Kobayakawa Sena (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
swiftasacoursingkawa) wrote2022-03-11 06:46 pm
swiftasacoursingkawa) wrote2022-03-11 06:46 pm
[azume] post-game unovadventures part 7
finally. foobaw time
Going to the gym that day was obviously a futile endeavor. Even if he had bothered to wait for Elesa to return from the train station, the venue for a fashion show was in a tizzy. Apparently, Sena’s battle with her had happened there, and the remaining crowd was still hyped up by the match. Besides, after having a whole six-on-six match, it was unlikely that she would have any more battles that day.
Instead, Hilbert returned to the Musical Theater to let his team enjoy trying out a few shows - his Dewott especially seemed to enjoy dressing up. And his Simisear wasn’t so bad on the stage, either, flipping about and blowing fire like a true acrobat. Maybe he’d take them there again after the gym match. It wasn’t such a bad way to wind down after a lot of excitement.
He’d then poked around the Battle Subway, and found a familiar face: his older sister, Hilda. She’d started her journey the year before, and obtained all eight badges needed to challenge Victory Road and the Elite Four. She’d even managed to climb to the top of the summit, but then inexplicably decided to make her way back down, opting to roam around Unova instead.
“Standing at the top of Victory Road, I could see that Unova was larger than I ever thought!” she’d cheerfully told Hilbert and their mother upon returning. “There’s other gyms I haven’t challenged, and places I haven’t seen! How could I even think about challenging the top dogs of Unova if I haven’t seen everything else the place has to offer, right?”
It was that statement that had really gotten Hilbert excited for his own chance to start his Pokemon Journey, the chance to travel. To see what his sister had seen, and maybe more. He’d seen the true value of a journey that day, listening to his sister’s stories.
Maybe that was why Sena fascinated him so much, back then. His eyes were so much like his sister’s - they’d found what they wanted in their journeys, and it showed in how they carried themselves, how they moved. Hilda had always been the more exuberant of the two siblings, but now she positively glowed, clearly enjoying what her journey had brought her. Not for the first time, Hilbert wondered if he would ever glow that same way.
When Hilbert asked his sister what she was doing in the Battle Subway, she grinned.
“All sorts of neat people come to ride this thing! Even people from different countries - the Subway’s a great way to get around Unova, after all! I’ve gotten to see all sorts of people and Pokemon here, and it’s a great way to practice working with different party members too! I’m actually here to try battling with a couple of foreign Pokemon I caught while exploring Western Unova!” She planted her hands on her hips in that familiar pose of hers, the one that suggested that she was ready to take on the world, standing tall and firm. Hilbert knew, when she stood like this, his sister was definitely planning on starting something. He couldn't help but look at her warily while she sized him up as her grin grew devious.
“Wanna come with?”
At Hilbert’s confused exclamation, Hilda explained that there were special subway cars that specialized in Multi Battles, and it turned out that Hilda enjoyed teaming up with random trainers that she met on the trains. “There’s tons of different people that gather here from all around the world, but pretty much everyone loves Pokemon, right?”
Hilbert couldn’t fault her logic on that. It sounded fun, anyway, and he needed to burn the built up tension that he hadn’t been able to burn off with a gym battle. The Musical, while fun, didn’t quite scratch that itch.
So he accompanied Hilda on her trek through the Battle Subway, listening as she regaled him with stories of her travels in between battles. She told him about gym leaders, and Victory Road, and the recent influx of foreign Pokemon in the western parts of Unova, showing off the riolu she’d caught there. And in return Hilbert told her about the things he’d seen, about Team Plasma, about Sena, and N, about how he still wasn’t sure about what he wanted to do. But he loved traveling, he’d told her; had come to love searching out hidden truths in the most unlikely of places, exploring all the nooks and crannies of the world that most people hadn’t even bothered to notice.
“Well, aren’t you a romanticist?” Hilda had laughed, her tone not at all mocking. “Even I haven’t felt the need to explore that deeply - just knowing that I’ve been somewhere is good enough for me! But that’s the fun part about traveling, isn’t it? Everyone gets to do it their own way!”
