What the—

That was his initial reaction when the air started changing around Rustboro. He hadn’t been in one of these… strange ‘things’.

(Maybe the other kids had? Mostly Hideo Kino and John Sullivan? Because who knew?)

Either way, the crackling in the air made him look around wildly, and for a few moments the buildings seemingly warped and glitched out of existence, to be replaced by this pervading gloom…

He was accompanied by one of his two Zoroark—he’d goofed until he realized his first one hadn’t been speaking to him, instead hissing at the sight of the other… whoops.

“Wait… what the hell?” he blinked, looking at the male Zoroark that was plodding along beside him—wasn’t his fur black and red a moment ago… and why…

Why was the aura around him much more hair-raising now than when it was earlier?!

“What happened to you?!”

The not-quite-a-Zoroark shrugged, before cackling and pointing at something in the distance.

“Huh? You see something?”

And off they went.

What… what a strange phenomenon.

---

picking up a green shard!

gacha zoroark transformed into h!zoroark + learned bitter malice! (items redeemed here)

using the following items from Arashi’s PC on the male gacha zoroark in his PC:

1 forme change from unovan to hisuaian zoroark! (1 → 0 forme changes remain)
1 level tutor to teach bitter malice! (5 → 4 level tutors remain)

total : 0PD, as they are all from his item stash!

“Six months?”

Oh, if there was one thing he liked, it was how—how most people underestimated him.

“Moment I got my original prosthetics in, I had three years of physical therapy straight from recovery. I didn’t wait any second sooner even if the people around me told me to, because there was no way I was going to let what happened get to me. Three years may be a bit of a stretch, but you do understand—Enju is very out of the way of the bigger places back where I come from, so I made do with as much time as I was allowed.”

His determination was literally burning bright.

(And truth be told, he was sure that edith joy, oh dear mother of his, wasn’t going to mind him dipping into his ‘inheritance’ just to get his own limbs fixed. It was an investment in the long run, after all.)

“That’s the plan with my leg at least,” he added with a nod.

“I know I’m at the end of my growth spurt but who knows if I do get a last burst before I tap out!” he barked with laughter.

At least now he didn’t have to fly so far out to get his shit fixed.

The first thing that came out from the undergrowth literally pelted him with leaves the moment he’d passed a certain bunch of trees.

“What the hell!” he exclaimed, fumbling around clumsily and fishing out his Noivern’s Pokéball a few moments later as the Treecko, smug cheeky little bastard perched on the trees, continued to pelt him with its Leafage attack.

“Geez, you’re such a handful!” he grumbled as Ava took to the air, screeching in the process as this time the Grass-type took to the air and attempted to land a mid-air Night Slash on the Noivern.

One solid Air Slash from the bat-like Pokémon later, the Grass-type was sent flying towards the ground—and another pinned it down, before she shrieked in Arashi’s direction.

“Got it!” he shouted as he fumbled again—shit, things were much harder to do one-handed—as he threw the first Safari Ball at the pinned-down Grass-type.

---

catch attempt on Treecko!

“Something—something like that, you could say,” he admitted quietly.

Now he had something to chase after—an actual goal, to find a Rotom of his own.

It would be a little weird for him to be ambidextrous, but the temptation was there now, and it was just so much to take in. Well, the fact of the matter here being that he could now be able to write again with his proper hand? Without having to resort to chicken scratch for the rest of his life (maybe)?

“Is it possible to have the temporary arm installed first—not the one with the Rotom interface yet, though, since I still have to find one of my own for the other arm?”

This was him picking up and grasping straws now, wondering if it even was possible.

It was—admittedly, time to rebuild.

Even if shit still hurt.

The way the people were looking at him when he sidled up, with just a left arm (as his right arm was still out of commission) as he slapped down the money on the counter with this fierce look of determination in his eyes.

Don’t give me pitying looks, I’ve seen worse shit than y’alls have, he thought with a surly look on his face as the four Safari Balls were rolled his way; which he scooped up with a practiced movement.

One clearance through security later, it was time to start searching through the area.

At the mention of being able to write again with his original arm—he froze up, for the briefest of moments.

“I can—I can do that?” he said in hushed tones. “Write…properly again?”

That was—to be honest, that was mind-blowing, even for him. He blinked, still in shock and disbelief.

“However, doesn’t… doesn’t that mean I’d need a Rotom of my own to power it?” he confirmed, just to make sure they were on the same page. “I’ve seen—how that works with the Rotom phone at least.”

(Wink wink, Hideo Kino and his Rotom-Phone.)

He was also wondering if there was a possibility to have—no, wait, he was getting way too ahead of himself.

“Is there—is there like a way to have… no, I don’t think it may be allowed, I was just thinking of an emergency contingency plan just in case I’m too far away from the nearest hub where I can drop by for maintenance.”

And besides, he did have that bank account he was sitting on. He hadn’t told the others yet about what he’d agreed to—well, the Follies who were still around, that is.

Young as he was, he was definitely prepared to shell out for the improvements to his current rudimentary build and set-up. At least that was one thing he could do himself.

“The last time?” he hummed thoughtfully, his mind flashing back.

Oh, if only he could let that ugly laugh out he’d been suppressing for so long. Well, there was nothing else to it. It was time to be honest.

“I’ll be honest with you—the last time I’ve changed this out was… three years ago. Which was around the same time I got them installed. That’s for my arm at least. My leg’s got it better, though, because I get the chance to upgrade and modify it every six months or so. Growing pains.”

This had obviously skewed his physical proportions, so his arm was definitely shorter than the other and in dire need of an upgrade.

When the question of dexterity was asked, he couldn’t help but crack a grin.

“I used to be right-handed, but I switched to being left-handed after I got it installed. And I can use my right arm almost as normally as my left. I just can’t write with it.”

He wondered what kind of admonition he was going to get after what he shared.

He still felt so inadequate.

Sure, Alex Louis and Ava were still around, but—

While his own losses were on the smaller number of things, big glaring problem here was that those who he’d lost were among the ones that he cared for the most—

Two of the three that he’d started his journey into the world with, gone.

All because they wanted to protect him from whatever the fuck had gone down.

He thought he saw Hideo Kino but knew it best not to interrupt the other, and so he decided to wait a little bit until there were less people around. Holding a small bouquet of flowers in his left hand (as he had not yet gotten around to restoring his right one, oops) he looked around and took a single, sharp breath.

Who knew that during that dark time, he would discover what his Steelix was capable of—maybe too little, too late to matter now; he was still beating himself up and over what had happened to the three he’d lost that terrible, terrible day.

Alfons, sweet gentle giant of a Golurk. The one who understood him the most. (Who was he kidding, they understood each other so well, they didn’t need to talk just to know what the other was thinking.)

Luxu, sassy Salazzle, the ‘mother’ figure that stood by him through thick and thin. (One of those who’d helped find out what the fuck was going on when they’d gone out to search for Frankie.)

Ira, giant dinosaur who loved giving him rides whenever they decided to kick up dust whenever the Tyrantrum would want to stretch his legs. (Despite the Tyrantrum’s generally terrifying disposition, the one he owned was such a gentle one…)

While Invi was still around, it was wise of him not to use his Absol during that night of dread…

“Fuck,” was all he would say, crouching down as he left his own simple offering of flowers alongside all the rest that had been left there so far.

Small, inadequate—

But then again wasn’t everyone who’d been around for that terrible time?

---

open for smol interaction

@tag