Pokemon - Solo's Strange Journey

Swole might not be able to hear the legendary fairy but what he does hear are the sounds of yet another battle that is about to start. 

Star!

After having listened to so many Starly starting their fights off by notifying their hunting buddies first, the sound has become thoroughly ingrained into his head.

Taking in the rays of the setting sun, our hero considers for a moment to simply ignore the fight and head home to his hole for the night.

But he quickly dispels the thought. "What was all that self motivation for, if I just stop because it's getting a little darker?"

Mentally kicking himself, he quickly stashes his book and heads back out. 

A few hundred meters and he arrives at the scene of battle. 

In the air, the usual pair of Starly. Both are still in perfect condition. Just breathing a little heavy.

On the ground, the victim. A knee-high, brown bunny with long ears. "Noooo, not the Buneary."

The battered Buneary is bruised and a cut on her forehead is bleeding fresh blood down her face and tiny body.

Fighting type energy is visibly charged in her legs for a counter move.

Star!

Our hero has seen this dance half a dozen times already. "Wing Attack as a distraction, Quick Attack as the follow up." Is what he mutters to himself but Buneary's ears twitch a little.

"She should dodge the first and counter the second."

As Wing Attack aims for Buneary's head, she falls backwards and holds herself in a leaning position with her nimble ears. 

Wing Attack passes over her head and Buneary pushes off the ground with her tiny legs to complete the back flip.

The second Starly follows up with her planned Quick Attack but a swift kick to the head interrupts the attack.

Critical hit. 

Starly loses control of her flight, and a second kick immediately follows up and knocks her out of the fight.

Starly is KO.

The battlefield freezes. 

Swole freezes as well.

"What?" - "Bune?" - "Starly?" All three remaining participants voice their own state of shock.

"Did Buneary hear me?"

The remaining Starly recovers from his shock first. 

This was the first time their teamwork did not overwhelm their target, but he knows that he could lose his and his mate's life if he loses now.

Starly!

He shouts out loud and starts collecting normal type energy for his next move. "That was Growl. And Tackle now, I think." 

With these whispers Buneary comes out of her stupor too and she charges her own normal type energy in response.

"You were hit by Growl and will lose the trade against Tackle! You need to dodge and then follow up with Quick Attack. Before Starly can get into the air again."

Even the slowest of heroes, finally understood that Buneary has been listening to his commands, so he speaks up.

Buneary quickly stops her own charge and side steps the Tackle, using her ears again to balance herself and turn around on the spot.

She manages to recover from her aborted attack far quicker than Starly did from his failed one and swiftly uses her Quick Attack to ram with full speed into Starly's back. 

Starly smashes through the air and lands a lot closer to Swole's position.

Buneary is winded and breathing heavy. "Don't let up Buneary, use another Quick Attack. Don't let him fly!"

He shouts out his advice and Buneary startles back into action. Another Quick Attack follows and with a boom, Starly smacks into a tree right next to Swole.

Our hero is frightened in place but his mind is still working on overdrive. "Just a few more hits, finish him off with Double Kick."

Buneary, still within kicking distance, though out of breath pulls from deep within and channels her power. She kicks right on the downed bird's neck.

Boom!

Critical hit.

Starly passes out, eyes turning into swirls.

Starly is KO. Buneary wins!

"You did it. That. Was. So. Cool!" Adrenaline keeps his heart pumping at maximum power.

Crunch!

And Starly's neck breaks on the second hit of Double Kick. Swole starts massaging his forehead. 

Wrrryyyyyy!

Buneary lets out a blood curdling victory scream. Surprisingly terrifying for such a cute little creature.

However, suddenly Buneary falls face first into the dirt. The overworked bunny faints.

Buneary is KO.

---

Swole-POV:

Buneary won! 

"Wow!" And her fighting style was absolutely mental! 

The way she dodged that Wing Attack was so cool! She even listened to my commands! 

Does that make me her trainer? ... No, I still need to bribe her but she passed out right after the fight!

I want her. 

That right there is the coolest pokemon I have ever seen. With her as my starter pokemon I can really become the Champion!

But how do I convince her to become my partner?

I could start by treating her wounds. Maybe the bribery will work better if she has already seen what I can actually offer? 

Actions speak louder than words and all that stuff.

Yea. Let's do that. I will start by carefully turning her around... That's a lot of blood. Sheesh. I need a Sitrus Berry--

Star!

Fuck! Starly? Where are those stupid birds? Did they see me?