—---
The next day found Hilbert on a busy intersection, staring up at the Big Stadium. He’d definitely be putting aside his plans to challenge Elesa if he opted to visit these tryouts today, but he could challenge her any day. Watching Sena go through tryouts, while not strictly related to his Pokemon Journey, was something he’d only get to see once. Hilda was with him - when Hilbert had mentioned the enigmatic trainer, she’d insisted on seeing him.
“I met a guy on the subway a few days ago who said he was training for tryouts, actually!” Hilda grinned. “Said he wanted to make sure he and his partners were in sync, since he played together with them. Had some Pokemon I’d never seen before, either! Maybe he’ll be in today’s tryouts against this Sena guy, right?”
Hilbert couldn’t get much more out of her - she was terrible at remembering names, and only described the person’s Pokemon as “kinda like your Simisear, but taller! Anyways, he nicknamed it, so it’s not like I remembered the actual Pokemon species or anything!” By the time it occurred to her to check her Pokedex for an actual reference for the mysterious Pokemon, Bianca had shown up, dragging Cheren in tow. Hilbert was surprised to see him - but apparently he’d already been in Nimbasa for a few days.
“I’d been checking out the Small Court and Big Stadium,” Cheren admitted, looking embarrassed. Somehow, Hilbert wasn’t surprised - Cheren had always looked up to strong trainers, especially the current champion. After witnessing Sena’s match against N, he’d certainly be interested in observing him further. “But he wasn’t in the tennis tryouts, or soccer, or even baseball! It’s Wednesday, so the only options left…don’t make any sense!”
Hilbert blinked in confusion, and only watched Cheren’s face crumple further as he and Bianca both confirmed that Sena’s tryouts were indeed in the Big Stadium today.
“But,” spluttered Cheren, nonplussed. “That’s the time and location of the football tryouts!”
“What’s wrong with that?” Bianca asked, oblivious to Cheren’s dismay.
“Have you not seen that guy?!” Cheren demanded, glasses going askew. “He’s barely taller than us, and he looks too…scrawny to play football, don’t you think?!” Bianca put a finger to her mouth, letting out an “ohhhh” in realization. “Besides, the way he battles, it’s completely different to most football players. They usually specialize in Fighting types, and a heavy power style, don’t they?”
“Not always,” Hilda pointed out, making Cheren jump in alarm. “That’s usually the linebackers you’re talking about. The running backs and receivers like to use the sleeker fighting types, like Sawk and Mienshao, from what I remember…although you’re not wrong about the power style. Even though they’re faster than the linemen, they’re still really forceful in how they battle…”
“We haven’t seen Sena use a single Fighting type either…just Bug types,” Cheren mused, tapping his foot impatiently. Hilbert frowned. They’d only seen him battle once, could they really assume all of what he knew from just that? He blinked in surprise when Cheren looked straight at him. “You’ve seen him battle too, Hilbert. His battle style..it was all about evasion and speed! There wasn’t power behind those attacks at all! How is this guy planning on being a football player for Nimba-U with a style like that?”
Hilbert wasn’t sure if Cheren had really seen the truth of Sena’s battle. Yes, he focused on evading attacks, and there wasn’t a single overwhelmingly powerful attack in his arsenal - the strongest move was just a repetitive series of X-Scissors. But the feeling behind those moves, the impact they had despite their lack of strength…
It was like what Sena had said the other day, about Elesa controlling the flow of battle from the start. Sena didn’t need to be powerful to pull people into his pace. He just needed to charge forward relentlessly, in full confidence of himself and his partner’s abilities. In that sense, that would have made him a perfect football player in spirit alone.
So when Cheren looked to him for confirmation, Hilbert shook his head. He wasn’t going to write Sena’s chances off just yet.
