part 1: teal
New
elyvorg
somewhat backwards
- Pronouns
- she/they
- Partners
-
Hello! I am still on my Kieran fix, this time with a Pokémon POV twist. This is the story of Kieran's loyalest apple dragon, and the rocky experience of being this boy's Pokémon throughout... all of the everything. There will of course be spoilers for the S/V DLC in this story, and if you aren't familiar with the DLC then I can't promise Kieran's character progression as shown here will be fully followable from this outside perspective - but then again, the outside perspective is the point, so take it as you will.
This was originally planned to be a one-shot, but as I am terrible at keeping things one-shot length, it's now a three-shot.
Content warnings: Nothing much beyond the kind of toxic behaviours you'd expect from a story about Kieran's arc.
You emerge from your Poké Ball in your usual spot by the open window, stretching out your eye-stalks to catch the last rays of the evening sun. A breeze blows through the opening, bringing with it the familiar scent of the apple orchard you used to call home, until you met Kieran.
Your human friend yawns and flops back onto his bed. “It sure feels weird to be home after bein’ at the Academy for so long,” he mumbles.
Kieran mentioned this trip wouldn’t be a long one – and you don’t expect to see much outside of his room while you’re here – but still, it’s nice to be back in Kitakami again.
The others are out of their balls too, Yanma buzzing excitedly around in the enclosed space, the Poliwag siblings squabbling on the floor, Sentret using his tail to hop up and join Kieran on the bed. They might get to have some battles here, against wild Pokémon if nothing else. But you’re just a weak little Applin, barely able to do anything but hide yourself away.
And yet despite that, Kieran chose you to be one of his friends.
All of a sudden, he sits back up, his eyes lighting up with that familiar twinkle. Human eyes are tricky to read with the way they barely move, but you’ve learned to spot this from him if nothing else. “But hey, guess what?! Me and Sis already met one of the trainers from Paldea, and man, she was somethin’ else! She swept the floor with Sis’s Pokémon without even breakin’ a sweat – like, wowzers! You don’t meet a trainer like that every day…”
He sighs and gazes out the window, just past where you’re perched. “Man, wouldn’t it be awesome if… if I got to battle her too, sometime durin’ this trip?” His face falls for a moment. “I-I mean… there’s no way I’d win… and, y’know, she probably wouldn’t even wanna waste her time on someone like me, but, still… Well, it sure would be cool, huh, Applin?”
You start, almost shrinking into your apple at suddenly being addressed. It’s not like he’d use you against this trainer – like he said, wouldn’t want to waste her time. But with that small smile on his face, the thing humans do to show their happiness, you can’t help but chitter out a “Y-Yeah!” of agreement nonetheless, even if he doesn’t understand your words.
It’s been getting rarer and rarer to see Kieran smile lately. If he wants this, if this makes him happy, that’s what counts.
You just wish there was something you could do to help him with that.
As you listen hopefully through your Poké Ball the next day, it sounds like Kieran gets his wish, far sooner than you’d imagined. He excitedly confirms this to you during lunch out in the fields, then packs up the picnic quicker than usual and gets back to what seems to be more battles. There’s a lot of those today, most of them against wild Pokémon. Perhaps the match against that trainer, Ju-something, helped Kieran remember how much he enjoys battling.
He won’t send you out for any of it, of course. But at least he got what he wanted, and it seems to have cheered him up a little. That’s enough for you. Satisfied, you imagine curling up inside your apple, the best you can do without a physical form, and lose yourself in the Poké Ball’s dreamlike haze.
The next thing you know, you’re barely done materialising into Kieran’s room before he breaks into an excited stream of chatter. “You guys! Oh, man, today was like the best day ever! We got to battle Juliana – twice! – an’ I even told her all about how much I like the ogre and took her to see its den, an’ she didn’t even get mad at me! And then – and then! – she said that we’re friends! I mean, wowzers! Friends with someone as cool as her! I can’t believe it!”
Blinking in the artificial light of the room, you scramble to keep up. The whole group’s here and some of them look different, but more importantly than any of that, Kieran is smiling, the biggest smile you’ve seen on him in… perhaps forever.
“Friend? You made a friend! A human friend!” Sentret – no, Furret – exclaims in delight, his new longer body twisting this way and that around Kieran’s legs.
A human friend…? Kieran’s never had one of those before, never even really talked about wanting one. But you’re pretty sure humans usually have friends among their own kind, and the smile on his face certainly tells you this is a good thing. His eyes are practically sparkling.
Overhead, Yanma’s zipping around even faster than usual. “You’re happy! You’re happy! I’ve never seen you so happy!”
Kieran glances at both of them and chuckles. “Then we went to the Festival of Masks together,” he goes on, “me an’ her an’ Sis, and it was a lotta fun! Well, mostly…” His beaming grin falters for a moment, and his next words come out mumbled. “Sis and Juliana were acting kinda weird near the end, like they were makin’ fun of me… I-It’s probably nothin’, though…”
Your tail twitches at that, but then Kieran shakes his head and puts his smile back in place, turning to face you. “A-Anyway, look, Applin! We got a little stronger, too – Sentret and Big Sis Poliwag evolved! Isn’t that awesome?”
Furret proudly stretches himself out to his full height, while beside him, the now-Poliwhirl flexes one of her new arms. “Knew we could do it if we tried,” she says.
Her little brother, still a Poliwag, peers up at her, his eyes shining.
“And Yanma’s been workin’ really hard as well,” Kieran adds as the bug Pokémon lands on his head. “Seeing Juliana made me really wanna try, y’know? So, um, at the festival…” He rummages through his bag and pulls something out to show you. “I finally went an’ did it! I bought a Syrupy Apple, so you can evolve too!”
Your eye-stalks stand straight up in amazement, staring at the glistening fruit before you. He’d mentioned this once or twice, a special apple from the festival that lets an Applin evolve, but you’d never thought – you never dreamed—
Kieran holds out his free hand towards your perch on the window ledge. “How about it, Applin? Do you wanna get stronger with me?”
You’ve never wanted anything more.
You roll onto his hand and fix him with a determined gaze. “Of course!”
“All right!” You don’t need to be able to read Kieran’s expression to know that he’s matching your determination. “You got this, Applin!”
With a burst of courage, you launch yourself out of the apple that’s the only home you’ve ever known, and burrow into the new one. A blinding surge of power overwhelms you, along with a spark of eager curiosity. You’ve never seen this ‘Dipplin’ for yourself – what kinds of changes might be in store for you? A different shape, like Furret? Or perhaps new limbs, like Poliwhirl?
As the rush of power fades, you take in the room, towering over you. You’ve shrunk? No, you’ve just dropped to the floor. You are bigger, but not by much – even Poliwag’s still taller than you. Other than a new antenna, your body hardly feels different. Your tail isn’t even long enough to poke out of this larger apple.
“Wowzers! Way to go, Dipplin!”
But none of that matters, because Kieran is thrilled, kneeling down to your level with a huge grin. Perhaps it’s that he can tell you’re stronger now, despite your size. You can feel it, too: the sweet, sticky goodness of your new apple filling you with power like you’ve never known.