... 

SHIT! They are coming right at me! Did they come because of Growl?

Think quickly, what can I do?! 

NO! Stop thinking! Just pick her up and leg it to the lake, idiot!

I pick her up in my arms and run as fast as I can. 

The sun is at the horizon and I can't see shit in this forest-- ARGH! Fuck!

Thump!

Shit! A fucking root! And I fell face down in the dirt. My arms throb in pain, because I had to protect Buneary. 

I hope she wasn't knocked around too much by my fall.

Flap, flap, flap - The shit-birds with their stupid wings are flapping nearby. Shit shit shit!

They are going to kill and eat me! 

And then they will kill and eat Buneary! Get up and run, you idiot!

I get up-- Argh! 

Fuck! My stupid fucking ankle! 

Quickly, I look around. 

I can't lose myself in panic, I need to find a solution. Fast! I need to hide!

But there is nothing but trees around me! Where are all the damn bushes!?

Yes! I got it! I'm dead for sure! But there is a chance it could work!

I curl up like a ball, Buneary pressed to my stomach, hidden beneath me and between my arms. My camouflage has to win this now.

I am the bush.

Rustle

Stop making that noise! I need to become a shrub! But my tremors keep moving the branches around. 

The Starly are getting closer.

Calm down.

And I stop breathing. 

Focus Swole Solo. Get your mind straight right now. 

I focus. My heartbeat stops hammering in my ears. All I can hear are the wind and the wings of the Starly.

I take one breath. 

I close my eyes. I am safe. I am in my hole near the lake. I got my first pokemon. My tremors stop. 

I take another breath. 

I solved the cold-issue with my hole. My life is pretty good right now. With my first pokemon I will take over Sinnoh in the next Pokemon League. 

The Starly are really close now. 

I take my 3rd breath. 

It's just the Starly in moms garden. They found an especially ripe Cheri Berry and are racing to it right now.

Mom tries to harvest them before the wild pokemon can get to them, but this time she was too slow. The Starly are flying past me.

I take my 4th breath.

I did it. My eyes stay closed. I can't hear them anymore. I really did it.

I take a few more breaths and open my eyes. 

Some of Buneary's blood has pooled beneath me. But she is still breathing.

I take a final deep breath and stand up. 

It worked. I can't believe it worked. They flew right over us! But the darkness has helped us stay hidden.

The moon appearing over the horizon is just barely bright enough that I can see ahead of me.

I suppress my urge to celebrate. Buneary needs treatment. Now. 

So I lift her up and carry her closer to the trunk of the nearest tree. The less we are exposed, the better. 

Then I pull out the berry case and look for a Sitrus Berry. 

Expensive little wonders of nature. 

I take one and hold it to Buneary's face like an idiot. She is passed out, how can I feed her a Sitrus Berry?

'Your grandfather saved my life with Sitrus Berry juice.' A memory comes to the front of my mind. 

Right. My father was in a similar situation. ... So... Do I just press out the juices? It's worth a try... 

They are surprisingly easy to juice. 

I never handled a Sitrus Berry before, but with a little bit of pressure the juices start to leak out at the pointy end of the yellow fruit.

Weird.

But it's working. Now I just have to open her mouth a little... If she wakes up now, I'm definitely losing my fingers... Aaand in goes the juice.

Almost instantly a bright green light emits from her and I can see some of the wounds close themselves. 

I repeat the process with another Sitrus Berry. This time I can hear a bone cracking itself back into place.

Most juice of a third Sitrus Berry goes in there as well for good measure.

With her treatment a success, I finally relax but just a little. I take a bite out of a juiced-out berry myself and it's actually pretty tasty!

A little bitter but after the other berries I tried, this one is a treat! 

And the effect! It's so fast! My leg and arms feel great again!

Awesome! 

No wonder they are stupid expensive! I'm stashing the leftovers. There aren't a lot of Sitrus Berries in the case and I won't waste a single piece of them.

... Buneary is still asleep and I can't leave her here or she won't be around tomorrow. The hole is large enough for me and a small pokemon to sleep in.

"Fuck. Me." I pick her back up. "If she wakes up now, she will probably rip my arms out to escape from me..." 

Arceus, please let me live through this night.

With that morbid thought in the back of my mind I manage to stumble my way through the dark, back to the lake and then back to my hideout.

I climb into the hole with Buneary still held to my chest.

One last look outside and I cover us with camouflage. 