—---
If the tryouts had just been watching people randomly pass balls to each other or just watching the potential players’ metrics get assessed, the tryouts would be exceedingly boring to watch, even for the most diehard of Nimba-U fans. No, those initial screenings were already done beforehand, and the players who had made it through were the ones present on the field now. What was instead happening was that the players who had passed initial screening would now play a mock game on randomly-drawn teams, playing their preferred position. This let the coaches evaluate how their skills translated to a real game, and how well they could perform under the pressure of a crowd. The spectators themselves even got to get in the action, being given randomly assigned pennants to cheer for their team. Hilbert and his friends had been given the bright orange pennants to represent the team wearing the inverted jersey colors. (He still wasn’t entirely sure what possessed the emblem designer to pick such clashing colors like orange and yellow. It made watching the team play a little nauseating when they were all bunched together.)
“Huh, they’re already all in uniform, huh?” Hilda noted as they made their way down to the front section. (The seats had also been assigned by lottery, printed on their flags. Somehow they’d gotten lucky.) “Isn’t that gonna make it hard to find him?”
“Maybe,” Cheren muttered, casting his eyes across the stands. As they approached their seats, he stiffened. “Urk.”
“Oh, there’s someone here with us!” Bianca cheered, oblivious to her friend’s dismay. Hilbert blinked in surprise, understanding why Cheren would have suddenly frozen up. Especially since the other occupant of this group of seats was equally frozen, staring up at them with blank eyes.
For the person sitting in front of them was N, looking hilariously out of place with his bushy hair and confused expression. He was tall enough that he seemed to be too big for the cramped seats, folded up against the orange-and-yellow cushioning and feet shoved under the seat in front of him. A zorua was in his arms with an orange pennant in its mouth. Based on the way it was holding itself, so sure and poised, Hilbert strongly suspected it was the Zoroark from before, illusioning itself into a smaller, more convenient form. He blinked owlishly at them, even as Cheren accusingly pointed at him, struggling not to yell.
“What are you doing here?!” he hissed, stomping closer to N as Hilbert explained to the confused Bianca and Hilda about N, speaking in hushed whispers so Cheren wouldn’t be interrupted. N only tilted his head, apparently bemused by the hostility.
“That trainer from before…invited me to spectate. I was…curious.” His eyes stared up at Cheren vacantly as he droned on, the impassive delivery making Cheren back off, unnerved. “A sport made for humans, yet this trainer claims to play together with his Pokemon. And that this is his true ambition, yet he still battles, and exhibits such strength…” He looked away, eyes casting over the field. “The formulas that make up this world, the ones that add together people and Pokemon…perhaps I will find a part of them here.”
Hilbert barely understood N on a good day, and now he was bringing formulas into the mix? He couldn’t keep up with all this. Instead, he huffed and sat down in the seat between Cheren and N, effectively cutting off any budding argument that might have started. He didn’t come here for any sort of confusing debate, today was just only going to be about football! He had his Dewott on his lap, and after a moment’s consideration he decided to send out his Simisear as well. Hilda did mention that one of the players had a similar Pokemon, right?
“I wonder where Sena is, anyway?” Bianca hummed, sitting to the other side of Cheren and pulling Hilda down with her. “He should have made it this far, right?”
“Obviously, or we would have come here for nothing,” Cheren groused, leaning back in his seat and pointedly avoiding N’s gaze. “It’d be disappointing to not see him here after all this trouble. You didn’t happen to see him earlier, did you?” The question was clearly directed at N, even if Cheren refused to look at him, so the older man had no trouble with responding immediately.
“I have not,” he stated quietly, eyes fixed on the football field. “With the way these uniforms are designed, everyone’s silhouette is so similar…I cannot make anyone out.”
N wasn’t wrong, but Hilbert felt like it shouldn’t have been too hard to find Sena regardless. There were quite a few players with shorter stature on both sides of the field, and eventually Hilbert pointed out at one with the number 21 emblazoned on their uniform in bright yellow. This player seemed particularly diminutive, and their helmet had a clear blue eyeshield that stood out against the sea of yellow and orange. It reminded Hilbert of the blue eyeshield Sena sometimes had attached to his visor, and as he pointed that player out to the rest of his friends, said player turned to face them.
