Chapter Text
Although Yoni knew the people being escorted out by the police and his first instinct was to go and greet them like a friend there was something about the way they were being held by their shoulders and pushed forward that made him hesitate. It reminded him far too much of that time he had thought to put fireworks in the Digglet holes and he had been given a visit by the local police.
It was the only experience that Yoni had had with the police. Dozens of miles from the nearest city there had been technically a police force responsible for issues his family and other farmer families had but Yoni was well aware that he hadn’t been likely to encounter them unless something really obvious or really bad had happened. They had reminded Yoni of the stories of rancher riding Ponyta and herding Miltank , all the while facing outlaws in the great lawless nowhere.
Sure, Yoni could barely call it the lawless nowhere, what with all the farm crops but there had still been quite a few number of policemen for all the country roads and snowy fields he had explored. Although he had known that the police was there to help him, and he had been taught to respectfully nod and call them sir and ma’am Yoni had never really interacted with them regularly. Most farmers, including his kind old neighbour who gave him the Milktank milk for free knew better than to call them and wait for potentially hours until they showed up. Sure, Yoni respected them, he treated them with the respect he treated all adults but he wasn’t used to seeing them in quite such a harsh position, pushing the people Yoni knew to the point they almost tripped and caring not for the result.
It felt wrong to Yoni and though he felt that he should voice his opinion, and he should say that it wasn’t really appropriate or necessary to take out people he knew - people who had shown him kindness in such a way he held still. At his feet the Munna had backtracked and now hide behind him, as if the sudden confusion and rush scared them and Prim looked tense. Her fur was raised and her position was similar to one she had displayed at the gym when she had been a smaller Skitty. As if she was ready to pounce and jump away at any moment. It made Yoni feel worried. He was in broad daylight, and in a city close to a ton of police, he shouldn’t have felt worried and yet something about the environment hung in the air, making it heavy and making a kind of weight settle inside Yoni’s chest.
It wasn’t just the Munna and the Skitte however, on his shoulder the Swablu had stopped rubbing against him and was now only a slightly puffy mound and Ventisca, who was the image of chilled calm (and Yoni grimaced slightly at the pun, he hadn’t meant to do it) now hung close to his legs like he too was concerned. Something was going on.
His position put him in a prime position to look at the men being pushed. There was no doubt about who they were. Although he didn’t see Archie being pulled along, and he’d be easy to notice with his extra height and burly chest Yoni could see the bandanas he had gotten so close to a couple days ago. He remembered their smell, and he remembered their texture. Even as surreal as that night had become he remembered that they had smelled not like sweat like he had been expecting but like salty water, like the sea water when he had traveled to Hoenn from Johto.
But more than his concern for his friends, and Yoni thought he could call them friends it was the Munna’s reaction that worried him. Yoni didn’t realise why, at least not at that moment but the Munna was trying to hide behind him. Like they hesitated and didn’t want to be seen and Prim stood protectively, as if her role as team mother had just been added to.
Yoni didn’t know exactly what it was. - Though in his head he imagined something straight out of a cartoon a fat cop or rancher chasing the mischivieous Skitty who stole moo moo milk, but there was clearly something bothering the two of them. And not only them, but his entire team.
“Hey” he said as he bent down and turned, making sure Munna’s view was covered by his body so that no one could look at them. It didn’t matter than Munna had their eyes closed so Yoni didn’t see how they could see - whatever it took to keep them safe. “Everything alright”?
There was no response except for a look from Prim that told him he was being stupid. Prim had sent him that sort of look before when she was a Skitty but as a Delcatty it somehow managed to make him feel even smaller and dumber. It made his breath catch in his throat but that wasn’t his biggest concern.
“No, of course not. Do you want to go back to the pokeball?” And previously Munna would have never have done that. Previously they had been super hesitant and unwilling to trust Yoni but they seemed to move in his direction. Yoni kept his hand very still, barely breathing, making no moves to advance. He didn’t want to spook them at all. His hand outstretched with the Pokeball in his hands, his calves complaining, Prim looking at him with a look of pity as if she couldn’t believe how dumb Yoni was he kept himself still. There was nothing he valued more than making his Pokémon feel safe.
With Munna finally pressing the button on the Pokeball with the tip of their nose and Prim finally turning her tails on him as if she was no longer worried about him being an idiot Yoni finally got up. He felt the cramps on his legs and he’d have even cursed if it were not something that he’d feel guilty doing afterwards As usual the Hoenn sun was up even if it was late in the afternoon but Yoni had been getting used to it, and the cap on his head with the Devon logo helped. Still he felt kind of crammy and he was aware that he needed a place to stay.
