Hard Enough-Chapter 241: Stolen shinies

“My story begins with my birth, or rather, the question of my birth,” Kaede began. “I was born to a young woman within the town of Eggseter,” she said, looking down at Furret, who was curled into her lap like a ring pillow.

He churred softly in his sleep and nuzzled at her hand, but otherwise remained still. “Eggseter is only a small community, it is known for its Extreme Pokemon Race to the world at large more than anything else, and even then, it is honestly a minor event.”

She smiled despite this. “I… well, it doesn’t matter. I grew up in the Pokemon Daycare that was the other minor attraction. It was my mother’s role to look after people’s pokemon eggs, and when they hatched, she would raise the baby pokemon. Some eggs, depending on the species, can take quite a while to raise.”

“When I was a young girl, a man in a cowl appeared at my mother’s home. She wouldn’t let him in, even when he demanded to be allowed entry. Thankfully, my mother had a rather strong Mr Mime at the time. The man, despite his bluster, couldn’t force his way in, even when he tried to unleash a Gyarados upon mother.”

Kaede swallowed. “The Gyarados proves little of who my father was, but it was one of the first clues as to who he was, or rather, to what family he belonged to,” she said, threading her hands gently through Furret’s coat.

“The man, who I suspect was my father, but again, I have no proof, left, but not before leaving an egg for my mother to look after, claiming it should be mine, and that when the time came I would ‘show true’.”

“With the man’s rapid departure mother had no choice but to look after the egg, it was abhorrent to her to leave an egg unattended, and to break it was something she wouldn’t have considered…”

Kaede’s hands flexed. “I somewhat wish she had,” she whispered.

“The egg took a long time to hatch, much longer than any egg we’d had before, and my mother grew more and more concerned. She reached out to other Daycares to check that there was nothing wrong and get second opinions, but the few that made the journey at my mother’s request took one look at the egg and told her to get rid of it,” Kaede said.

“As you might guess, it was a dragon’s egg. We’re not sure what type, but the only known dragon type that anyone had actual control over was the Dratini line… and the Dratini line was controlled by the Blackthorns.”

Kaede swallowed. “This information must have made its way to the Blackthorn clan.”

There was an ominous pause where I leaned forward. “For long months, nothing happened,” Kaede said, causing me to lean back.

Kaede swallowed, steeling herself. “Then the egg wobbled. Just once. My mother was so relieved that day. We’d worried that the egg was defective or empty for so long, that mother had considered letting it go, something she never did without another’s review of her egg.”

Kaede smiled whimsically as she recalled something, “To her, eggs were simple precious little lives just waiting to explore the world.” She took a moment to think about that as she stroked Furret’s fur.

“News must have spread once more that the egg was viable. That it was wobbling, and whatever pokemon was within would soon hatch.”

Kaede stared at the wall and I wondered for a moment if it wouldn’t be kinder to stop her. To let her know I had an idea of what would happen next. That she didn’t need to say it.

Before the League got fully established, and even still to this day, many people would do almost anything to protect their advantage with pokemon.

I was no different with Bertha’s method of evolving from Rhydon to Rhyperior, something that I only handed down to Missy so far. I wasn’t openly sharing it. I… wouldn’t do anything if it was shared wider, to be honest, but I wasn’t going out of my way to let others know. It offered too much of an advantage for me to keep it close to my chest.

For a clan like the Blackthorn’s having their pokemon potentially released outside of the clan? Well, after the war, they’d be twice as touchy I could only imagine.

After all, hadn’t Samuel Oak demonstrated that it was a terrible idea to let Dratini slip through your fingers?

Samuel Oak, to the people who knew him as the First Champion, and not Professor Oak, was synonymous with Dragonite.

The Elders would have been enraged by this, despite my suspicions over where Samuel actually found his Dratini.

People thought of Lance’s Dragonite as the strongest, but I would bet my money on Oak in a heartbeat if that fight ever occurred.

I considered Kaede carefully.