They had been sitting on the ground, stretching their legs, but as they stood up they seemed to become more energetic, waving at the stands. Before Hilbert and the others could question it, the player began jogging up to them, and as they came closer their features became clearer.
“Heeeeeeeey! So you guys really came?” That voice was unmistakable, so Hilbert grinned in excitement even before Sena removed his helmet to greet them. He laughed as the helmet came off, throwing his features into clear view. It made it easier to spot the joy on his face - he was clearly in his element here on the field. Somehow, despite his short stature, he truly did look like a football player.
Hilbert glanced amusedly at Cheren, who couldn’t keep his mouth from gaping open like a Magikarp. He looked like he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to be proven right about Sena being there, or proven wrong about Sena trying to play football. Bianca, on the other hand, had no reservations about showing her delight in seeing him again - she’d taken a shine to Sena after yesterday’s incident, and seemed to look up to him as a potential role model for what she could become like in the future.
“You made it!” she squealed, causing Sena to laugh in embarrassment. “You’re finally playing a game in the Big Stadium! Oooh, so does this mean you’re on the team now?”
“Ahaha, well…” Sena ignored Cheren’s hushed whisper of “it’s still the tryouts…” and waved the hand not holding his helmet. “This game is gonna determine whether I’m a main roster player or not. Even if my team doesn’t win, I can still be considered, but…” The grin on his face suddenly grew sharper, intimidating, even. Hilbert felt Cheren and N stiffen on either side of him, clearly remembering the last time he’d smiled like that. "I wouldn’t be an athlete if I didn’t play to win, yeah?”
“Heee! Well said!” Hilda laughed, before leaning over the seat in front of her. “Long time no see, you! I see you haven’t lost any of your fighting spirit from back then!”
Everyone blinked in confusion at Hilda’s easy recognition of the football player, even Sena himself. Slow realization dawned on his face as he appeared to recognize her, however. “In the Battle Subway, yeah?”
“Mmmhm! Battling with you was so interesting! Now that I see you’re a football player, a lot of the weird commands you did make so much more sense now! No wonder you’re so good at battling in a team!” That praise got another soft laugh out of Sena as he straightened himself.
“Well, when you play in a team, you have to play your part, right? One of the first things I learned about football is that it focuses on three things: power, tactics, and speed. And each person on the team has their own role to play…in my case, it’s speed.” He looked like he was about to say more, but the coach’s whistle blew, making him jump. “Ah! Gotta go! Wish me luck, guys!” He slipped his helmet back on, before turning away with a wave. Hilda turned to Hilbert and the others with an excited grin, all of them staring at her expectantly.
“That’s the guy from the Subway, Hilbert! The one I mentioned with that Pokemon! The one that’s kinda like a Simisear, remember?”
Well, obviously he remembered. His Simisear perked its ears up on hearing the comparison, before leaning over the seat in front. Cheren, on the other hand, leaned closer to the rest of the group.
“Like a Simisear? So it’s a fire type?”
“Mmhm! But I think it’s also a fighting type, ‘cause he said he was training with it for tryouts, and y’know it’s practically required to have a fighting type with you for football tryouts, yeah?” It was certainly an unspoken rule amongst the football players to have at least one fighting type on their team, and Sena certainly wouldn’t have any of the usual ones. A fire and a fighting type…the first one that came to mind was Bianca’s Pignite. But apparently Sena had one that was more monkey-like, and had trained together with it specifically for the game…
Curious. A curious thing, indeed.
—--
Admittedly, Hilbert didn’t really know much about football. He knew that the goal was to get the ball over the opponent’s goal line, but not much else. The different positions, their roles, the different tactics, Hilbert couldn’t make sense of any of that stuff.