And there’s something else new, something your tail keeps bumping up against, shifting within the core of this apple. No… someone else? Another wyrm, just like you. Where did they come from?
“Ah, hehe… you’re all sticky! Guess I won’t be pickin’ you up as much any more, huh?”
You barely noticed Kieran try to touch your apple, too preoccupied with probing at this new creature who’s inexplicably here with you. But you don’t want to let on to Kieran that anything’s wrong, so you hide your alarm and hiss at the newcomer, “Who are you?” For once, you’re glad Kieran can’t understand you.
“…Who are you?” the new wyrm responds.
“But man, I can’t wait to start trainin’ you tomorrow!” Kieran goes on, oblivious. “I bet you can learn all sorts of cool moves now! Maybe you can even go up against Juliana!”
“Juliana…” mutters the new wyrm. “Didn’t he say… she was making fun of him earlier?”
“Why would you bring that up?!” you splutter. “Besides, it’s fine! Kieran said it was nothing, so it’s nothing.” Who does this wyrm think they are, barging into your apple and being a downer in what ought to be the greatest moment of your life?
“Kieran’s happy,” you insist, keeping your gaze on that beaming smile on his face. “He’s happier than I’ve ever seen. That’s what counts.”
“I know,” the other wyrm says quietly. “I wish I could see him.”
It strikes you only now that, down there in the apple’s core, they can’t see a thing.
…Which is fine, because you’re the one who’s Kieran’s friend. More than that, he’s your trainer now. You’re strong enough to battle for him, at long last.
For the first time in your life, there’s something you can do to help keep him smiling.
When you see Kieran again the next day, his smile is gone.
At the foot of the hill that used to be home, you, Poliwhirl, Yanma and Furret peer up at your trainer as he stands there before you, his gaze on the ground. You’re scanning Kieran’s face to try and figure out what’s wrong, but all you can tell through that hair of his is that yesterday’s smile is nowhere to be seen. He’s chewing on one of the tips of his hands, his other arm tapping repeatedly against his side. The other team members mumble in confusion.
“I only hear three others,” mutters your core-wyrm. “Is Lil’ Bro Poliwag not getting trained?”
“It’s fine,” you mutter back.
“Um, l-listen up, everyone,” Kieran says, still staring at a spot on the ground rather than at any of you. “I’m… I’m gonna battle Juliana again today, and I wanna win this time. So I… I have to get stronger. I’m countin’ on you guys to give it your all.”
At last, his gaze shifts, meeting your eyes. “Dipplin, you got a lotta new moves to practice. I wanna see what you can really do now, alright?”
“Right!” you agree, more than ready to give it your all for him. You finally can.
He turns to the next in line. “Poliwhirl, I got you a Water Stone. I know it’s kinda soon after your last evolution, but the stronger you get, the better, y’know?”
Poliwhirl nods eagerly. “No complaints here.”
“Yanma, we gotta work on pickin’ up Ancient Power so you can evolve, too.” Yanma trills her agreement amidst a loop-the-loop. “And Furret…” Kieran hesitates. “Just… just keep doin’ your best, okay?”
Furret cocks one ear to the side. “Of course I will!”
“What was that?” pipes up your core-wyrm. “Why did he pause after Furret? He doesn’t think…?”
“Be quiet,” you hiss, poking them with your tail.
“Something’s wrong,” they insist. “He’s not happy today, is he? I can hear it. Was it that Ju-lee human? He did say she was ma—”
“Shut up!” you snap. They shouldn’t be going on about that. Not on the day you finally join Kieran’s Pokémon team for real. “And anyway, if he’s not happy, its our job to fix that.”
…You said ‘our’ without thinking, but you meant you and the rest of Kieran’s Pokémon. Not you and this interloper. You can’t imagine they’d be any help, when all they’ve done since they showed up is complain.
After watching Poliwhirl evolve – at which the core-wyrm frustratingly points out that Kieran sounds much less excited about an evolution than he did yesterday – you begin your training.
You’ve got real power now, so much greater than the pathetic little Astonish that was all you could muster before. Kieran guides you in practicing your new moves against wild Pokémon: flinging your syrup to damage and slow opponents, charging up orbs and pulses of grass and draconic energy. And… Double Hit, which needs the core-wyrm to strike with their tail for the second blow. As you stew on this fact, it becomes impossible not to notice that they’re contributing power to your other moves as well. It’s frustrating that you need the help of someone like them.
Then it’s time at last for your first real battle for Kieran, against that Juliana human. He said he wants to win this – and if you do your part in that for him, surely, it’ll put things right.
For all of Kieran’s talking her up, this trainer just looks like an ordinary young human, and her Pokémon, four little white mice fighting together as a single unit, doesn’t even seem that threatening. You’re a lot stronger than you used to be. You can do this.
“You got this, Dipplin! Get ‘em all covered in syrup!”
“Maushold, Play Rough!”
“Huh…?!” You try to ignore Kieran’s cry of dismay and focus on building up a sticky glob of syrup. The mice are already on top of you, the larger pair working in tandem to smack you and your apple with a whimsical energy that cuts to your core. Reeling from the unexpectedly harsh pain, you manage to cough the syrup over them, yet it hardly seems to faze them.
“Ack, I shoulda thought things through!” Kieran moans. “It… it wasn’t supposed to go like this… D-Dipplin, try to—”
Even drenched in sticky syrup, those mice are far too fast. Before Kieran can muster a command, before the core-wyrm can inch you away with their tail, the Maushold closes in again, and it’s too much for you to bear.
You come to sometime later in the haze of your Poké Ball. Though you’d quite like to have it all to yourself, unfortunately you can feel the core-wyrm’s presence in there with you.
“We lost,” they mutter.
Just great – you can hear their voice in here, too? And you thought they couldn’t get any more frustrating. “I’d noticed.”
“Kieran must have lost the whole battle,” they go on, ignoring your irritation. “If he’d won, he’d have told us by now. He really wanted to win… and yet…”
And yet you failed him. Another thing you didn’t need them pointing out for you. Your first chance to actually make a difference for your trainer, and you were still no good at all.
You shift your attention to the outside world, trying to pick up on whatever might be going on out there. There’s nothing but silence for a long while, but you keep listening intently anyway. Anything to avoid having to put up with the core-wyrm’s blather.
Then, out of nowhere, there’s the distant sound of an angry grunt, followed by a series of smaller, choked noises that claw at your heart. You know what this is; you’ve heard it far too many times before. But today of all days…
“He’s crying,” says the core-wyrm, as if you somehow hadn’t noticed. The last thing you need is them going on about this, too. “He sounds really upset… worse than usual…”
“And what of it?” You wince internally at sounding so dismissive of Kieran’s pain, but you just want them to stop talking.
“Something must have happened,” they go on. “He was so happy yesterday. He can’t have gone from that to this out of nowhere. It has to be because of that Julee human – that’s why he wanted to beat her today. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Does it?” you counter, still trying to get them to shut up. “She’s his friend. Friends have battles all the time, don’t they? She’s the reason he was so happy before!”