She was brittle from our fight, and no doubt lacked a lot of energy. Still, I knew enough about grief to know that sometimes the best thing that could happen was to talk about it. Don’t ignore it. Don’t say that you understand when you have no clue of the depths of someone's pain.

What does a child with a parent or a family to care for them know of an orphan’s pain?

And so I asked the time-worn question to continue the story. “What happened next?” I said.

Kaede smiled sadly. “I returned home from school,” she said slowly, and I knew she was building herself up, like a rock that was starting to tip off the lip of a hill, she was looking to get moving so that momentum would carry her through before she could stop herself.

“I went to school… and I returned to find my home razed to the ground. Mother gone, likely in the fire that consumed my home, no doubt trying to save the eggs and baby pokemon. I know because there was a cluster of eggs found down a slope that aligned with the nursery. The baby pokemon were wandering the hills, unsure and terrified, with more than a few burns about their bodies.”

“My mother was a hero,” Kaede said firmly, and there could be no doubt that she believed this with the same certainty that people had that the sun would rise tomorrow and that the sky would not fall on our heads.

“What was her name?” I said, deciding to soften the pain with some empathy.

“Vanessa…” Kaede said softly, breathing her name out like it was a delicate smoke that might be defused in the wind if spoken too forcibly.

I smiled. “She sounds like a wonderful woman,” I said kindly.

Kaede looked at me, for the first time since she began telling her story. There was a dampness in her eyes, and fatigue, but there was also a gratefulness that I’d acknowledged her.

“Thank you,” Kaede said.

We stayed silent for a while, the sounds of the hospital wing washing over us, but we remained in our little space, letting the moment last.

Then Kaede sighed and looked back down at Furret. “Within an hour of the fire, an investigator ‘from the League’ had arrived and performed a review,” she said with a sneer.

I felt my heart plummet as my mind filled in the gaps.

“They claimed that she had been negligent. Instead of my mother receiving honours, she instead had her name smeared through the mud. The egg that had caused the entire affair was lost, along with many other prize eggs that my mother had been holding for the rich and powerful.”

That certainly added another angle.

Murder, defamation, and theft.

They didn’t do things by halves, did they?

“A list of what eggs were there and what was being hatched should have been—” Sabrina began to say, only for Kaede to shake her head forlornly.

“The list was written down with precise details being something only my mother knew. The other employees were only required to handle certain clusters of eggs, no one knew how many and to whom the eggs were meant to go to,” Kaede said., her eyes flicking between me and Sabrina. Huh, hadn’t she noticed Sabrina being with me?

“This resulted in some difficulty with my inheritance. By rights I should have been granted the Daycare, it would have been a burnt-out shell, but it still had a reputable name. Well, before the fire it did,” she said, adjusting her tack.

I licked my lips. “The business wasn’t held in a trust, but rather in her name directly, and therefore it should have passed to you,” I said knowingly.

Kaede glanced at me. “Yes… isn’t that how—”

I shook my head. “No, I had a very, very serious talk with my lawyer when I took over the gym about the business side of things, along with the best way to mitigate certain risks for myself and my family. It was determined that a trust would work best, with me working as a beneficiary and there being other parties. In the event that I need to pass things along it is much simpler and actually doesn’t require any inheritance of the ‘business’ as I understand it,” I said.

Sabrina coughed. “Brock got that… mostly correct, even if he grossly oversimplified the exact mechanisms of that trust’s work with relation to inheritance cases,” she said. “The important part however is that this was not the case for you and your mother? I assume the League intervened?”

Kaede nodded “Yes, I believe that it was a simple enough procedure for them to have the deed reallocated or lost, but I was never granted my mother’s land. Instead, I was deported to Blackthorn City, where I was raised in the orphanage,” she said.

“Oh,” I said. “Is… does it have a good orphanage?” I asked carefully, with the air of a man testing the ice he was about to walk over.

Kaede sighed. “It was adequate, I suppose. I never wanted for much, but my prospects were completely down the drain. I had to start from nothing. I was handed a pokeball when I announced that I wanted to be a Pokemon Trainer and sent off into the wild.”