But he knew how to read a crowd, and the way Sena riled them up was unmistakable. When he had the ball…it was like the way he moved completely changed, feinting and twisting around his opponents before they even registered he had moved. He’d scored two of the touchdowns that his team had made, which was apparently a significant contribution according to Cheren. And even when he wasn’t scoring, he was running interference, making sure receivers got their catches or blocking players that were at least twice his weight. Even if it was for the slightest of seconds, it seemed like that was enough of a difference to change the entire play. He wasn’t always successful, but he managed to come through when the play truly counted.
These were all new players without any reputation to speak of, save for the ones that had been famous in the high school football scene. There were no names on their uniforms, so spectators began calling out numbers of players that had really caught their attention. Increasingly, the cry of “Twenty-one!” could be heard throughout the stands.
“What the hell,” Cheren mumbled, slumping in his seat. “He’s actually good.”
“Of course he is! He’d have to be good if he was auditioning here, right?” Bianca crowed, having apparently forgotten her previous doubt.
“It’s strange,” N stated, making everyone jump in their seats. He’d been quiet the whole game, opting to instead stare intensely at the field, so hearing him speak all of a sudden was startling. “He moves…kind of like a Pokemon. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Like a Pokemon?” Cheren demanded. “How?!”
“It’s his judgment,” N continued, apparently not bothered by Cheren’s interruption. “It’s practically instinctual. Like he’s lived his life like a wild Pokemon, running from predators. That snap decision, the way he’s able to pick out the most efficient way around in less than a second, and then act on it…he hasn’t lived in the wilderness or anything, right? What reason would he have to run like that?”
“People can train themselves to run like that, you know?” Cheren was skeptical, but still hanging onto N’s every word. Hilbert simply remembered Sena’s own words, what he had said about his days before choosing to get into sports.
“It still wouldn’t look like that,” N insisted, his words starting to come out at his usual unnaturally rapid pace. “There’s a difference. Besides, there’s more to it…it’s hard to explain to a human.” To a human? The way N phrased it…did he not see himself as one? “You remember how he battled against me. He was able to move in time with his Pokemon…no. He was able to direct his Pokemon and show them how to move…to the untrained eye it would look like he was in sync with them. He wouldn’t know how to move like that unless he ran side-by-side with them…”
“So you’re saying he trains together with his Pokemon?” Bianca asked, curiously. “Like, literally on the field with them?”
“I imagine so,” N murmured.
“But that’s crazy!” Cheren snapped. “Humans can’t keep up with Pokemon, he’d hurt himself trying!”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Hilda interrupted. “I battled with Sena on the Subway, and we finished a whole twenty-one car streak together. I dunno what this guy’s match with him was like, but you’d believe him if you saw how Sena and his Pokemon acted. They were practically moving at the same time, and sometimes he didn’t even need to give commands! He’d just, like, jerk his arm or something and the Pokemon would do the exact same thing. They obviously knew each other really well.”
“But isn’t that different from actually running with them?”
“Who knows?” Hilda shrugged at Cheren’s question. “Wait ‘till the end of the game, you’ll see whether I’m really right or not!”
Cheren had always respected Hilda and her capabilities as a trainer, so he reluctantly assented to her words. He’d been proven wrong enough times already today to know when he was missing something. He didn’t appear discouraged, however, instead curious at what sort of strength the athlete would show them.
—--
The game had ended, with a hard-earned victory for Sena’s team. He’d managed to score a final touchdown in the last few seconds of the fourth quarter, and it had taken him several minutes to pull himself away from the team’s celebrations to approach center field. Many of the official team members had lined up there, waiting for the new recruits to come over.
“It’s kind of like an unofficial final step of the scouting process,” Hilda explained to the others. She’d seen other tryouts during her journey, so she could explain this well enough. “Honestly, it’s kinda more like hazing than anything else. While the coaches are evaluating the results of the game, the seniors in the team will challenge the new competitors in a Pokemon Battle.”
“What’s the point of that?” N moaned, sounding upset at the prospect. “The Pokemon don’t play in matches themselves, do they?”