“Exactly. If something happened to make him think she wasn’t his friend… He worried that she was making fun of him, remember?”
With how they’d kept bringing it up, you could hardly forget. “But he said that she called him a friend,” you insist. “He said so. Are you doubting him? Do you think he was—”
“No!” they say. “Of course not. But…” They pause. “…Maybe he doubted her?”
Indignation squirms within you, and you wish you had your physical form so you could smack them with your tail, hard. It’s not even that they’ve got the audacity to blame Kieran’s first ever human friend – they think this is somehow Kieran’s fault?
“Maybe you’re the problem,” you snap out. “Think about it: it only got bad once you appeared and started complaining about every little thing. I bet things would be going way better if you weren’t here.”
They take a moment to respond. “If I weren’t here, you wouldn’t be strong enough to battle for Kieran.”
That stings worse than that Maushold’s attacks.
“What is with you?!” you exclaim. “You’ve been nothing but a huge frustration ever since you showed up! You know, since you’re gonna have to stick around, I might as well call you something, and that sounds about right for you: Frustration.”
Even in this formless world, you can sense them flinch at that.
“I’m… I’m not…” they mumble, their voice trailing off, as if they can’t deny it.
There’s a minute or so of sweet, victorious silence. But then they speak up again, quiet and thoughtful. “Candour. That’s my name. That’s who I am.”
Candour…? Like all they’re doing is telling the truth? And they even have to make it sound all high and mighty of them, as if any of that helps even a little bit.
“No, you’re Frustration, alright,” you insist. “And I’m Loyalty. I’m the one who’s doing everything I can for Kieran. I’ll always be on his side. Unlike somebody.”
“You’re…? That’s…” They hesitate, and you can almost feel them sigh and curl in on themself in defeat. “…If you say so.”
Outside, you can no longer hear Kieran crying.
“I can’t hear Furret. He’s not here today, is he?”
The next day begins much like the previous one, with Kieran urging you into even more training. The only real difference would have been that he didn’t mention wanting to battle Juliana this time… only Frustration just had to comment on the other thing, too.
But none of their quibbles matter, not when you’ve got to give your all for Kieran. Whatever the problem actually is, it’s up to you as his Pokémon to put things right. If he wants you to train and get stronger, that’s what you’ll do.
In amongst all the battling practice, you help Kieran add a Cramorant and a Gligar to his team. The lunch break, even aside from Frustration insisting you confirm that Furret and Lil’ Bro Poliwag aren’t around, feels odd with the two newcomers in the group – but they’re here on the promise that Kieran would make them stronger. If they’ll use that strength to win for him in turn, you’ve got no reason to complain.
Yanma’s finally evolved, too, an encouraging sign that all this training is bearing fruit, even if it’s harder to notice that in yourself. You are getting stronger from this. You even manage to help Kieran win some battles against other trainers around Kitakami.
As for that special trainer, the one who called Kieran a friend… you don’t see her again that day. But the next morning, as you’re waiting for Kieran to begin training, you hear him say her name out of nowhere. It sounds like he’s talking to both her and his sister, something about the story of the ogre, his voice fervent and angry.
You know all about the ogre, of course. Kieran’s told you of it countless times: the strong, cool legendary Pokémon he’s always dreamed of meeting, perhaps even one day befriending.
“And you two did the same thing to me! You treated me like an outcast when you went an’ met with the ogre!”
They did…?! His sister and the other human just went and met the ogre… without bringing him? Didn’t they realise—
“You know how much I love the ogre! You acted like you didn’t know anything, but you were laughing at me behind my back all along!”
This is why. This is why. It was never Kieran’s fault; of course it wasn’t. It’s all because of this other human, this Juliana.
“Liar! You're a liar!”
Yes. She lied to him. She must have been lying when she called him a friend, if she’d turn around and treat him this way. No true friend would do something like this.
You feel Frustration stir within the ball, but they remain satisfyingly silent. Even they can’t deny, hearing this, that it isn’t Kieran’s fault.
Kieran’s demanding a battle with Juliana, which is exactly what you want, too. You squirm with frenzied impatience as you wait your turn, itching with the desire to fight on his behalf and show that human who’d dare treat your friend, your trainer, like this.
As you’re sent out, you’re so furious that you’re even ready to take on the huge black bull pawing at the ground before you, no matter how fierce it looks. But just as you’re about to ruin its blue-flecked mane with a good glob of syrup, it vanishes back into its ball, replaced by a new foe that towers even higher over you.
The Baxcalibur – a fellow dragon, you can tell – stands steadfast against the blast of your Syrup Bomb like it’s nothing. You suppress a shiver just looking up at the creature. This is true draconic power, mighty and indomitable, and you’re just—
“Icicle Crash!”
“O-Okay, Dipplin, use Dragon Pulse!” comes Kieran’s command.
—But you’re angry, and determined, determined to do everything you can for your trainer, so you reach into your apple for your own well of draconic energy. Yet, even covered in syrup, the huge hulking Baxcalibur manages to move before you (why are you still so slow?), summoning great pointed crystals above your head. They crash down with piercing, agonising cold, and just like that, your anger is smothered into icy oblivion.
Not long after that loss, you hear more commotion outside the Poké Ball than usual. It sounds like Kieran’s sister and Juliana are actually letting him meet the ogre – Ogerpon, she’s called. That’s good, surely? You don’t know if this makes up for how they treated him before, but it has to mean something. This is a dream come true for Kieran. He should be happy.
(You want to tell yourself that your part in the last battle helped somehow with this turn of events. But you don’t need to voice the notion to know that Frustration would shoot it down in a heartbeat.)
At least there’s still more training. More chances for you to grow stronger and prove yourself, and finally actually make a difference for Kieran. Somehow.
“He’s met the ogre, like he always wanted,” you muse out loud during a Poké Ball break, weary from the exertion of training but still buzzing with an itch for more. “He even got to help her out a bit. He’s okay now, right? Everything should be fixed.”
It should. But if that’s the case, then…
“I’m not so sure,” Frustration pipes up, even though you weren’t talking to them. “I’m glad he got to meet her too, but… he’s still training too hard.”
“How is that a problem!?” you shoot back. “What’s wrong with training to get stronger?”
“Nothing, necessarily,” they admit. “But it doesn’t feel right. The way he talks and commands us – it sounds the same as before. Like nothing’s changed.” They pause. “…He’s still not smiling, is he?”
You’re struck silent. You want to deny it – you’re the only one who should know that for sure – but they’d just see right through your lie. They’re so frustrating like that.
“And if things were normal,” they go on, before you can find something else to say, “why isn’t Furret on the team any more? For Kieran to push one of his friends away like that… it’s not right. And he’s stopped hanging out with us in the evenings, outside of training. Nothing’s been fixed.”
Of course they have to keep harping on about Furret. “Well, Cramorant’s not here any more either,” you counter. “So it’s not about his friends. It’s just that… Furret and Cramorant weren’t strong enough.” Yes. That’s got to be it. “Kieran wants to get stronger, so he needs his team to be the best it can be. That’s all.”
Of course he does. That’s why he’s still catching new Pokémon, evolving them, strengthening his team.