I grimaced. That was an extremely outdated method of ‘sending youths out to prove themselves, which had been shown to have a very high fatality rate as kids got in over their heads. Starting in Blackthorn also meant that things would be rougher for Kaede, with the naturally colder climate.

I frowned as a thought occurred to me. “You went to get something from the Ice Path, didn’t you?” I said, a suspicion forming in my mind.

Kaede flicked her eyes to Sabrina before going back to me. “I’d almost think you were the one that was psychic, with how you seem to know my history,” she said.

“He is quite the opposite,” Sabrina said without inflection.

Kaede’s brow furrowed but she didn’t say anything, instead turning back to me and nodding. “Well, regardless, a younger Kaede marched out of Blackthorn, hoping to demand answers. On the way… I encountered several pokemon that attacked me on sight. I was chased over the snowfields and caves by Sneasel, and I thought I was being clever, leading them to a secluded area where I could attempt to capture them. Only for it to be revealed that the Sneasel were working as a pack, and not as individual pokemon.”

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“When things looked dire… I was saved by a noble Sentret.” Kaede returned to stroking Furret’s fur and I took a longer moment to inspect his paws, where there were several small scars. Hmmm, interesting.

“I was extremely thankful to the little pokemon, but Sentret was horribly injured. I captured him then told him I’d get him to safety. I raced back to Blackthorn, only to almost be denied access, due to the Blackthorn Clan needing the facilities that day.”

Kaede stared forward, unseeing. “I saw some of the daycare’s stolen pokemon that day, in the hands of men and women belonging to the Blackthorn Clan,” she said.

“I remember watching them parade their pokemon into the pokemon centre, while I stood there with a dying Sentret in my pokeball.”

“For that, and my mother, I think I can never forgive the Blackthorns. That day… I vowed to see their best and brightest crushed. Their dreams wither on the vine. If I could have my way, I would become Champion and launch corruption probes into their clan. People like to say they are too well established, but I think they are a rot in our society that we allow to endure.”

I pursed my lips. “What pokemon were there that stood out to you as stolen?” I asked.

“A Growlithe, a Horsea, and a Phanpy were led around in front of me,” said Kaede. “ I have since discovered others within the Blackthorn Clan,” she said.

I frowned. Those weren’t out and out ‘rare’ pokemon. That shouldn’t have been… “Was there something special about these pokemon?” I asked slowly. “What other pokemon were there?”

“They were albinos or ‘shinies’ of their species for all of them, so there being more than two? In a closed off group? It should be damning, but no one is willing to hear me out,” said Kaede.

“Huh,” I said. “They have rather distinct colouration, don’t they?” I said, musing on how they would be different.

Kaede nodded. “The most damning is of course the Charmander, or should I say, Charizard these days,” she said.

I paused. “A shiny Charmander?” I said slowly.

Kaede nodded.

I stared at her for a long time. “Bruce owns it, doesn’t he?” I said.

Kaede nodded slowly. “I’m honestly amazed that none of the shinies are within Lance’s team, but perhaps they realised it would be too on the nose.”

“I don’t think Lance would have taken part in this if he knew,” I said. “He’s brash and proud, but he’s not… evil or greedy like this,” I said, supporting Lance.

“Dragons are known for their pride and covetous behaviours,” Kaede replied. “Lance is not visibly linked, but his clan definitely is,” she said.

I hummed. “How did the League not intervene? The pokemon trainer ID number should have marked the pokemon—” Sabrina started to say, only for Kaede to shake her head.

“Breeders and daycares that rear pokemon can’t imprint numbers on pokemon. There was a famous case early in the creation of daycares where a worker ‘caught’ several rare pokemon that had been left in their care. Since then, it is up to the daycare to hold the pokemon and for the trainers to return and set their ID on the pokemon.”

I frowned. “That sounds like it creates opportunities for this situation, doesn’t it?”