“It’s kinda just another way they jockey for position, or something?” Hilda guessed. “I mean, the Pokemon do help them out when they train sometimes, and it’s also a really good way of testing a player’s temperament and judgment. If they’re good at working together with their Pokemon, then they should be good at working together with their teammates on the field, or something like that. Plus, I guess it just lets the seniors show the new freshmen who’s boss.” Then, Hilda abruptly grinned, her expression growing cheeky. “I said all that, but the real reason is probably just ‘cause it’s fun, right? Who doesn’t like a good battle?”
Hilbert didn’t need to turn around to know that N was glaring murderously at her over his head. He wondered how his sister could miss such open hostility. Or maybe she did notice and just didn’t care. Both possibilities were equally likely when it came to her.
“Oooh!” Bianca cheered, cutting through the tension. “They’re starting, they’re starting!” Indeed, the freshmen and the current team had lined up facing each other, a line of recruits forming in front of each team member. Sena was up front, facing what looked like the current team captain at one end of the line.
“Of course he’d go for the strongest one,” Cheren groused, although he did not appear to be as mad as he sounded. “Or did the team captain go for him…?”
“It could be either way,” Hilda noted, settling back into her seat. “He was getting a lot of attention earlier….maybe they feel a little threatened. Although,” she grinned, watching Sena pump his fist and point at the team captain, apparently reacting to some sort of gesture said captain had made, “he certainly doesn’t shy away from picking fights, it seems.”
There were excited squeals as Sena and the team captain squared up against each other, both taking a stance in the center of the field. The popularity of the team captain was fairly evident, so comparing him to the newcomer who had distinguished himself, Sena really did look like a small upstart next to him. Even the bulky contours of the football uniform couldn’t hide how short he was compared to most of the football players on the team, making the matchup look even more lopsided. There was no doubt in Hilbert’s mind that Sena would put up an excellent fight regardless, but he couldn’t help but wonder about the impression that the rest of the crowd had. The team captain was clearly a favorite of the local population, so Sena was already at a disadvantage in their eyes.
He couldn’t wait to see how the football player surprised everyone.
—---
Down on the field, Sena was grinning wildly as he palmed a Pokeball. His opponent had waited until the cameras for broadcasting the student matches had turned on before starting to grandstand, but Sena didn’t appear to be offended by the clear change in demeanor, taking the bravado in stride and matching it with his own.
“My team and I only strive for victory!” he declared, thumping the hand holding the Pokeball against his chest. “Whatever you throw at us, we’ll surpass it and win!”
“Bold words coming from a newbie!” The team captain slammed his fists together in an attempt to intimidate his opponent, who remained undaunted. “I don’t know what you think football is like back where you come from, but you’re in Unova now, boy! We’ll show you some real Unovan football-style battlin’!”
“Bring it on! We’ll show you our amefuto!” Sena blinked, before putting his free hand to his chin, confused. “Amefuto? This is Unova though, so…unofu…nofu…Novafuto?” He shrugged, before brandishing his Pokeball again. “Whatever it is, we’ll win!”
“Heh! Don’t know what kinda nonsense you’re talking about, but you’d better get your head in the game! See if you can get past this!” The captain tossed out their Pokeball with a powerful throw, releasing a menacingly large Conkeldurr. It roared fiercely, knocking the two concrete pillars that it held together before thrusting them into the ground with a loud crash. As it flexed its muscles and posed for the crowd, the captain taunted Sena, going through what was clearly a practiced routine at this point.
“My partner’s no ordinary Conkeldurr, you know!” he crowed, flexing in time with his Pokemon. “We’ve trained together for this since this guy was a little Timburr, gotten up again and again from all the hard knocks life has thrown our way, until both our muscles have grown stronger than steel!” A final triumphant flex roused up the crowd, and they began chanting their names in a loud, oppressive song. Hilbert almost felt tempted to cover his ears, and would have if he wasn’t so intent on catching everything Sena did on the field. He couldn’t imagine what the pressure would have been like on the field itself.