(And what about you? You haven’t exactly been winning him battles since you evolved. Not the ones that matter, anyway.)
…But that’s what your training is for. Even if you can’t evolve again, you can still grow stronger, strong enough to make Kieran happy. You’re not like Furret, or Cramorant. You’ll never stop giving your all for him, your trainer, the one person in the world who saw something in you when you were nothing but a weak little Applin.
He can’t have been wrong to choose you. He can’t have been.
Frustration hasn’t tried to argue your words. Which means, knowing them… that they know you’re not wrong.
You throw yourself back into the training, but in between all the move practice and the battling, you feel as if you’re stewing in… something. You can’t call it ‘frustration’, because for once it doesn’t even have that much to do with them.
Then there’s a new development. Outside the Poké Ball, as you hear the humans saying goodbye to Ogerpon, it turns out Ogerpon wants to stay with Juliana. And Kieran speaks up, his voice fervent.
“…I… I wanna… I want Ogerpon to come with me!”
Of course. Why didn’t you realise it sooner? Just meeting the ogre was never Kieran’s only dream – even more than that, he’s always wished to befriend it. In other words, to add her to his Pokémon team. That’s what he really wanted. That’s why he still wasn’t satisfied.
“…Juliana! Please! Let me battle you! I want to see which one of us should get to keep Ogerpon with them!”
And that’s why he kept on training. If he can win this battle, prove his strength to Ogerpon, just like you helped him prove his strength to the other new Pokémon who’ve been joining his team… then he’ll have his wish.
This is it, finally: the opportunity you’ve been hoping for, to really make a difference for him.
“Whoever wins this gets to be Ogerpon’s partner… So don’t… don’t you dare hold back!”
You won’t. You never would have anyway, but especially not when this battle decides something so important. If Kieran wins and becomes Ogerpon’s partner, like he’s always dreamed of, he’ll be happy again. Everything will be fixed. And you’ll be the one to give him that.
“You heard him,” you mutter in a low voice to Frustration. They better not think about holding back either, ruining this chance for things to finally go right.
“…I won’t.”
As your turn comes to battle, you size up your opponent: that Maushold. The source of your first defeat – but you refuse to be intimidated. Even as all four mice smack into you over and over with frustratingly skilled teamwork, you duck inside your apple and weather the attack, building up draconic energy. Your Dragon Pulse strikes true, blasting your foe into unconsciousness, just as Kieran trusted it would.
A victory! At last.
There’s no time for praise or celebration, not when the battle isn’t over. The next Pokémon emerges with a huge flash of light and an uncomfortably familiar roar, and you shiver as you find yourself staring up at that Baxcalibur again. Already battered, with Frustration nibbling futilely on the small apple core Kieran gave you, you can feel your heart sinking.
But you won’t give in. Kieran needs you to win this, needs you to finally put things right, somehow. At his command, you face down the fiercer, stronger dragon, no matter the odds, and build the biggest Dragon Pulse you can muster. Even knowing that it’s hopeless, that it’ll never land in time (you’re far too slow), you’ll never stop giving it everything you have, for your trainer, for Kier—
—Until the ice crashes down upon you, rendering all your efforts a useless failure yet again.
The next time you emerge from the Poké Ball, everything is different. You’re back in Kieran’s other room at the Blueberry place – but more than that, Kieran is different.
The way he stands and holds himself is taller, straighter. The clothes he’s living in have shifted, and the hair on his head that used to hang down is pulled up out of the way. You can make out his face a lot better like this. It’s even easier to see that he’s not smiling.
“Huh…?” mumbles Lil’ Bro Poliwag, who’s standing here beside you, peering up at him. “You look odd… W-Where’s everyone else…?”
“What’s with you guys?” comes the voice of the only other Pokémon in the room, an Impidimp. “You’re all as small as me! I know he had someone bigger when he caught me!”
On hearing this, Frustration pipes up. “They’re all gone, except us…? Even Poliwrath and Yan—”
“Listen up,” says Kieran, his sharp tone cutting through the chatter. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to defeat Juliana, one day. And to do that, I need to get much, much stronger. She’s not here right now, so there’s plenty of time. However long it takes.”
“That’s strange,” Frustration comments. “He… sounds different. It’s still him, I can tell, but his voice… How is he doing that?”
“What does it matter what his voice sounds like?” you hiss back.
You were afraid that Kieran would be upset about your failure with the ogre, but… somehow it feels like that’s already long in the past.
“We’ll start with the BB League,” he continues. “The trainers there are no pushovers. They’ll be good training. Once we reach the top, we’ll be closer to Juliana’s level. Then… we keep climbing.”
You’re only now noticing that Kieran has extra stripes of hair above each eye, both of which are slanting downwards in the middle. You’re not sure what this means, but it doesn’t seem like a good thing. If nothing else, that sparkle that you could always recognise in his eyes, especially when he used to talk about battling – it’s nowhere to be seen.
“So I don’t need anyone on my team who isn’t going to give it everything they have,” Kieran finishes, staring down at the three of you. “Got it?”
Impidimp glances between you and Poliwag. “I don’t really get any of this,” he says, “but… he’ll make me stronger, right? That’s what I signed up for.”
“He will,” you assure him. “Trust me.”
He squints at you – if only you weren’t as small as him, he might be more convinced – but then he looks up at Kieran and nods. “Well, if you say so, I’m in.”
“Good.” Kieran returns the nod and recalls Impidimp. “Don’t disappoint me.”
Frustration fidgets with a “Hm?” in response to those words. You poke them irritably at their need to react to that at all. Don’t disappoint me. Of course you won’t. You can’t afford to.
“Poliwag. I was too hasty with your sister.” Kieran’s moved on to him. “Poliwrath looks strong at a glance, but Politoed’s ability has the real potential. You’re gonna be a Politoed, and you’re gonna be even stronger than her.”
“Uh… sure!” says Poliwag, not sounding sure at all. He glances at you, as if for reassurance, then back up at your trainer. “I… I wanna try getting stronger, too!”
“Alright.” Kieran recalls Poliwag as well. “Give it your all.”
He turns to you. “As for you… I looked up some stuff, and I’m pretty sure Dipplin can evolve again.”
Your antenna shoots straight up in surprise. Again? It’s still possible for you to grow into something else? Something bigger, and stronger, and more than just what you are right now…
“Haven’t figured out how yet,” Kieran admits, “but we’ll get there. And you’ll become stronger than you ever imagined you could.”
As you marvel over the possibility of it, Frustration’s dispirited muttering cuts through your thoughts. “…Because we can evolve. That’s the only reason we’re still here, and not—”
“Shut up!” you snap, slapping them with your tail. “We are here. That’s all that matters. And I’m going to keep it that way.”
(If you can evolve. Kieran didn’t sound certain.)
“I knew you’d be on board,” Kieran says, kneeling down to meet your eye. He pulls out a few small items, sticking one of them to the front of your apple. “This Eviolite’ll make you a little stronger until then. And I need you to sniff this mint, and eat this mochi. Trust me – they’ll help.”