Sabrina sighed. “It is sometimes harder to change or remove a law than it is to add one,” she said. “This is a topic that I have seen discussed on the news occasionally, but nothing ever eventuates of it. It is not a ‘hot button topic’ for politicians, so it gets pushed to the side in favour of other topics.”

I stared. That… made all too much sense.

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. “Your father is a Blackthorn clansman, isn’t he?” I said to Kaede. “We could have him testify, couldn’t we? Do you have any idea who—”

“He’s dead,” said Kaede. “A week or two after the fire, Jotaro Blackthorn was tragically patrolling the northern ranges before falling prey to the wild tribes that sometimes inhabit those locations.”

“It fed wonderfully into Lance’s rise, he avenged the fall of a clansman while striking down a tribe that most likely were nothing more than patsies,” Kaede said bitterly.

“Damn, that’s a lot of conjecture,” I said carefully.

“Don’t defend him!” snapped Kaede. She glared at me, her hair whipping out as she whirled about on me.

Sabrina shifted and Kaede faltered. I glanced at Sabrina, but whatever expression Kaede had seen was gone.

I looked back to Kaede. “I’m not, I’m playing… Darkrai’s Advocate,” I said slowly. “We can’t just jump to such conclusions. As you said, Lance might not have been involved at all. He might have been a dupe to his clan’s actions, or specific people within his clan. He certainly hasn’t visibly profited from the raid on the daycare.”

I mulled over what had been said. “I… I’m sure there might be some interested parties that would listen, chief among them Lance himself. He is all for rooting out corruption, he’s very earnest like that,” I said.

Sabrina coughed. “Gym Leader Pryce might also be extremely interested in your story, Kaede,” she said.

I blinked. “Pryce?” I asked.

Sabrina nodded. “The daycare was in Eggseter, yes? That was a town that was under his purview - learning that the Blackthorns had been stealing from him and playing around in his domain will have him investigating,” Sabrina said.

Kaede blinked. “I… had never considered him. When I was young, he was still Champion, and I wondered…”

“If he’d looked the other way?” suggested Sabrina. “It is more likely that he was so busy that the destruction of the daycare was lost in paperwork. As you said, if the Blackthorns had the right people in the administration, they would have been able to shunt or ‘lose’ the reports.”

Kaede blinked. “That’s…” she trailed off.

Sabrina smiled kindly. “You don’t have to do this alone,” she said. My girlfriend shot me a look. “If no-one else, Brock and I will support you. I can tell you’re telling the truth, and Brock, well, he probably has the best idea of your character, having been pushed so far by you,” she said.

“Heh, reading each other’s character through the clash of our blades?” said Kaede, referencing the old proverb about samurai reading each other’s intentions through the clash of their blades. “Furret would love that,” she said.

Kaede looked at me and considered me. “I… can’t fault that logic. Having gone hammer and tongs at you like I did, I think… Well I certainly think I have a small grasp on who you are, Brock.”

I allowed myself a smile. “Oh? And what’s your read of me?” I said.

“You’re a bit slow,” Kaede replied, without missing a beat.

I blinked.

That… hadn’t been what I’d thought she’d said.

Kaede smirked, aware of the impact her words had on me. “You’re like a towering juggernaut, you don’t move quickly, but when you do, you have all the weight behind you. You can crush your opponents when you need to, but you are also careful, precise with your steps and planning, so that you don’t end up crushing innocents. You stand so tall that you can cast a large shadow that hides surprises until the last moment, though that is where some of your tricks come into play, I suppose.”

Kaede smirked. “That would be the impression I had of you, if you wanted my ‘read’” she said.

I blinked. “Huh, That’s… not a bad read,” I said. I considered her for a moment. “You ever feel like you’re linked with your pokemon?” I asked.

“Some of them, Furret and Gardevoir, but lately Blissey as well, why do you ask?” she said.

I waved her question away. “No reason, no reason. I’d suggest you keep working with that feeling, though.”