Now I'm in a tiny hole together with a murderous, blood-covered pokemon.

If she wakes up she will probably bite my throat out... I close my eyes and look forward to a new set of nightmares.

---

Rustle, rustle...

It's early in the morning. 

My crusty eyes are struggling to open themselves and something warm and fuzzy is moving around on my lap... Wait, what!?

I force my eyes open. 

Danger! Something is going on! There is a Buneary digging through my berry case! 

I almost let out a screech in fright but I remember the fight yesterday.

It's the Buneary I saved. 

Her ears are pulled in tight. Which means she is ready to attack at any moment... Gulp.

What is she digging for? Does she need another Sitrus Berry? 

Uh oh... She pulled out a Tamato Berry... If she bites in there and blames me for the spiciness, then I'm toast!

"Wait! Don't eat that!" Buneary startles and freezes at the sound of my words, then she looks at me suspiciously. 

She doesn't trust me. 

I think she wants me to elaborate. "It's extremely spicy. You can eat it if you want to but don't blame me if it's too hot for you, alright?"

Buneary sniffs the deceptively delicious-looking red fruit again. She's obviously ignoring my warnings and takes a massive bite out of the berry with her tiny bunny mouth.

I remove the camouflage above us, just in case she starts breathing fire. It sounds stupid but I've seen it happen before. It happened to me after eating Lucas' stew.

But she just chews through it and swallows it down like it's nothing! 

She even looks happy about it!!

"Are you alright?" I ask, just to be sure. She nods enthusiastically. 

Unbelievable. "Do you like that berry? Isn't it too spicy?" She refuses to elaborate and just continues to eat the berry.

This Buneary is evil. She is clearly insane. But she is also quick as Linoone, tough as leather, and hard as Steelix. 

I want her. 

She is the perfect starter pokemon! With her on my side I would have nothing to fear!

"Ahem..." I clear my throat and get Buneary's attention. My sales pitch. Free food, free berries and a future champion as a trainer. I close my eyes to concentrate better. 

"How about you become my partner pokemon!?" My voice cracks. 

Fuck! I'm too nervous to make my sales pitch! "I mean, we made a great team yesterday! Together we could easily become the Sinnoh Champions. And I can give you as many poke berries as you want! And I will heal you up after every fight! And..."

What else!? Did I forget anything? Is it enough?

No way it's enough! What else can I offer? I really don't want Buneary to leave like Shellos did. 

But I can't think of anything else! I open a single eye to judge her reaction, fearing the worst... But she is smiling and nodding her head at me! 

Her ears are flopping around. It's so cute my heart is going to give up at this rate!

Yes! I fumble my hand into my pants pocket and pull out my premier ball and I press the little button in the middle to extend it to normal size. 

My hands are sweaty. "This is a pokeball. You need to press down the little button on the front and then we become partners!"

Buneary hesitates for only a moment. 

Seemingly remembering the fight from yesterday.

Possibly thinking that she would have been in a lot more pain this morning, if it wasn't for me. 

Or maybe it's just thoughts of free food? 

I don't care, because she stretches out her tiny arm and taps the button!

A beam of red light comes out and envelops Buneary. She herself transforms into red light and is sucked into the pokeball.

My heart is beating out of my chest in excitement and my knees feel weak.

The ball closes, it wiggles once. I swallow drily. 

It wiggles twice. "Please, please, please..." It wiggles three times "Come ooon...!"

DING!

I... I did it. 

I caught my first pokemon! I stand up and jump in joy! And scatter my equipment everywhere in the process. 

"I caught my first pokemon!" I shout out in pure euphoria, "YEEES!" 

Around the lake, many startled pokemon rush back into the forest to their nests at the sounds of the disturbance.

"Hahahaha! I can't believe it! I got the strongest starter pokemon ever!"

I look back at the white pokeball in my hand. The adrenaline drains from my body, and the adventure's exhaustion catches up with me. My heavy arms droop down, and like a marionette with its strings cut, I collapse to the ground.

"... I'm a real pokemon trainer now." 

But I pull myself together. With great determination I toss the ball high into the air. "Buneary, come out!" 

My very own pokemon pops out. The pokeball flies back towards my hand and I easily catch it.

Buneary lands on the ground in front of me. I go down to a knee to try and hug her.

Grrrr.

And I stop trying to hug her. She is not a hugger. I didn't even know bunnies could growl.

She takes a look around at the sudden carnage and I sheepishly look away.