You peer at the light blue sprig of leaves and the pale white lump he’s holding, then back up at him. The hair above his eyes is doing that inwards-slanty thing again.
“To get stronger, we need to change. Right, Dipplin? It’s time for a fresh start. For both of us.”
This was originally planned to be a one-shot, but as I am terrible at keeping things one-shot length, it's now a three-shot.
Content warnings: Nothing much beyond the kind of toxic behaviours you'd expect from a story about Kieran's arc.
-- part 1: teal --
You emerge from your Poké Ball in your usual spot by the open window, stretching out your eye-stalks to catch the last rays of the evening sun. A breeze blows through the opening, bringing with it the familiar scent of the apple orchard you used to call home, until you met Kieran.
Your human friend yawns and flops back onto his bed. “It sure feels weird to be home after bein’ at the Academy for so long,” he mumbles.
Kieran mentioned this trip wouldn’t be a long one – and you don’t expect to see much outside of his room while you’re here – but still, it’s nice to be back in Kitakami again.
The others are out of their balls too, Yanma buzzing excitedly around in the enclosed space, the Poliwag siblings squabbling on the floor, Sentret using his tail to hop up and join Kieran on the bed. They might get to have some battles here, against wild Pokémon if nothing else. But you’re just a weak little Applin, barely able to do anything but hide yourself away.
And yet despite that, Kieran chose you to be one of his friends.
All of a sudden, he sits back up, his eyes lighting up with that familiar twinkle. Human eyes are tricky to read with the way they barely move, but you’ve learned to spot this from him if nothing else. “But hey, guess what?! Me and Sis already met one of the trainers from Paldea, and man, she was somethin’ else! She swept the floor with Sis’s Pokémon without even breakin’ a sweat – like, wowzers! You don’t meet a trainer like that every day…”
He sighs and gazes out the window, just past where you’re perched. “Man, wouldn’t it be awesome if… if I got to battle her too, sometime durin’ this trip?” His face falls for a moment. “I-I mean… there’s no way I’d win… and, y’know, she probably wouldn’t even wanna waste her time on someone like me, but, still… Well, it sure would be cool, huh, Applin?”
You start, almost shrinking into your apple at suddenly being addressed. It’s not like he’d use you against this trainer – like he said, wouldn’t want to waste her time. But with that small smile on his face, the thing humans do to show their happiness, you can’t help but chitter out a “Y-Yeah!” of agreement nonetheless, even if he doesn’t understand your words.
It’s been getting rarer and rarer to see Kieran smile lately. If he wants this, if this makes him happy, that’s what counts.
You just wish there was something you could do to help him with that.
~~~
As you listen hopefully through your Poké Ball the next day, it sounds like Kieran gets his wish, far sooner than you’d imagined. He excitedly confirms this to you during lunch out in the fields, then packs up the picnic quicker than usual and gets back to what seems to be more battles. There’s a lot of those today, most of them against wild Pokémon. Perhaps the match against that trainer, Ju-something, helped Kieran remember how much he enjoys battling.
He won’t send you out for any of it, of course. But at least he got what he wanted, and it seems to have cheered him up a little. That’s enough for you. Satisfied, you imagine curling up inside your apple, the best you can do without a physical form, and lose yourself in the Poké Ball’s dreamlike haze.
The next thing you know, you’re barely done materialising into Kieran’s room before he breaks into an excited stream of chatter. “You guys! Oh, man, today was like the best day ever! We got to battle Juliana – twice! – an’ I even told her all about how much I like the ogre and took her to see its den, an’ she didn’t even get mad at me! And then – and then! – she said that we’re friends! I mean, wowzers! Friends with someone as cool as her! I can’t believe it!”
Blinking in the artificial light of the room, you scramble to keep up. The whole group’s here and some of them look different, but more importantly than any of that, Kieran is smiling, the biggest smile you’ve seen on him in… perhaps forever.
“Friend? You made a friend! A human friend!” Sentret – no, Furret – exclaims in delight, his new longer body twisting this way and that around Kieran’s legs.
A human friend…? Kieran’s never had one of those before, never even really talked about wanting one. But you’re pretty sure humans usually have friends among their own kind, and the smile on his face certainly tells you this is a good thing. His eyes are practically sparkling.
Overhead, Yanma’s zipping around even faster than usual. “You’re happy! You’re happy! I’ve never seen you so happy!”
Kieran glances at both of them and chuckles. “Then we went to the Festival of Masks together,” he goes on, “me an’ her an’ Sis, and it was a lotta fun! Well, mostly…” His beaming grin falters for a moment, and his next words come out mumbled. “Sis and Juliana were acting kinda weird near the end, like they were makin’ fun of me… I-It’s probably nothin’, though…”
Your tail twitches at that, but then Kieran shakes his head and puts his smile back in place, turning to face you. “A-Anyway, look, Applin! We got a little stronger, too – Sentret and Big Sis Poliwag evolved! Isn’t that awesome?”
Furret proudly stretches himself out to his full height, while beside him, the now-Poliwhirl flexes one of her new arms. “Knew we could do it if we tried,” she says.
Her little brother, still a Poliwag, peers up at her, his eyes shining.
“And Yanma’s been workin’ really hard as well,” Kieran adds as the bug Pokémon lands on his head. “Seeing Juliana made me really wanna try, y’know? So, um, at the festival…” He rummages through his bag and pulls something out to show you. “I finally went an’ did it! I bought a Syrupy Apple, so you can evolve too!”
Your eye-stalks stand straight up in amazement, staring at the glistening fruit before you. He’d mentioned this once or twice, a special apple from the festival that lets an Applin evolve, but you’d never thought – you never dreamed—
Kieran holds out his free hand towards your perch on the window ledge. “How about it, Applin? Do you wanna get stronger with me?”
You’ve never wanted anything more.
You roll onto his hand and fix him with a determined gaze. “Of course!”
“All right!” You don’t need to be able to read Kieran’s expression to know that he’s matching your determination. “You got this, Applin!”
With a burst of courage, you launch yourself out of the apple that’s the only home you’ve ever known, and burrow into the new one. A blinding surge of power overwhelms you, along with a spark of eager curiosity. You’ve never seen this ‘Dipplin’ for yourself – what kinds of changes might be in store for you? A different shape, like Furret? Or perhaps new limbs, like Poliwhirl?
As the rush of power fades, you take in the room, towering over you. You’ve shrunk? No, you’ve just dropped to the floor. You are bigger, but not by much – even Poliwag’s still taller than you. Other than a new antenna, your body hardly feels different. Your tail isn’t even long enough to poke out of this larger apple.
“Wowzers! Way to go, Dipplin!”
But none of that matters, because Kieran is thrilled, kneeling down to your level with a huge grin. Perhaps it’s that he can tell you’re stronger now, despite your size. You can feel it, too: the sweet, sticky goodness of your new apple filling you with power like you’ve never known.
And there’s something else new, something your tail keeps bumping up against, shifting within the core of this apple. No… someone else? Another wyrm, just like you. Where did they come from?
“Ah, hehe… you’re all sticky! Guess I won’t be pickin’ you up as much any more, huh?”
