped that he had a change of clothes with him. I mean, how could I be seen in a town with him dressed like he was in the wild for all of his life? All of his clothing had tears, and one of the knees in his pants was patched, just like the elbow in his shirt, not to mention the holes in his jacket.

 

“What Stefanie thinking?” Zalira asked. I jumped, simply because I remembered that she and Kokennin's alpha were walking behind us, talking to each other.

 

Oh, right. His alpha. I can't believe how he chose her.

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Three hours earlier

 

Kokennin walked into the training area of the university, where he was supposed to choose his alpha. I was running through a list of the available pokegirls, which wasn't many. Most of them were helping out the professors with some kind of research or were research themselves. What was left were a couple of Growlies, a Slicer, a Cheetit, and a few Pidgies.

 

“So what am I doing?” he asked, looking out over the pokegirls. They were training with each other in the large area.

 

“Daddy said that you need to pick an Alpha to be a Tamer. We're supposed to get to the next city by tomorrow to meet a friend of mine, so you need to hurry and pick one,” I told him. He let out a sigh, the most emotion I've seen from him.

 

“How do you normally choose?”

 

“Well,” I explained, “Most Tamers go with the sexiest, but you don't seem like most tamers.” He scoffed. “I'd say just go with who you think would be most helpful. Like one who can cook or clean.”

 

“Both of which are not needed,” he said. Strolling forward and drawing the pokegirls' attention to himself, he declared, “I've been told that I need to pick one of you to come with me. I don't know how to choose, so I've decided on a little contest…”

 

Everyone, including me, just stared at him. Unfazed, he continued. “The first one of you to hit me comes with. Anything goes.”

 

With that, he took a battle stance and waited for the pokegirls to start. They continued gawking at him before the Slicer burst forward, sword drawn. Kokennin pulled out two foot-long knives and in a flash of steel, her blade was stopped. The other pokegirls figured out that the fight had started and joined in.

 

This guy must be really good at multitasking. He blocked two more sword attacks from the Slicer while simultaneously kicking away a Growlie and dodging a Feather Shuriken from one of the Pidgies. The other Growlie attempted to Slash him, but he threw up a knife, grabbed her arm, flipped her onto her back, and caught the knife again just in time to block the Slicer again. He spin-kicked her to the other side of the room and twisted around to catch a Pidgy by the wing. Kokennin threw her on top of the Slicer, effectively stunning both of them.

 

He turned to face the remaining Pidgies and the Growlies, who had both recovered from their injuries. He sheathed his knives and started to run forward when a golden-furred hand slapped the back of his head. He stood there, mouth agape, for a full minute before turning around to find the Cheetit, who was grinning triumphantly.

 

“You said that the first one to hit you goes with you, right? I hit you, so I go,” she said simply. Kokennin continued to gape, and then smirked. He straightened up and bowed to her.

 

“You are either very good at sneaking or very fast,” he concluded.

 

“I'm really fast. Check your pokedex,” the Cheetit, who was named Satsuma, said.

 

“Whatever. Oi! Girl! You said we needed to hurry? Let's go,” he said, striding past me and back through the door. Satsuma bounded after him, and I followed her. We stopped by Daddy's office briefly to get a pokedex for Kokennin, as well as some pokeballs. That's when another argument started.

 

“What the hell do I need these for?”

 

“Well, that one is to hold Satsuma. It makes traveling easier, since she's stored in there. The rest are for capturing oth—”

 

“What do you mean `capturing?' I just agreed to watch over your pup, not do any of this other crap,” he said. “I'm just here until you can get me home, remember?”

 

“Yes, but you can keep as many as six pokegirls with you. Don't you think that having varying types would be an asset?”

 

“Hey, Daddy?” I started. “How come we're only allowed to have six before the pokegirls go into storage?”

 

“Well, you—”

 

“If you have a larger pack, you'll need to be able to find a larger amount of food and territory,” Kokennin interrupted. “Smaller is better.”

 

“Oh,” I muttered meekly. “I get it. Well, we're off, Daddy. Come on, Kokennin!”

 

“Whatever,” he said before following me out. Satsuma followed him, as happy as she could be that she had a master. We walked off the campus, both of our backpacks filled with supplies. We almost made it to the edge of the nearby forest when one of the grad students working for Daddy ran up, panting and holding a steel collar in one hand.

 

“Are you…” he panted, “…Okami…Kokennin?”

 

“Yes,” Kokennin said. He was glaring at the student, who backed up a little when he finally noticed.

 

“I-I was told…to give this to you. The Professor said that you might find it helpful during the full moon,” he said, holding out the collar. “He also said to give you this,” he finished, holding out a folded piece of paper.

 

Kokennin snatched the paper away from the student, unfolded it, and stared at it for a few moments. He looked up, grabbed the collar, and started walking into the forest. I apologized to the student, who looked dumbfounded, and hurried after him, Satsuma already right behind him.