“That athlete isn’t lying,” N murmured, his voice barely being heard over the clamor despite the rapid lilt of his words. “That Conkeldurr isn’t just a prime specimen, it’s clearly been exercising frequently. Conkeldurr in the wild don’t usually have the luxury to be able to flex in such a grandstanding manner…honestly, Conkeldurr as a species aren’t often found in the wild to begin with.” Hilbert glanced over at him curiously, wordlessly prompting N to speak further. “The trials of living in the wild mean that many Gurrdurr don’t have the necessary consistent nutrient intake to support higher evolution. Conkeldurr are Pokemon more likely seen in human civilization due to that. It’s not completely unheard of to see them in the wild, but it really only occurs in ecosystems where they have little to no competition.” N leaned forward in his seat. “This Conkeldurr…it hasn’t just been enjoying the increased resources in the city environment. It’s been regularly improving itself…with purpose. It’s…trained well.” N’s face screwed into a disdainful expression, like having to acknowledge that “good training,” or the team captain being a “good trainer” could be a possible thing. “It won’t be an easy opponent.”
“You say that, but…” Cheren put a hand to his chin, leaning forward in his seat. “You think Sena won’t make it easy for him, either.”
N hesitated, before giving him a slow nod.
Sena’s reaction to the Conkeldurr only seemed to confirm their conjectures: he let out a nervous-sounding wheeze, but still held himself tall. His eyes, while shaking in clear nervousness, didn’t waver and continued to stare down his opponent. His lips stretched out into an excited grin, even as his teeth chattered.
“I can tell! You’ve worked really hard, haven’t you?” He slammed his fists together, bringing attention back to the Pokeball clenched in one hand. “But so have we!” Sena twisted his body, winding up a throw. “We won’t lose!”
And he threw the Pokeball upward, letting the Pokemon loose several feet above the field. It was a blur of browns, oranges, and whites, spinning in place as fire coursed around its body and obscured its form. As its momentum came to a halt, it dropped down to the field, spreading its arms wide in triumph, landing in a crouch before standing up straight, letting out a triumphant cry as it beat its white-furred chest. Without thinking, Hilbert had pointed his Pokedex at the mysterious Pokemon, even though in the back of his mind he was already aware that it wasn’t in his database.
Hilda, on the other hand, already had the National Pokedex in her possession, so she had no problem with shoving her own into everyone’s faces.
“That’s it, that’s the one!” she enthused, showing the display on her Pokedex. “That’s Sena’s partner!”
Infernape, the display read, the Flame Pokemon. It uses unique fighting moves with fire on its hands and feet. It will take on any opponent.
What a fitting description, Hilbert couldn’t help but think amusedly. Somehow, that really did seem like a Pokemon that Sena would have - one willing to take on all challengers, fighting in their own way. He glanced down at the field again, taking in the Infernape’s - Monta’s- appearance.
A crown of fire danced on its head, and its joints were emblazoned with golden emblems. Brown limbs ended in white - furred arms and legs, long and lithe and always moving - the Pokemon seemed to constantly be bouncing on the balls of its feet, not unlike Sena himself. It gestured, an expressive fistpump showing its enthusiasm as it roared, and behind it Sena did the same, almost as if they were feeling the same exact exhilaration, the same glee in facing down a challenge.
“Monta’s the number one receiver on my team! Together with him, we’ll catch anything you dish out!”
—-------
[a/n]: hilda! there's big sis, because of course i'd end up expanding the world of hilbert and co more despite initially only writing them as windows to observe sena with. oops
[cheren voice @ sena] you expect me to believe that this fucking TWINK could play FOOTBALL
[hilbert] cheren you ARE a fucking twink
poor sena. the woes of being five foot three.
tryout time! finally sena gets to nyoom properly! he is in his element! there are people cheering! there are footballs being thrown! n is there!
wait
(yes sena did invite n to watch football)
(no n is not entirely sure why he decided to go watch football)
(big lanky goblin forest man is too toll for scrunched up seats. he is awkward)
i feel like cheren is having a bigger conflict with n than our resident truth hero himself (spoilers, hilbert is the truth hero). which is funny. i appreciate that
n speaking slowly for once because he is very much out of his element and does not know much about what is happening...