You barely noticed Kieran try to touch your apple, too preoccupied with probing at this new creature who’s inexplicably here with you. But you don’t want to let on to Kieran that anything’s wrong, so you hide your alarm and hiss at the newcomer, “Who are you?” For once, you’re glad Kieran can’t understand you.
“…Who are you?” the new wyrm responds.
“But man, I can’t wait to start trainin’ you tomorrow!” Kieran goes on, oblivious. “I bet you can learn all sorts of cool moves now! Maybe you can even go up against Juliana!”
“Juliana…” mutters the new wyrm. “Didn’t he say… she was making fun of him earlier?”
“Why would you bring that up?!” you splutter. “Besides, it’s fine! Kieran said it was nothing, so it’s nothing.” Who does this wyrm think they are, barging into your apple and being a downer in what ought to be the greatest moment of your life?
“Kieran’s happy,” you insist, keeping your gaze on that beaming smile on his face. “He’s happier than I’ve ever seen. That’s what counts.”
“I know,” the other wyrm says quietly. “I wish I could see him.”
It strikes you only now that, down there in the apple’s core, they can’t see a thing.
…Which is fine, because you’re the one who’s Kieran’s friend. More than that, he’s your trainer now. You’re strong enough to battle for him, at long last.
For the first time in your life, there’s something you can do to help keep him smiling.
~~~
When you see Kieran again the next day, his smile is gone.
At the foot of the hill that used to be home, you, Poliwhirl, Yanma and Furret peer up at your trainer as he stands there before you, his gaze on the ground. You’re scanning Kieran’s face to try and figure out what’s wrong, but all you can tell through that hair of his is that yesterday’s smile is nowhere to be seen. He’s chewing on one of the tips of his hands, his other arm tapping repeatedly against his side. The other team members mumble in confusion.
“I only hear three others,” mutters your core-wyrm. “Is Lil’ Bro Poliwag not getting trained?”
“It’s fine,” you mutter back.
“Um, l-listen up, everyone,” Kieran says, still staring at a spot on the ground rather than at any of you. “I’m… I’m gonna battle Juliana again today, and I wanna win this time. So I… I have to get stronger. I’m countin’ on you guys to give it your all.”
At last, his gaze shifts, meeting your eyes. “Dipplin, you got a lotta new moves to practice. I wanna see what you can really do now, alright?”
“Right!” you agree, more than ready to give it your all for him. You finally can.
He turns to the next in line. “Poliwhirl, I got you a Water Stone. I know it’s kinda soon after your last evolution, but the stronger you get, the better, y’know?”
Poliwhirl nods eagerly. “No complaints here.”
“Yanma, we gotta work on pickin’ up Ancient Power so you can evolve, too.” Yanma trills her agreement amidst a loop-the-loop. “And Furret…” Kieran hesitates. “Just… just keep doin’ your best, okay?”
Furret cocks one ear to the side. “Of course I will!”
“What was that?” pipes up your core-wyrm. “Why did he pause after Furret? He doesn’t think…?”
“Be quiet,” you hiss, poking them with your tail.
“Something’s wrong,” they insist. “He’s not happy today, is he? I can hear it. Was it that Ju-lee human? He did say she was ma—”
“Shut up!” you snap. They shouldn’t be going on about that. Not on the day you finally join Kieran’s Pokémon team for real. “And anyway, if he’s not happy, its our job to fix that.”
…You said ‘our’ without thinking, but you meant you and the rest of Kieran’s Pokémon. Not you and this interloper. You can’t imagine they’d be any help, when all they’ve done since they showed up is complain.
After watching Poliwhirl evolve – at which the core-wyrm frustratingly points out that Kieran sounds much less excited about an evolution than he did yesterday – you begin your training.
You’ve got real power now, so much greater than the pathetic little Astonish that was all you could muster before. Kieran guides you in practicing your new moves against wild Pokémon: flinging your syrup to damage and slow opponents, charging up orbs and pulses of grass and draconic energy. And… Double Hit, which needs the core-wyrm to strike with their tail for the second blow. As you stew on this fact, it becomes impossible not to notice that they’re contributing power to your other moves as well. It’s frustrating that you need the help of someone like them.
Then it’s time at last for your first real battle for Kieran, against that Juliana human. He said he wants to win this – and if you do your part in that for him, surely, it’ll put things right.
For all of Kieran’s talking her up, this trainer just looks like an ordinary young human, and her Pokémon, four little white mice fighting together as a single unit, doesn’t even seem that threatening. You’re a lot stronger than you used to be. You can do this.
“You got this, Dipplin! Get ‘em all covered in syrup!”
“Maushold, Play Rough!”
“Huh…?!” You try to ignore Kieran’s cry of dismay and focus on building up a sticky glob of syrup. The mice are already on top of you, the larger pair working in tandem to smack you and your apple with a whimsical energy that cuts to your core. Reeling from the unexpectedly harsh pain, you manage to cough the syrup over them, yet it hardly seems to faze them.
“Ack, I shoulda thought things through!” Kieran moans. “It… it wasn’t supposed to go like this… D-Dipplin, try to—”
Even drenched in sticky syrup, those mice are far too fast. Before Kieran can muster a command, before the core-wyrm can inch you away with their tail, the Maushold closes in again, and it’s too much for you to bear.
~~~
You come to sometime later in the haze of your Poké Ball. Though you’d quite like to have it all to yourself, unfortunately you can feel the core-wyrm’s presence in there with you.
“We lost,” they mutter.
Just great – you can hear their voice in here, too? And you thought they couldn’t get any more frustrating. “I’d noticed.”
“Kieran must have lost the whole battle,” they go on, ignoring your irritation. “If he’d won, he’d have told us by now. He really wanted to win… and yet…”
And yet you failed him. Another thing you didn’t need them pointing out for you. Your first chance to actually make a difference for your trainer, and you were still no good at all.
You shift your attention to the outside world, trying to pick up on whatever might be going on out there. There’s nothing but silence for a long while, but you keep listening intently anyway. Anything to avoid having to put up with the core-wyrm’s blather.
Then, out of nowhere, there’s the distant sound of an angry grunt, followed by a series of smaller, choked noises that claw at your heart. You know what this is; you’ve heard it far too many times before. But today of all days…
“He’s crying,” says the core-wyrm, as if you somehow hadn’t noticed. The last thing you need is them going on about this, too. “He sounds really upset… worse than usual…”
“And what of it?” You wince internally at sounding so dismissive of Kieran’s pain, but you just want them to stop talking.
“Something must have happened,” they go on. “He was so happy yesterday. He can’t have gone from that to this out of nowhere. It has to be because of that Julee human – that’s why he wanted to beat her today. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Does it?” you counter, still trying to get them to shut up. “She’s his friend. Friends have battles all the time, don’t they? She’s the reason he was so happy before!”
“Exactly. If something happened to make him think she wasn’t his friend… He worried that she was making fun of him, remember?”
With how they’d kept bringing it up, you could hardly forget. “But he said that she called him a friend,” you insist. “He said so. Are you doubting him? Do you think he was—”
“No!” they say. “Of course not. But…” They pause. “…Maybe he doubted her?”