 

“Kokennin, what did that note say?” I asked once I caught up. He looked around for a moment before turning and handing the note to me.

 

“Read it out loud,” he said. I took it and opened it up.

 

“'Kokennin, I thought this might be useful for you during the full moon. It has a tracer in it that Stefanie can follow with her pokedex. It's made of steel, so it won't break, and the locking mechanism can only be undone with a special tool that I have. However, the locking process is simple. Put it around your neck, close the clasp, and push in the locking pin. It will automatically transmit when you transform, and stop again when you change back,'” I read. He nodded, as if in understanding, and then threw the collar on the ground.

 

“Aren't you supposed to wear that?” Satsuma pointed out. He scoffed and started to continue down the path. I picked up the collar and walked up to Satsuma, whispering my plan in her ear. She grinned, and readied herself to use that amazing speed of hers.

 

I happened so fast that if you blinked, you would have missed it. Satsuma bolted up, wrapped the collar around a surprised Kokennin's neck, and locked it. He spun around, glared at me once, and then started tugging at the thing, trying to get it off.

 

“Damn…Professor…trying to get me to…follow his rules…,” he mumbled, failing to remove the ring of steel. He gave up after five minutes, and resigned to tearing a length of cloth from his pants legs and wrapping it around the collar, mumbling something about being “able to see it from fifty leagues” as he did so.

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Now

 

We were walking through the forest, staying on the path since I knew it was mating season for the insect pokegirls. We walked for almost five hours, only stopping for twenty minutes to eat lunch.

 

Kokennin suddenly stopped, his hand out to the side as a signal for us to do the same. He stood still and sniffed the air a couple times (I hate when he does that. It's so creepy.)

 

“Satsuma.”

 

“Yes, Master?” the Cheetit said, perking up and ready for something to do.

 

“Do you hear anything?”

 

The pokegirl closed her eyes and listened, just like her Tamer.

 

“A lot of buzzing. Why?”

 

“We're surrounded, that's why,” he said. As if on cue, a dozen Buzzbreasts burst from the bushes and trees lining the path. I jumped and moved close to Kokennin, while he, Satsuma, and Zalira all took fighting stances.

 

“Any ideas?”

 

“What?” I asked. Then I remembered. He probably didn't know what a Buzzbreast was.

 

“Ideas to get out of this?”

 

I thought quickly. Buzzbreasts were bug pokegirls, so they would be weak against—

 

They attacked without warning. Most were using poison sting, but a few were buzzing around as distracters.

 

“Girl, get down. Satsuma, use what attacks you can. I'll take care of the rest,” Kokennin ordered. I immediately dropped to the ground with my hands over my head. He leaped toward one of the nearby insects and delivered a crushing blow to the side of her skull. She fell to the ground and stayed there. Zalira was hovering over me, using gust on the enemies that got too close. Satsuma was a blur as she used rapid-fire punches and kicks to down the attacking pokegirls, none of which got back up after they landed.

 

A pokeball rolled out of my pack, and an idea hit me. Why not capture one of the ones who were still down? I was stopped mid-throw by the sound of screaming and Zalira landing on top of me. I rolled over so that she was lying in my lap, and saw that she had a nasty sting on her arm. One of the Buzzbreasts must have got her with a poison sting.

 

Kokennin must have heard what happened, because he landed by me after giving a flying kick to a hovering Buzzbreast.

 

“What happened?”

 

“She got hit with a poison sting. She needs to get to a Pokecenter; I don't have any antidotes with me!” I cried. He nodded and asked the direction. The nearest one was about five miles away in a town whose name I forgot. Of course, that was in a straight line; the path curved multiple times before it got to the city, so the total distance was probably more like fifteen miles.

 

“Five miles east of here!” I shouted to him. He nodded and jump-kicked a Buzzbreast that Satsuma didn't see. He quickly told her something and they both ran back to me.

 

“I'll take Zalira. We'll meet back at the Pokecenter,” she said before scooping up my Alpha and tearing off down the path. Kokennin picked me up in his arms and jumped out of the ring of approaching reinforcements.

 

“What are we doing?” I demanded, seeing that he wasn't going to land on the path. Then I realized how high we were and figured that no human could jump that high, especially with a passenger.

 

“To that center thing. This way is fastest,” he explained, slipping through the branches of a tree, hitting the ground, and taking off again. “I can't carry two of you at the same time, so Satsuma's taking Zalira to it her way.”

 

“What happened to `Okami Kokennin never runs away?'?” I taunted. He snorted before responding.

 

“Better to live today and fight tomorrow,” he said simply. I stayed quiet until we reached the pokecenter, where Satsuma was trying to tell the Nursejoy what happened.