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Paxton Sycamore was a fifteen year old lad, the bastard second son of the esteemed Professor Augustine Sycamore. Most likely knew him either from that little bit of trivia or the fact that his older brother Alain was a frequent mention when people asked who Kalos’ top champion was.

Though as for him, he was just… Paxton. He resembled his father quite a lot, even more so than Alain, but that was about it. There wasn’t really much to write home about him other than the fact that he was a living testament to his father’s affair.

Paxton walked the streets of Lumiose City, the sound of rhydon bulldozing old buildings alongside actual bulldozers. The buildings crumbled into dust in the distance, parts of the city section off specifically for the demolition. It was all over the news ever since it was announced.

The Lumiose City Redevelopment Project 

Or something of the sort. There was plenty of cheap yet unsold housing in Lumiose City, so in the name of becoming one with nature, the higher ups of the region saw fit to demolish some of the capital’s hollow portions and replace them with literal clumps of wilderness. Wild Zones became all the rage while he was in school, every social studies class suddenly became about them.

It didn’t take long for Lumiose to do its thing. Protest here, riot there, a bunch of women going topless by Prism Tower, the usual. As he walked the streets of Lumiose he could already see a crowd by one of the demolition sites with signboards.

Those houses could be used!

This is upsetting nature, not uniting us with it!

I don’t want my child getting jumped by a pride of pyroars!

Paxton tuned them out alongside all the horns of cars and scoffs of waiters as he held onto his hat, his eyes on the prowl for what he was after. His father was off in some rooftop coffee shop with an old friend of his, apparently the father of the city’s former gym leader, and he told him to go have fun elsewhere.

He first tried to spectate a sparring match between his father’s garchomp and his friend’s blaziken, but they moved too fast for him so he decided to just go down and look elsewhere. 

Paxton did eventually find what he was looking for. Barboach and Noble, a bookstore. There were plenty of other bookshops in Lumiose, especially local ones. A foreign one like this basically stood no chance, but Paxton found a charm in its… foreign innocence. Perhaps in a way it reminded him of all the houses that were being demolished. It was inevitable that this place was going to bite the dust too. Perhaps this place would also become a wild zone soon.

Considering it was literally right next to one such demolition program, maybe it was. Rhyperiors were literally blasting the ruins with earth for the gogoats to start seeding with all kinds of grasses. Soon this place too shall be teeming with whatever wild pokemon the city haphazardly integrates. 

Quite the omen, if Paxton were to say so himself.

Paxton entered the bookshop. It was bereft of customers, likely since none of them could read with all the racket outside, assuming anybody came here to read at all. He took off his hat to scratch the top of his head, moving some of his black bangs away from his face as he headed straight past all the school materials, mystery collectibles, and stacks of autobiographies and self-help books in order to reach the rest of the store.

There was a lot to choose from, and he didn’t really have any specific one on his mind. He ended up in the young adult section first, with most of them being romance novels that were first published of  WattrelPad, a number of fantasy novels he didn’t know much about, a number of stories meant to be studied in Literature class like The Taming of the Sandshrew, and finally, some comics. Nothing special like one would see in a dedicated comic store, but serviceable enough.

He browsed through the section. Most of the comics section was composed of manga now since that was all the rage. Volumes of Dragonite Ball Z among a number of more usual suspects, though he raised a brow upon seeing a volume of Grapploct Baki, he didn’t see that one often. This volume specifically took place in the arc where the ancient warlord and legendary Ranseian samurai warrior Nobunaga was reborn… somehow. It was Grapploct Baki, it never made sense but it was a lot of fun.

He put the volume back down, he wasn’t here for them right now though. His hands skimmed from the manga to the comic books. There were plenty of superheroes to go around. His eyes took notice of a couple issues of Absolute Crobatman. Getting them was tempting, he’d heard rave things about it. Perhaps when they come out as a trade paperback, he will. Hopefully they don’t go under like Decidueye Arrow did recently. They really should start selling these things in retail stores again, and hopefully at a lower price too.

Eventually he moved from the superhero section to the other graphic novels. There his eyes fell upon it. Blacksad. It featured an anthropomorphic luxray named Blacksad who was a hardboiled detective. He loved this whole thing and he’d been thinking about it ever since he first heard of the series last month.

He took the volume out. It was the latest one, sealed in plastic and ready to be bought. He checked the price, and he had enough and then some. Paxton smiled to himself as he started walking towards the cashier. He’ll buy Grapploct Baki and Absolute Crobatman some other time. Right now he had a date with Detective John Blacksad!

Though once he turned around, he saw a couple of his fellow adolescents had since filled the aisle, all standing there trying to find their favorite manga. He shrugged and decided to take a simple detour. He moved through the kids section with all the coloring books and pop-up books. He thought about his father as he did so, remembering the times he’d tuck him to bed.

He’d sit there with him, pat his head, tell him to be understanding of his brother after they fought again for whatever reason that day, and then tell him everything was going to be alright. He used the same pop-up books his brother grew up with. One about ursarings going to bed, or one about a hungry tyranitar. Alain always liked the one with the charizard that flew all over the world, perhaps that’s why he tended to be abroad rather than back here in Kalos.