Then her gaze lowers down my body, at my clothes. Dirty, and covered in vomit? No, just blood.

---

I quickly pack the chaos back into the backpack, then I give the pokeball a reassuring squeeze and shrink it again before storing it safely in my pants pocket.

Buneary remains out here with me, out of her pokeball.

As long as I'm in the wilderness, there is no way that I would ever walk around without my new, very own personal bodyguard ever again.

And I read that some pokemon, especially wild pokemon, really don't like staying in their pokeballs.

They crave their freedom too much for that. And I think that is perfectly understandable.

I won't force my pokemon into a pokeball if they don't want to. I don't want to end up like my father whose pokemon are only let out to be fed and to do practice battles.

They are living trophies for him. Nothing more. I don't want to be like that.

With all my stuff placed where it needed to be, I turned around to Buneary who was content to just sit around and watch me work.

"So. Breakfast? Are you still hungry after the berry?"

She thinks for a second.

"Bun!" And nods her head.

I pull out the water filter and two rations of beef jerky and rock hard survival cookies.

I also began to pull out an Aspear Berry because it is what I have done every day.

Only then, do I realize that my feet aren't frozen. I didn't have a nightmare either. And my body is only a little bit exhausted.

Today is an amazing day!

We both sit down on the ground and I place the food on a large, smooth rock between us.

Buneary's excitement at a type of food that she has never seen before is apparent. And it's a little infectious too.

I could almost forget that I have eaten nothing but that stuff for like a week... Or was it 2 weeks already?

I haven't really kept track of the days.

I split up the food into two equal portions and started dipping my hard-tack into the water.

Crunch!

Buneary just takes a massive bite out of hers. Crunch. Crunch. And she chews through it with a lot of effort. I'm impressed but she still pulls faces.

It's obviously not a pleasant experience.

I clear my throat to grab her attention and take out my soggy biscuit. I take a regular bite out of it with no issues.

It still tastes like stale, salty bread, but it beats the taste of starvation.

With that Buneary averts her eyes and puts her hard-tack into the water as well before she grabs the beef jerky instead.

She is acting shy now. So precious.

"Haha." I can't help but let my emotions out-- OUCH!

She punched me. Right on my thigh! "Fffuck". Damn that hurts. I don't think she knows what holding back means.

I get up to get the berry case but almost stumble from the pain in my leg.

And now she's laughing! She's evil! I knew it!

After taking out an Oran Berry out of the case and taking a big, disgusting bite out of it, my bruised leg heals back to manageable levels almost instantly.

Another bite and my leg feels good again. The Sitrus Berry effect would be way stronger but I'm not wasting those unless I really have to.

She's still laughing... I look at the rest of my Oran Berry and like the mature adult that I am, I get my revenge by tossing it at her.

She caught it easily and ate the rest.

"Alright. Ha. Ha. The human was in pain." I walk back to the makeshift table.

Buneary looks slightly impressed at my recovery speed. Did she not know Oran Berries can heal you?

"Now. We have 2 options for today." Her ears perk up cutely. "We can either take today off and stay here at the lake, or we head back to civilization. That will take at least a week, I think."

Please. Stay a little longer.

"Bune, bu-bun, Buneary."

"Hm. Yes. It's just like I thought... I can't speak pokemon. I need to keep my questions simpler." Buneary looks at me like I'm an idiot.

It's her who can't speak normally! "Do you want to rest for today? Take a vacation?" She nods.

"Good, because you are covered in blood from ears to feet. And you don't smell so good either. I say our first order of business is to give you a much needed bath."

Now, for some weird reason, she looks at me like I'm some sort of hypocrite.

---

After finishing our breakfast, we both headed closer to the wide, rocky shore surrounding the lake.

The water is still beautiful and perfectly clear.

Buneary runs the last few meters ahead and jumps right into the water.

Does she know how to swim?! "Hey, stay near the shore, alright?"

She ignores me and starts swimming a little further in... At least now I know she can swim. "At least stay away from other pokemon in the lake! I don't want the lake guardian to come down on us!"

She hears me. Thankfully, she swims closer to the shore again.

I undo all the knots and ropes that keep my camouflage in place. And for the first time in days I see that I'm covered in dirt.

My once beautiful, beige cargo pants are now brown. "Gross."

I remove my clothes down to the underwear and inspect my arms. Dirt-tan lines on my arms. My face and neck probably look like that too.

"I look like I dived in an outhouse." My own stank reaches my nostrils and I almost lose my breakfast. "I smell like I dived in it too..."