Kaede narrowed her eyes. “Hmmm, shadows indeed,” she said, to which I just smiled a bit wider.

“Trust me, I’ll be talking to some people about you,” I said, thinking about Pryce and perhaps even Agatha. I doubted Agatha would accept someone from outside Kanto as a member of the Guardians, but Kaede had serious potential that shouldn’t be left alone.

Nothing stopping me from cultivating it, if need be.

“You are a frustrating man to have as my rival,” Kaede said.

I blinked. “Rival?” I said.

Kaede giggled coyly. “You might have won this round, but I’m not going to leave it like this. I was close to winning.”

“Only thanks to your absurd luck with some of your moves,” I said, pointing out how she’d gotten lucky with Protect. “And some of your tactics won’t work a second time, now that I know to be wise for them,” I said.

Kaede’s smile faltered for a second, only for her to sniff. “I have other tricks,” she said.

“I don’t doubt that for a second,” I replied with a pleased smile. I rubbed at my chest, feeling an odd stirring that reminded me of older times when I’d been on my Journey. I thought I had left behind the idea of getting rivals with the end of my Journey.

Having Kaede ‘announce’ herself like this was rather refreshing.

Kaede continued to smile. “Expect my agent to be in touch, I think Samurai Furret needs a new villain, and a Tyranitar would fit the bill.”

Before I could think it through my mouth said, “make sure he has a Rhyperior right hand woman with an organisation of Geodude and a variant Golem.”

Kaede blinked at me and I took the moment for my brain to catch up with what I’d said. “Heh, sorry! Forget about that,” I said, waving a hand.

“No, that… is actually an amazing idea,” Kaede said, reaching into a satchel and pulling out a notepad. “A new villian/mountain for Samurai Furret emerges that he must scale, only for his newest threat to reveal itself gradually!”

Kaede started furiously writing. “It writes itself!”

I bit my lip as next to me, Sabrina shook with silent giggles at the predicament I might have gotten myself into.

Bertha and Sanchez would be annoyed to be cast as villains, and Titan might pretend to not care, but he’d prefer to be the good guy, I knew.

I opened my mouth to tell Kaede to stop, only for Sabrina to put her hand on mine. “Suzie would never forgive you if you didn’t go ahead with this,” she pointed out all too reasonably.

I grimaced. “Ah.” She was right.

I chewed my lip. Shit, I needed to salvage this somehow, otherwise I was going to be the one stuck in between a mountain and a hard place.

Hmmmm. “What about going long term? Have them as villains initially, only for another threat to emerge and for them to need to come together to defend their lands and loved ones? Have them go from villains to allies?” I said.

Kaede’s pen sped up, if anything. “Yes! Yes!” she said her normal state of being a calm and collected beauty vanishing the more she wrote. “They will need an enemy worthy of them, however! Oh! Farfetch’d could decide to go off the deep end! He could rally some dragon pokemon, only to end up flambeed a few times!”

I chuckled at her enthusiasm before tilting my head. “Ah damn, I need to get back to start prepping for Bruce,” I said.

Kaede’s pen stopped. “Start prepping?”

I paused, realising I might have let slip more than I intended to. “Uhmmm, yeah? I have to fight him, most likely?” I said as I brought up my Xtransciever to do a search, only to find that Carr and I were right.

Bruce had advanced and now we would face off in the semifinal.

“Hmmm, hopefully I can tweak the methods I used against Lance,” I said as I made to stand.

Kaede’s hand launched out and grabbed me by the wrist. “Brock, how much research have you done against your opponents in the past for the Ace Tournaments?” Her grip was a bit stronger than I was expecting, but still something I could shrug off.

“Oh I do a fairly deep dive into them,” I said easily.

“He typically researches them the day, or night before with his group,” said Sabrina.

I shot her a look. “Hey, that’s beside the point!” I said. “I get tons of information!” I pointed out.

Sabrina nodded at this. “He’s not wrong, he might leave it to the last moment, but his research into pokemon compositions and tricks is top notch. It helps that he has a great understanding of pokemon strengths, weaknesses, and a general idea of most pokemon’s move pools,” she said with a smile.

