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momo loves gardens! it's enough that there are beautiful flowers and crops to be grown within, but to share that experience with other people? to be a part of something, to have communal love and care manifest in the form of plants? and to have the plants share their harvest with the humans who lovingly took care of them in the first place? [break][break]
the entire thing from start to finish is just lovely, in her eyes. in hoenn there are many shared gardens, and momo figures that sharing a garden with someone might be beneficial, especially since the coordinator herself is so busy with travel and contests that she can't always be the sole caretaker of a garden. when she first expressed her concerns, the lovely people in charge of managing the gardens reassured her that more than one person would take care of the garden. it would thrive even when momo herself isn't there! [break][break]
momo doesn't know much about the others sharing her garden, only that one is a ranger named mika nakayama. oh, and mika's sunflora, hina, is often left behind as a garden pokemon! every time momo visits, she waves at the beautiful little sunflower, and giggles brightly when the sunflora waves back. the small plot of land is dedicated to some wonderful berry trees and flower patches, most of which grows uninhibited and free. [break][break]
"don't you just love this place, velvet?" momo asks her ribombee. the pokemon loves pollen and flowers, so momo figured it would feel right at home in this place, and that she'd venture to bring the pokemon along with her whenever she came to visit the garden!
"it smells so good! and there's not a single other pokemon in sight—hey!" [break][break]
the pink-haired girl spots something concerning. swiping premature berries from the tree is a tall, grass-like pokemon. from momo's perspective, the thing is still halfway-blocked by leaves, but if she just takes a hop, step, and jump forward, she can see it for what it clearly is! [break][break]
"a grovyle?" momo wonders aloud.
"hey, no stealing!" she runs straight in its direction, and velvet the ribombee follows her trainer's lead.
"put that down where you got it! hey, that's not nice!" [break][break]
as momo throws herself between the grovyle and the tree, the former is so surprised that it has no choice but to back away, berries slipping from its frenzied grasp. the coordinator huffs and puffs, annoyed that some pokemon just have no manners! how could this grovyle steal from this garden when so much love and care was put into it? [break][break]
but on second glance, something's not quite right with this grovyle. without the berries occupying space in its arms, momo can see its entire body for what it is:
thin, bruised, and battered. parts of its green skin and red underbelly darken to a deep plum color, cold and prickly in the way that the wounds look old, as though it'd been barely surviving all this time. [break][break]
and with the unripe berries now bleeding as juice in its hands, it seems it won't be getting any more nutrients any time soon.
"oh... oh no..." momo feels tears pricking her eyes, but she doesn't know what to do. stealing is so, so bad, but not eating is just as worse. and this garden may not belong to the grovyle, but does that have to mean that he'll be shunned from it as he'd been every other opportunity before this? [break][break]
does the answer have to be as cruel as the problem itself?
"...listen," momo starts to say to the pokemon,
"no more stealing from this day on." [break][break]
the grovyle seems to struggle between wanting to leave or lash out, but under the scrutiny of a much healthier ribombee and the pokemon's trainer, doesn't do either of those things. he simply takes a step back, eyes narrowing as though it can try to understand momo's intentions. [break][break]
she inhales audibly.
"why don't we work together, instead?" momo brings out an empty poke ball from her bag.
"you seem hungry, but also strong. i could use a friend like you, and, wouldn't you know it? i have more food than i know what to do with!" it's not a lie as the scent of sweets and packaged snacks in momo's bag would have attracted any pokemon, much less a hungry one! grovyle's eyes flicker from the girl to her bag, and back to the girl again. she adds on,
"so what do you say, grovyle? wanna come with me instead?" [break][break]
grovyle doesn't agree right away. it regards momo with all the disbelief in the world, only worn down by its own exhaustion and lack of strength. it nods at ribombee as though to say
i'm not going down without a fight. and thankfully velvet understands right away, and momo trusts her to win the fight. [break][break]
one short fight later, and a shaky poke ball rolls to a stop, the air fluttering with pollen and stardust — a
silver wind ushering in a new age. [break][break]
momo picks up the poke ball, and places it near her cheek, closing her eyes against a world full of flowers and reverie, her pink hair tossed with the sweet wind.
"things will get better," she promises to the grovyle within the capsule.
"you'll see." [break][break]