I look down at my discarded clothes on the ground to inspect them. They need the muddy colors for the way back home so I can't clean them.

Laziness-- I mean, logic wins and I ignore my clothes before pinching my nose, and jumping into the water as well.

It's cold but so refreshing!

Clouds of dirt trail behind me.

I want to go swim a little bit too but I don't trust the lake, or the pokemon within the lake, to dare take a swim like Buneary did.

I'm satisfied with just cleaning myself up near the shore.

Buneary has also finished playing around and is now rubbing her left ear with her tiny arms.

"That's just too fucking cute." I whisper.

She heard me. Her right ear twitched and she charges up normal type energy... "Oh shit."

Pound hits the water and a large spout of water is coming right at me! "Fuck!" It takes me off my feet and washes me deeper into the lake.

I reopen my eyes and see something red swimming nearby!

Panic takes over. Where is up? I swim back to the surface as fast as I can. Muscles ache as they bring me back to the safety of the land and I flop down on the ground.

"Buneary! Get-- Cough. Get out of the water! Huff-- There is some pokemon hiding in there!"

I want nothing more than to just catch my breath but warning her was more important.

"Buneary?" Oh no! Where is she! "Fucking shit!"

I pull myself back up and rush back to the water. But all of a sudden something red shoots out of the water and almost hits me right in my face.

I stumble and fall to my butt yet again.

"Is she fighting down there?!" I'm completely winded and I know I can't dive to her now but a desperate idea pops into my head.

I rush to my discarded clothes to pull out Buneary's pokeball. If I can just recall her, then she will be safe!

With the ball in my hand, I turn back to the lake and get ready-- Only to come face to face with a Buneary who is swimming back to land.

"You're safe!" She looks a little confused at that. Why? And points at something to my left.

A defeated Magikarp lays on the beach. "You were pulled down into the water by Magikarp but you still won?"

She pouts and rolls her eyes. As if I just insulted her? Did something get lost in translation?

Anyway, she defeated a Magikarp in the water in just a few moments. "Amazing! You are so cool, Buneary!" Now she looks smug.

"Don't look so smug! I was really worried about you..." At least she has the decency to lose a bit of her smugness before rolling her eyes again.

Buneary starts heading to the downed Magikarp. "Oi! Don't kill it. We can't go around killing every pokemon we see."

Thump. Thump.

She doesn't listen and kicks the poor Magikarp in the head two times and successfully crushes his skull.

Now she points her tiny arm at it and is looking at me. "Bune?"

"No. We can't just kill and eat random pokemon. If we do that, sooner or later an officer Jenny will toss us into a prison."

"Bunnie!"

"... Good grief. Alright. You win. It's already dead now... But we are cooking it! No more raw meat for you. You're not some savage wild monster anymore."

I get over to my discarded equipment and pull the folded shovel out of my bag.

It's the closest thing we have to a knife... "Here Buneary, can you cut the flesh into portions with that?" A nod in response.

Good. I don't wanna do that. It's gross.

"And bury the organs and stuff we can't eat. I don't want it to stink up the place and attract other pokemon." Another nod. Awesome.

The gross tasks are all handled now!

"I will go pick up some firewood and look for a flint stone." With that I head off and look for what we need for a nice cooking session.

---

I found some dry wood and leaves easily.

It hasn't rained in a few days and every piece of wood laying around was perfectly dry.

Nice.

I even found some flint nearby on the shore.

Sweet.

With all the essentials done, I decide to grant us a little luxury and carry our 'breakfast table' down to the beach too.

By the time I was done, Buneary had already finished cutting the fish into... chunks.

They are still covered in scales and some have bones sticking out. She just left them out on the dirt. But at least there are no organs in sight.

I bend down to pick up the chunks, my new flint stone and the shovel and bring it all to the lake for cleaning and scaling.

Buneary follows me around now, obviously interested in what I'm planning to do with the Magikarp chunks.

I first clean the shovel of blood and dirt and lay it out flat. This is going to be our frying pan later. Next I rinse off the sand, remove most of the blood from the chunks and then toss them on the 'frying pan'.

Then I take each chunk and remove the scales with an edge on the flint stone as my improvised fish scaler.

It doesn't work well. None of this is working well! Our tools suck for cooking! But it works well enough.

I don't bother with the bones.

The scaled fish chunks are then rinsed off once more and finally placed neatly on the shovel.