“That’s still not good enough!” snapped Kaede, waving away Sabrina’s compliments for me.

Kaede chewed her lip. “I’m going to help you! If I can’t beat Bruce myself, there is no way I’m going to let him beat you because you didn’t do the right sort of research!”

I gave her a dubious look which had her clapping her hands together and bowing her head. “Please! I might be your rival now and going forward, but Bruce? That asshole needs to be shot down! Heck, you’d be doing me a favour, as a loss will mean I can take the fight to him during the normal season after the Golden Week Tournament is done!”

I hummed in consideration. “Well, I can’t doubt your motivations, and I suppose you would have the best idea of what he’s capable of, so why not? Welcome aboard!” I said jauntily.

“Nurse! I would like to discharged!” she called out, snapping upright, making to tear the IV line out of her arm, only for a nurse to appear and stop her with a gentle but very firm smile.

“Don’t,” said the woman firmly and Kaede calmed down, her manic energy leaving her in the face of the nurse’s professional behaviour.

The nurse then did a round of observations and had the doctor swing past to give them a glance. He nodded happily at us. “You’re in the normal range now Kaede, take it easy for tomorrow and you should be better than ever,” said the doctor.

Kaede nodded along before turning to me with a fire in her eyes. “Alright! Let’s go!” she said.

Sabrina led us to the front foyer where it was clear to Teleport in and out of. She put her hand on Kaede’s and my own, and we vanished from the hospital in a flash of light.

We reappeared in the entryway of the apartment I was renting for Golden Week, only to find a welcoming party.

Suzie was at the front, with Yolanda behind her, Tommy, Timmy, and Billy were all there, as was Salvadore’s friend Olga. Bringing up the rear was a far too pleased with herself Bertha. She was holding little ‘go Kaede’ flags in her massive hands and a shit eating grin on her face as she waved her fingers at me.

“Brock!” Suzie said with her hands on her hips and her chest drawn up, drawing my attention away from my traitor pokemon.

I gave Suzie an once-over.

It was a good pose, confident and firm.

It was rather diminished by the notepad with her speech held in her off hand. She shot it some glances. “I’m happy that you won,” she said reading from her notepad. “But I am also disap… disappeared?” she read with a frown.

Yolanda, who was standing behind Suzie to no doubt help was frozen in shock, her eyes locked on Kaede and the sleeping Furret in Kaede’s hands.

Sabrina giggled from behind me while Kaede tilted her head. Sabrina leaned in to whisper. “His family are big fans,” she said.

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I sighed and reached out, tilting Suzie’s notepad down. “Disappointed, the word is disappointed.”

Suzie looked up at me and smiled, only for her eyes to slide to the left and right. “Sabrina and Kaede?”

Suzie’s hands rose to her cheeks. “Are you the next recruit for Sabrina’s Magical Girl squad!? Oh, please say yes!” Suzie said.

Kaede tilted her head and shot me and Sabrina a confused look.

I sighed and opened my mouth to explain what Suzie meant, only for Zubat to wing her way straight at me. She threw herself into a lunging hug and I held my ground, thinking it too cruel to dodge her affection.

She slapped into my face and crooned happily. “Zuuuuuuu!”

I peeled Zubat’s wing off my face.

“Family, meet Kaede and Furret, Kaede and Furret? Meet my family,” I said, waving a hand.

It took a heartbeat, but chaos erupted after this round of introductions like I’d expected. I grinned. If Kaede was still feeling peaky, there was no way she was escaping my family’s clutches without at least a meal, a sit down tea party and a debrief with me on Bruce’s capabilities.

Kaede shot me a look, understanding in her eyes as Suzie latched onto her. ‘You knew!’ was clear in her eyes.

I grinned back. I might be slow, but I could also lead people where I wanted them wonderfully, sometimes even to land a critical hit.

Heh, welcome to being my Rival, Kaede!