He should not have felt that tired. By most accounts the fact that he had spent the last few days on a cargo ship travelling to Slateport should have let him rest but he had been so worried about his Pokémon, and what they had to eat, that he hadn’t really rested. It was the sort of stress Yoni understood his father had had struggling with inventions that barely worked and trying to make ends meet but he hadn’t realised it until he had felt it.
His tent and materials were still inside the backpack he carried, though if he were to be honest they were all rather poorly stored but Yoni didn’t really feel like sleeping in a tent that night. With that cleared up, Swablu still on his shoulder and quiet to the point he thought them to be hiding he moved towards the Pokémon center.
(…)
It was while waiting for his Pokémon to be seen, though they were mostly exhausted and not at all physically harmed that he got caught up in talking with other trainers. Though he was the quiet sort, never the kind to engage or start conversation one of the other trainers talked so loud that he just had to get involved. It was, Yoni figured after a brief thought, with how quickly they had been talking, his goal.
“It was terrible” The trainer said and though he was physically unharmed, he shaked, as if he had been traumatised. Yoni thought that that had to be the only reasonable explanation for though the Pokémon Center had Air Conditioning it was fresh but not cold enough to raise anyone’s hairs into chicken skin. “I barely had time to get them out…that Grovyle….so fast”.
Other trainers agreed and shook their heads in commiseration. As if the girl trainer with the Grovyle was a topic that all of them were familiar with and it was the talk of the town. “I don’t know why she stands there, all day waiting for trainers to battle her. It’s as if she knows she’s good and is enjoying beating us” someone said and people looked at each other, a mix of terrified and nervous.
That got Yoni to look around. Though in Dewford there had been a couple trainers while he had used the Pokémon Center the amount of trainers in the center in Slateport was far superior to what he had been expecting. Sure, Yoni had expected a bigger number of trainers, Slateport was apparently a pretty big town (and he had had time to read about it on the ship, as reading was one activity that didn’t take much energy) but not the amount of trainers that stood there. Whoever the trainer with the Grovyle was Yoni thought that if she had beaten them all, then she must really be fierce.
“Heard someone beat her though”. Someone said, and all eyes were immediately on the trainer. Unlike Izzy or the girl from Johto that Hoenn had met prior this voice was quiet, shy, and hesitated, almost as if the owner of the voice wasn’t used to talking. “Yeah, I saw it. Trainer with this blue toad like Pokémon. Used a Swellow to keep out of reach…”
Trainers gathered around, willing to hear more details. Yoni discreetly listened in too, still too shy to join on the conversation. “Yeah, it was quite a sight. It’s not that Swellow was faster than the Grovyle, it wasn’t but it kept out of time until there was an opening. Must be some foreign way of battling. The guy sounded foreign.”
Something jolted at Yoni’s memory. “Was he from Johto?” he said and he was immediately confronted by two dozen pair of eyes looking at him. It was intimidating, and his plan to not call attention to himself had been dashed. “I just meant - did he, the trainer who won. Did he sound like me?” Not that every Johto accent sounded the same, to Yoni’s trained ears but to someone from Hoenn he thought they’d probably sound familiar. It was a prospect that confused Yoni, that two very distinct Johto accents could sound completely separate, but it was something he recognised as true.
“Now that you mention it…” the kid who was talking prior had his eyes focused entirely on Yoni, as if he was truly seeing him for the first time at that moment. It was a clear possibility, given that Yoni had tried sinking into the background before curiosity had gotten ahold of him. “I think so. Yeah, he had that twang. And though he was wearing a ridiculous hair piece he had dark hair like you…”
It probably meant nothing. Dark hair wasn’t exactly only a Johto feature. But with the accent and coming from Slateport it made Yoni wonder if the boy who had defeated the girl with the Grovyle was the boy that had caught Wally’s Ralts. He’d be satisfied he was close if so. Still it didn’t merit think about.
“So that Grovyle…the trainer I mean, is she blocking the path?” Yoni wanted to know. Although he had a team he considered plenty strong he didn’t have anyone who could compare speed wise to the Grovyle. Even if Prim was quite the little acrobat.
“Nah, she’s around the area, looking for dropped items she says, it’s just, ya know, she looks at you and you cannot refuse a challenge from someone who looks at you.” The other trainers nodded as if that made all the sense in the world. It made it to them, Yoni knew. The Hoenn rules on facing trainers with whom you had locked eyes had been pretty well established by Izzy to him.
Still he’d gain nothing from commenting on that. And as he was called to collect his Pokémon people shuffled to give him passage. It was as if simply sounding like the mysterious trainer who had beat the girl with the Grovyle had afforded him some respect by proxy.
Yoni looked at the Pokeball with the Munna as he was handed the key. Though he could already feel a fire in his belly, urging him to fight he wasn’t sure he really wanted to, not when a battle seemed impossible. But still, he thought. He might just ask about the Johto boy and learn if it was truly the rival that Wally and him both wanted.