Paxton however stopped when a particular pop-up book caught his eye.

It was a ditto themed pop-up book called The Best Mom in the World.

Paxton raised a brow as he reached for the rectangular book, all white with a drawn-on confetti design. The cover had a ditto at the center, and all sorts of cartoony depictions of various pokemon all around it. Paxton pried it open, it only had a couple pages like most pop-up books. 

My mom’s a ditto! She’s the best-est mom in the world!

The ditto in question wasn’t what popped out. They were merely on the side. The pop-up for this page was a baby larvitar hatching out of the egg. Paxton will admit, that was pretty creative. He flipped to the next one.

She can be as strong as a machamp.

The pop-up showed a machamp with their four arms, all big and meaty and blue.  The little larvitar was by the side as a mere drawing, watching with a smile as the machamp got ready to push a boulder. Paxton flipped to the next page.

She can take me up high and fly in the clouds.

The next pop-up was that of a charizard. Larvitar got to be a pop-up in this page, riding on the back of a charizard and their giant wings which stretched out of the page. They flew high over the clouds. Paxton wondered how strong the ditto-charizard was. Larvitars were quite heavy for their size. Paxton flipped to the next page.

She can carry me around in her pouch during long walks.

Okay now this one was obvious. It was a kangaskhan. It’s not a mother-themed pokemon book without a kangaskhan. It was a happy kangaskhan though her joey was of course the little larvitar. Paxton flipped to the next page.

She gives me delicious food.

It was an arboliva now. It used its powers to make a berry bush grow, allowing larvitar to snack on them all. Paxton flipped to the next page.

She bathes me squeaky clean.

Araquanid now. Kids might not like this part, arachnophobia’s always been quite the vocal fear. Still, a pupitar was now in a washbasin dipped in bubbly water with mama araquanid spewing more bubbles into the bath. 

Paxton doesn’t recall ever having taken a bubble bath, it’s always been showers for him. He flipped to the next page.

She makes all the scary monsters go away.

Pupitar is seen in the left hiding as the pages’ pop-up was now depicting the move “scary face” in-between a clash of hydreigon and garchomp. Considering the garchomp had a dock on their dorsal fin, it was likely the scary monster in question. Paxton knew that since his father’s garchomp was also male.

Paxton’s eyes fell upon the bottom right corner of the right page.

But that’s not why I think she’s the best mom ever.

He raised a brow. Everything so far seemed to prove it. It was enough to make a man jealous.

Paxton flipped to the next page.

My mom is the best because she loves me. She loves me with all her heart. It doesn’t matter if she can be as strong as a machamp, or fly high in the sky, or carry me in her pouch, or give me tasty food, or bathe me squeaky clean, or make the scary monsters go away.

My mom loves me. That’s all I ever need from her. She makes me happy.

I love my mom. She’s the best mom in the world.

Right in the middle was the final pop-up. A big tyranitar sitting on the ground, cradling a ditto in their arms. Mother and child slept together with a smile. Surrounding them was a humble cave, the cave itself was warm with a humble flame as the rain poured outside.

Paxton sighed, his lip twitched as he closed the book.

He held his head down.

He wondered where his mother was. Not his stepmom, but like… his real mom. He wondered where she was. She must’ve been that beautiful to make Alain so angry at him during their quiet moments whenever dad wasn’t looking.

The words echoed in his head. Real mom.

Like it or not, she wasn’t there, but Grace was. She was his mom now. She had been for a while now.

Maybe she’ll appreciate this. Paxton took the pop-up book with him as he headed straight for the cashier. 

After exiting the bookshop, Paxton stopped to gaze upon the demolition happening in front of the store. By the end of this year, this month even, that’ll be a whole patch of grass with trees and water and whatnot. He’d heard that the city wasn’t just going to stop there, even the sewers were going to see some of the action.

Paxton imagined him walking by one of the canals and getting ambushed by a sharpedo just leaping out of the sewers or something. That sounded…. Hilarious.

Books in hand wrapped in a shop-branded paper bag, Paxton started to walk back to where his father was, he might as well, it’s not like he knew this city much anyways. He didn’t really frequent the capital all that much despite his general vicinity to Kalosian celebrities. Maybe his father didn’t want him to get devoured by the hypothetical yet evidently non-existent paparazzi, or maybe he just wanted to hide him.

As Paxton began walking back though, he noticed something in the corner of his eye. A small blade of grass in the dirt. No, not a blade. A thing. Like a pokemon of some kind. He gazed upon the green little thing from across the street. It was a green worm with a big head yet only one eye and what seemed to be a bright red hexagon on its round blob of a torso.

The pokemon stared back at him. He wondered. What pokemon could that be?

It didn’t take long for the pokemon to wriggle back into the earth.

“Huh, odd,” Paxton shrugged. He adjusted his hat on his head as he walked back to the rooftop cafe, tuning out the sounds of urban renovation. He might take the scenic route, knowing this might be the last time he sees Lumiose in this odd little state. The next time he comes back here, whenever that is, it’ll be as if he’d just arrived to the city for the first time.