Little did Hideo know, he’d already attracted the attention of a Pokemon; a Duskull had taken notice of the boy walking along with his Pokemon, and had immediately assumed that he was some delinquent kid who was wasting his time out here instead of being in school.

It was the weekend, but she didn’t have the concept of a week. Yet had the concept of school.

She went intangible, making her way in front of the boy. She waited for just the right moment to scare him, before rematerializing in his face, her eyes glowing brightly as she Leered straight at him.

It had no effect on Hideo. How could it? He only even realized she was there when his head bumped right into her, a squeal coming from the floating ghost.

“Oh! Sorry about that!” He apologized by pure reflex, only just processing that he just bumped into a Pokemon.

Without a second thought, he produced one of the safari balls he was given. The Duskull immediately knew what he was about to do, and immediately tried to respond with a Shadow Ball, only to find herself unable to move; Elga had already enveloped her with Psychic energy, restraining her.

Hideo tossed the ball - a little to the left of the Duskull. But that wouldn’t be an issue; Elga just moved her into the ball’s path.

Safari Balls: 4/4
Attempting to catch the Duskull

Hideo walked to the Pokeball - subtly guided there by Elga. “Al-right!” he exclaimed, pocketing the ball, “One down, three to go! Guess we just gotta find another...or wait until they find us again.”

He waited a moment, waiting for something else to appear in front of him. But he just waited in silence. “It’ll be on us then. Let’s get going, Elga.”

Elga silently followed along, floating in the air effortlessly. He barely moved beyond that, other than looking around from side to side every so often.

Hideo stopped the moment he felt compelled to - a surefire sign that Elga was telling him to stop. “Spot something, Elga?” He felt the urge to look to the left, no doubt Elga telling him there was a Pokemon there. “Alright. Let’s get in close.”

Carefully, he walked in that direction, until he could hear a Pokemon breathing slow and rhythmically. He wasn’t aware of it, but he’d been guided to a Resting Tauros.

But even without knowing what Pokemon it was, he’d taken out a Pokeball, tossing it at the sleeping beast. This time, his aim was much better - mainly because this Pokemon was too big to miss.

Safari Balls: 3/4
Attempting to catch the Tauros

The ball hit the Resting Tauros, who didn’t even react to the impact. There wasn’t even a struggle after being caught. “Well, that was easy,” Hideo mused, picking the ball up and pocketing it. “Catching Pokemon here really is easy! I can tell why people like going on these safaris!”

So easy that he’d already unknowingly encountered a Pokemon: a Chimchar wandering around the Safari, looking for somewhere to escape this rare cold weather. He saw this child walking around, catching Pokemon, and saw an out, but pride was preventing him from outright asking to be caught.

So he approached him from the front, standing in front and ready to fight. Elga had taken notice fairly quickly, but Hideo hadn’t. When the Chimchar assumed he was being ignored, he tried Taunting the boy, slapping his behind to try and provoke a fight.

Hideo did notice the slapping, but didn’t seem affected by the taunt. He did take out a Safari Ball, so it was clear he was willing to take him in.

Still, the Chimchar ran forward, his fist aflame, ready to start a proper battle...only to be knocked out immediately by a beam of psychic energy from Elga.

At least he’d get what he wanted: Hideo threw the Safari Ball in the Chimchar’s direction. It would have been a clean miss, had Elga not used his Psychic power to redirect it mid-flight.

Safari Balls: 2/4
Attempting to catch the Chimchar

The redirected ball firmly hit the Chimchar, capturing it. “Three for three~!” Hideo hummed, retrieving the ball (subtly guided to it by his Pokemon). “Hope the safari wardens don’t mind a little scuffle like that; I know we aren’t really supposed to fight here, but it did kinda sound like that Pokemon was attacking first.”

He pocketed it, but noted how many empty Pokeballs he had left. “Only got one catch left, huh? Went through them faster than I thought.” He took it out, playing around with it. “Guess we should try to make this one special. See anything nice?”

Curiously, he didn’t immediately receive a response - or at least nothing that felt like one. It could be hard to tell sometimes if Elga was trying to tell him something; it always came across as feelings or compulsions rather than outright words. Hideo could only really tell if it was coming from Elga if he couldn’t tell why he wanted to go a certain way, or it was a sudden swing in how he was feeling.

A small amount of time passed until Elga responded, urging him to go forward. “Found something good? Alright~”

He walked ahead, only stopping once he heard something squeaking to the side. “That sounds familiar,” Hideo said to himself. He had some familiarity with small Pokemon - they were the safest for him to interact with when he was younger, so they were the ones he was exposed to the most.

He knelt down, extending a hand - and he felt something small grab on to it. He felt it out, noticing that while it was small, it was also quite fat, with massive ears and whiskers, and a long tail. “This is a Dedenne, isn’t it?” That got a happy squeak, confirming his suspicion. “These guys are pretty hard to find. I’m impressed, Elga!”

He had no idea about the two talking to each other from afar (Elga having caught on to an electric signal the Dedenne had sent out).

“So, little guy, you wanna join us? I got one ball left~.” Another happy squeak, which was good enough for him. He’d press the ball against the Dedenne, ready to finish off his first safari run.

Safari Balls: 1/4
Attempting to catch the Dedenne