Indignation squirms within you, and you wish you had your physical form so you could smack them with your tail, hard. It’s not even that they’ve got the audacity to blame Kieran’s first ever human friend – they think this is somehow Kieran’s fault?
“Maybe you’re the problem,” you snap out. “Think about it: it only got bad once you appeared and started complaining about every little thing. I bet things would be going way better if you weren’t here.”
They take a moment to respond. “If I weren’t here, you wouldn’t be strong enough to battle for Kieran.”
That stings worse than that Maushold’s attacks.
“What is with you?!” you exclaim. “You’ve been nothing but a huge frustration ever since you showed up! You know, since you’re gonna have to stick around, I might as well call you something, and that sounds about right for you: Frustration.”
Even in this formless world, you can sense them flinch at that.
“I’m… I’m not…” they mumble, their voice trailing off, as if they can’t deny it.
There’s a minute or so of sweet, victorious silence. But then they speak up again, quiet and thoughtful. “Candour. That’s my name. That’s who I am.”
Candour…? Like all they’re doing is telling the truth? And they even have to make it sound all high and mighty of them, as if any of that helps even a little bit.
“No, you’re Frustration, alright,” you insist. “And I’m Loyalty. I’m the one who’s doing everything I can for Kieran. I’ll always be on his side. Unlike somebody.”
“You’re…? That’s…” They hesitate, and you can almost feel them sigh and curl in on themself in defeat. “…If you say so.”
Outside, you can no longer hear Kieran crying.
~~~
“I can’t hear Furret. He’s not here today, is he?”
The next day begins much like the previous one, with Kieran urging you into even more training. The only real difference would have been that he didn’t mention wanting to battle Juliana this time… only Frustration just had to comment on the other thing, too.
But none of their quibbles matter, not when you’ve got to give your all for Kieran. Whatever the problem actually is, it’s up to you as his Pokémon to put things right. If he wants you to train and get stronger, that’s what you’ll do.
In amongst all the battling practice, you help Kieran add a Cramorant and a Gligar to his team. The lunch break, even aside from Frustration insisting you confirm that Furret and Lil’ Bro Poliwag aren’t around, feels odd with the two newcomers in the group – but they’re here on the promise that Kieran would make them stronger. If they’ll use that strength to win for him in turn, you’ve got no reason to complain.
Yanma’s finally evolved, too, an encouraging sign that all this training is bearing fruit, even if it’s harder to notice that in yourself. You are getting stronger from this. You even manage to help Kieran win some battles against other trainers around Kitakami.
As for that special trainer, the one who called Kieran a friend… you don’t see her again that day. But the next morning, as you’re waiting for Kieran to begin training, you hear him say her name out of nowhere. It sounds like he’s talking to both her and his sister, something about the story of the ogre, his voice fervent and angry.
You know all about the ogre, of course. Kieran’s told you of it countless times: the strong, cool legendary Pokémon he’s always dreamed of meeting, perhaps even one day befriending.
“And you two did the same thing to me! You treated me like an outcast when you went an’ met with the ogre!”
They did…?! His sister and the other human just went and met the ogre… without bringing him? Didn’t they realise—
“You know how much I love the ogre! You acted like you didn’t know anything, but you were laughing at me behind my back all along!”
This is why. This is why. It was never Kieran’s fault; of course it wasn’t. It’s all because of this other human, this Juliana.
“Liar! You're a liar!”
Yes. She lied to him. She must have been lying when she called him a friend, if she’d turn around and treat him this way. No true friend would do something like this.
You feel Frustration stir within the ball, but they remain satisfyingly silent. Even they can’t deny, hearing this, that it isn’t Kieran’s fault.
Kieran’s demanding a battle with Juliana, which is exactly what you want, too. You squirm with frenzied impatience as you wait your turn, itching with the desire to fight on his behalf and show that human who’d dare treat your friend, your trainer, like this.
As you’re sent out, you’re so furious that you’re even ready to take on the huge black bull pawing at the ground before you, no matter how fierce it looks. But just as you’re about to ruin its blue-flecked mane with a good glob of syrup, it vanishes back into its ball, replaced by a new foe that towers even higher over you.
The Baxcalibur – a fellow dragon, you can tell – stands steadfast against the blast of your Syrup Bomb like it’s nothing. You suppress a shiver just looking up at the creature. This is true draconic power, mighty and indomitable, and you’re just—
“Icicle Crash!”
“O-Okay, Dipplin, use Dragon Pulse!” comes Kieran’s command.
—But you’re angry, and determined, determined to do everything you can for your trainer, so you reach into your apple for your own well of draconic energy. Yet, even covered in syrup, the huge hulking Baxcalibur manages to move before you (why are you still so slow?), summoning great pointed crystals above your head. They crash down with piercing, agonising cold, and just like that, your anger is smothered into icy oblivion.
~~~
Not long after that loss, you hear more commotion outside the Poké Ball than usual. It sounds like Kieran’s sister and Juliana are actually letting him meet the ogre – Ogerpon, she’s called. That’s good, surely? You don’t know if this makes up for how they treated him before, but it has to mean something. This is a dream come true for Kieran. He should be happy.
(You want to tell yourself that your part in the last battle helped somehow with this turn of events. But you don’t need to voice the notion to know that Frustration would shoot it down in a heartbeat.)
At least there’s still more training. More chances for you to grow stronger and prove yourself, and finally actually make a difference for Kieran. Somehow.
“He’s met the ogre, like he always wanted,” you muse out loud during a Poké Ball break, weary from the exertion of training but still buzzing with an itch for more. “He even got to help her out a bit. He’s okay now, right? Everything should be fixed.”
It should. But if that’s the case, then…
“I’m not so sure,” Frustration pipes up, even though you weren’t talking to them. “I’m glad he got to meet her too, but… he’s still training too hard.”
“How is that a problem!?” you shoot back. “What’s wrong with training to get stronger?”
“Nothing, necessarily,” they admit. “But it doesn’t feel right. The way he talks and commands us – it sounds the same as before. Like nothing’s changed.” They pause. “…He’s still not smiling, is he?”
You’re struck silent. You want to deny it – you’re the only one who should know that for sure – but they’d just see right through your lie. They’re so frustrating like that.
“And if things were normal,” they go on, before you can find something else to say, “why isn’t Furret on the team any more? For Kieran to push one of his friends away like that… it’s not right. And he’s stopped hanging out with us in the evenings, outside of training. Nothing’s been fixed.”
Of course they have to keep harping on about Furret. “Well, Cramorant’s not here any more either,” you counter. “So it’s not about his friends. It’s just that… Furret and Cramorant weren’t strong enough.” Yes. That’s got to be it. “Kieran wants to get stronger, so he needs his team to be the best it can be. That’s all.”
Of course he does. That’s why he’s still catching new Pokémon, evolving them, strengthening his team.
(And what about you? You haven’t exactly been winning him battles since you evolved. Not the ones that matter, anyway.)