The shovel is picked up and I carry it to my heap of sticks and leaves... "Buneary, can you collect a few rocks? All about this big?" I make a shape about as big as a soccer ball and Buneary rushes off excitedly.

"Cute." I whisper extra quietly at the sight. She is so excitable. It's just far too precious.

I set up the firewood in a cone shape and place the dry leaves inside. Then I slap my forehead as I remember that I need the shovel to create the fire.

The meat chunks are quickly relocated onto the relatively clean 'table' and I start striking the flint against the edge of the shovel, like it was shown in my survival books...

It took me 20 minutes to finally get a stupid spark to land on the leaves and start the fire!

Buneary had finished her task long ago and kept shooting me these disappointed looks!

One day, I'm going to teach you Fire Punch and this embarrassment will never need to happen again...

Why didn't my father give me a stupid lighter! Or anything else useful! Asshole!

Anyway, the spark evolved into a decent fire and Buneary stopped with the disappointed looks.

Yea, that's right! I got the fire going! You can stay like that, looking impressed with me!

But I don't make any comments because I already understand her well enough to know that she will stop being impressed with me the moment I mention it.

I place the rocks around it and wait for the initial flame to calm down. Don't want to burn the food.

Buneary is starting to look bored out of her mind though.

That changes when I finally place the shovel over the fire pit and the meat slowly starts to sizzle.

It smells pretty good, I have to say. But from the drool coming out of Buneary, I can tell that she has never smelled cooked meat before.

"Smells good right?" She nods fervently. "It's going to taste pretty good too." She looks at me with literal stars in her eyes.

"You are never going to want to eat meat raw after this!" ... Maybe I shouldn't hype the food up too much. I could still burn it.

Speaking of burnt meat, let's flip the chunks over before that happens. An unused piece of firewood and my flint become my meat fork and spatula.

And the bottom side is looking pretty good!

Wow, it's actually a million times better than I thought it was going to be. It's dripping fat out of the pores and I'm starting to get really excited myself!

Something other than beef jerky for once!

"Wow. Look at that? It looks pretty, fucking nice to me!" I comment and Buneary absentmindedly nods in confirmation.

I remove the shovel from the fire pit and move it to the sand. The meat should be done. Buneary tries to grab a chunk but pulls her paw away in pain.

"Careful there. It's still hot." Now she looks at me like I caused her the pain. "Just let it cool down for a minute. It's not like the meat can run away, anymore."

At that she lets out a little laugh.

So... She likes watching people get hurt and gallows humor. Wild pokemon are just evil, I guess.

After a minute of waiting and watching the fat seep out of the meat, I carefully grab a bone.

It's not too hot anymore, so I take the first bite. It's good. It's missing salt, but it beats days of nothing but beef jerky easily.

Buneary grabs a chunk too and immediately bites into it. Is she crying!? No way! "Does it taste that good?" She nods and eagerly eats more.

"I will have to show you my mom's cooking when we are back in civilization. Her food tastes a million times better than this. Her spaghetti is to kill for." With that she stopped eating mid chew.

And based on the stare she is shooting me, I can easily tell what she is thinking right now and I voice my interpretation out loud with a high pitched, fake-cutesy voice:

"A million times better? No way. I have to try that!" I laugh out loud at my own joke, fully expecting to get punched or kicked again for making fun of her but she just looks slightly annoyed.

She grumbles a little and continues eating.

Too grateful for the food?

Her behavior is just too cute, I can't stop smiling at her... That lasts until she finishes her chunk of meat and punches my leg. Ouch.

I reach over to the berry case to get rid of the pain again but a sudden idea interrupts my self-treatment.

She likes spicy food, right? "Hey Buneary, try and drizzle some of the Tamato Berry juice over your meat before eating it." I say as I toss the evil fruit to the evil pokemon.

Following my train of thought, her grumbly face of annoyance crumbles away into one of excited smiles again.

She drizzles her next piece of meat in freshly pressed, red juices and takes a large bite out of the meat. She stops mid chew.

Her eyes are wide. Too spicy? She looks down at the food. Then she looks at me. Uh oh... She swallows down her food, places the meat in her hands back down and approaches me.

Oh no, my leg still hurts! She looks at me for another moment... But then hugs me! ... For half a second before she lets go and rushes back to her food.

"Oh Arceus, please give my weak heart strength. Her cuteness is going to kill me!" Buneary ignores my comment as I laugh to myself.

She has decided to focus on the food in favor of entertaining my antics.