…But that’s what your training is for. Even if you can’t evolve again, you can still grow stronger, strong enough to make Kieran happy. You’re not like Furret, or Cramorant. You’ll never stop giving your all for him, your trainer, the one person in the world who saw something in you when you were nothing but a weak little Applin.
He can’t have been wrong to choose you. He can’t have been.
Frustration hasn’t tried to argue your words. Which means, knowing them… that they know you’re not wrong.
You throw yourself back into the training, but in between all the move practice and the battling, you feel as if you’re stewing in… something. You can’t call it ‘frustration’, because for once it doesn’t even have that much to do with them.
Then there’s a new development. Outside the Poké Ball, as you hear the humans saying goodbye to Ogerpon, it turns out Ogerpon wants to stay with Juliana. And Kieran speaks up, his voice fervent.
“…I… I wanna… I want Ogerpon to come with me!”
Of course. Why didn’t you realise it sooner? Just meeting the ogre was never Kieran’s only dream – even more than that, he’s always wished to befriend it. In other words, to add her to his Pokémon team. That’s what he really wanted. That’s why he still wasn’t satisfied.
“…Juliana! Please! Let me battle you! I want to see which one of us should get to keep Ogerpon with them!”
And that’s why he kept on training. If he can win this battle, prove his strength to Ogerpon, just like you helped him prove his strength to the other new Pokémon who’ve been joining his team… then he’ll have his wish.
This is it, finally: the opportunity you’ve been hoping for, to really make a difference for him.
“Whoever wins this gets to be Ogerpon’s partner… So don’t… don’t you dare hold back!”
You won’t. You never would have anyway, but especially not when this battle decides something so important. If Kieran wins and becomes Ogerpon’s partner, like he’s always dreamed of, he’ll be happy again. Everything will be fixed. And you’ll be the one to give him that.
“You heard him,” you mutter in a low voice to Frustration. They better not think about holding back either, ruining this chance for things to finally go right.
“…I won’t.”
As your turn comes to battle, you size up your opponent: that Maushold. The source of your first defeat – but you refuse to be intimidated. Even as all four mice smack into you over and over with frustratingly skilled teamwork, you duck inside your apple and weather the attack, building up draconic energy. Your Dragon Pulse strikes true, blasting your foe into unconsciousness, just as Kieran trusted it would.
A victory! At last.
There’s no time for praise or celebration, not when the battle isn’t over. The next Pokémon emerges with a huge flash of light and an uncomfortably familiar roar, and you shiver as you find yourself staring up at that Baxcalibur again. Already battered, with Frustration nibbling futilely on the small apple core Kieran gave you, you can feel your heart sinking.
But you won’t give in. Kieran needs you to win this, needs you to finally put things right, somehow. At his command, you face down the fiercer, stronger dragon, no matter the odds, and build the biggest Dragon Pulse you can muster. Even knowing that it’s hopeless, that it’ll never land in time (you’re far too slow), you’ll never stop giving it everything you have, for your trainer, for Kier—
—Until the ice crashes down upon you, rendering all your efforts a useless failure yet again.
~~~
The next time you emerge from the Poké Ball, everything is different. You’re back in Kieran’s other room at the Blueberry place – but more than that, Kieran is different.
The way he stands and holds himself is taller, straighter. The clothes he’s living in have shifted, and the hair on his head that used to hang down is pulled up out of the way. You can make out his face a lot better like this. It’s even easier to see that he’s not smiling.
“Huh…?” mumbles Lil’ Bro Poliwag, who’s standing here beside you, peering up at him. “You look odd… W-Where’s everyone else…?”
“What’s with you guys?” comes the voice of the only other Pokémon in the room, an Impidimp. “You’re all as small as me! I know he had someone bigger when he caught me!”
On hearing this, Frustration pipes up. “They’re all gone, except us…? Even Poliwrath and Yan—”
“Listen up,” says Kieran, his sharp tone cutting through the chatter. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to defeat Juliana, one day. And to do that, I need to get much, much stronger. She’s not here right now, so there’s plenty of time. However long it takes.”
“That’s strange,” Frustration comments. “He… sounds different. It’s still him, I can tell, but his voice… How is he doing that?”
“What does it matter what his voice sounds like?” you hiss back.
You were afraid that Kieran would be upset about your failure with the ogre, but… somehow it feels like that’s already long in the past.
“We’ll start with the BB League,” he continues. “The trainers there are no pushovers. They’ll be good training. Once we reach the top, we’ll be closer to Juliana’s level. Then… we keep climbing.”
You’re only now noticing that Kieran has extra stripes of hair above each eye, both of which are slanting downwards in the middle. You’re not sure what this means, but it doesn’t seem like a good thing. If nothing else, that sparkle that you could always recognise in his eyes, especially when he used to talk about battling – it’s nowhere to be seen.
“So I don’t need anyone on my team who isn’t going to give it everything they have,” Kieran finishes, staring down at the three of you. “Got it?”
Impidimp glances between you and Poliwag. “I don’t really get any of this,” he says, “but… he’ll make me stronger, right? That’s what I signed up for.”
“He will,” you assure him. “Trust me.”
He squints at you – if only you weren’t as small as him, he might be more convinced – but then he looks up at Kieran and nods. “Well, if you say so, I’m in.”
“Good.” Kieran returns the nod and recalls Impidimp. “Don’t disappoint me.”
Frustration fidgets with a “Hm?” in response to those words. You poke them irritably at their need to react to that at all. Don’t disappoint me. Of course you won’t. You can’t afford to.
“Poliwag. I was too hasty with your sister.” Kieran’s moved on to him. “Poliwrath looks strong at a glance, but Politoed’s ability has the real potential. You’re gonna be a Politoed, and you’re gonna be even stronger than her.”
“Uh… sure!” says Poliwag, not sounding sure at all. He glances at you, as if for reassurance, then back up at your trainer. “I… I wanna try getting stronger, too!”
“Alright.” Kieran recalls Poliwag as well. “Give it your all.”
He turns to you. “As for you… I looked up some stuff, and I’m pretty sure Dipplin can evolve again.”
Your antenna shoots straight up in surprise. Again? It’s still possible for you to grow into something else? Something bigger, and stronger, and more than just what you are right now…
“Haven’t figured out how yet,” Kieran admits, “but we’ll get there. And you’ll become stronger than you ever imagined you could.”
As you marvel over the possibility of it, Frustration’s dispirited muttering cuts through your thoughts. “…Because we can evolve. That’s the only reason we’re still here, and not—”
“Shut up!” you snap, slapping them with your tail. “We are here. That’s all that matters. And I’m going to keep it that way.”
(If you can evolve. Kieran didn’t sound certain.)
“I knew you’d be on board,” Kieran says, kneeling down to meet your eye. He pulls out a few small items, sticking one of them to the front of your apple. “This Eviolite’ll make you a little stronger until then. And I need you to sniff this mint, and eat this mochi. Trust me – they’ll help.”
You peer at the light blue sprig of leaves and the pale white lump he’s holding, then back up at him. The hair above his eyes is doing that inwards-slanty thing again.
“To get stronger, we need to change. Right, Dipplin? It’s time for a fresh start. For both of us.”
~~~
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Of course he puts it like that. Man.