tfw you accidentally shipbait yourself. i say that, but i can definitely only see sena and bianca as friends. b2w2 azume version where sena's a helpful npc along with bianca and cheren, lmao...
n under the painfully wrong deduction that sena has lived with and trained with pokemon all his life...no babe that's just pure Learned Instinct
hilda being the experienced trainer that can see through sena's ability instantly...she's basically at his level sans the experience, the only reason she's not champion is just because she hasn't challenged the elite four yet.
oops. you're not in america anymore sena, you can't call it amefuto anymore!!!! oops
i just made Monta like 300% cooler than he actually is. absolutely incredible.
anyways will i actually write the battle this time? i don't fucking know! lmao. i have some ideas for it but this fic was getting long enough as is.
Going to the gym that day was obviously a futile endeavor. Even if he had bothered to wait for Elesa to return from the train station, the venue for a fashion show was in a tizzy. Apparently, Sena’s battle with her had happened there, and the remaining crowd was still hyped up by the match. Besides, after having a whole six-on-six match, it was unlikely that she would have any more battles that day.
Instead, Hilbert returned to the Musical Theater to let his team enjoy trying out a few shows - his Dewott especially seemed to enjoy dressing up. And his Simisear wasn’t so bad on the stage, either, flipping about and blowing fire like a true acrobat. Maybe he’d take them there again after the gym match. It wasn’t such a bad way to wind down after a lot of excitement.
He’d then poked around the Battle Subway, and found a familiar face: his older sister, Hilda. She’d started her journey the year before, and obtained all eight badges needed to challenge Victory Road and the Elite Four. She’d even managed to climb to the top of the summit, but then inexplicably decided to make her way back down, opting to roam around Unova instead.
“Standing at the top of Victory Road, I could see that Unova was larger than I ever thought!” she’d cheerfully told Hilbert and their mother upon returning. “There’s other gyms I haven’t challenged, and places I haven’t seen! How could I even think about challenging the top dogs of Unova if I haven’t seen everything else the place has to offer, right?”
It was that statement that had really gotten Hilbert excited for his own chance to start his Pokemon Journey, the chance to travel. To see what his sister had seen, and maybe more. He’d seen the true value of a journey that day, listening to his sister’s stories.
Maybe that was why Sena fascinated him so much, back then. His eyes were so much like his sister’s - they’d found what they wanted in their journeys, and it showed in how they carried themselves, how they moved. Hilda had always been the more exuberant of the two siblings, but now she positively glowed, clearly enjoying what her journey had brought her. Not for the first time, Hilbert wondered if he would ever glow that same way.
When Hilbert asked his sister what she was doing in the Battle Subway, she grinned.
“All sorts of neat people come to ride this thing! Even people from different countries - the Subway’s a great way to get around Unova, after all! I’ve gotten to see all sorts of people and Pokemon here, and it’s a great way to practice working with different party members too! I’m actually here to try battling with a couple of foreign Pokemon I caught while exploring Western Unova!” She planted her hands on her hips in that familiar pose of hers, the one that suggested that she was ready to take on the world, standing tall and firm. Hilbert knew, when she stood like this, his sister was definitely planning on starting something. He couldn't help but look at her warily while she sized him up as her grin grew devious.
“Wanna come with?”
At Hilbert’s confused exclamation, Hilda explained that there were special subway cars that specialized in Multi Battles, and it turned out that Hilda enjoyed teaming up with random trainers that she met on the trains. “There’s tons of different people that gather here from all around the world, but pretty much everyone loves Pokemon, right?”
Hilbert couldn’t fault her logic on that. It sounded fun, anyway, and he needed to burn the built up tension that he hadn’t been able to burn off with a gym battle. The Musical, while fun, didn’t quite scratch that itch.
So he accompanied Hilda on her trek through the Battle Subway, listening as she regaled him with stories of her travels in between battles. She told him about gym leaders, and Victory Road, and the recent influx of foreign Pokemon in the western parts of Unova, showing off the riolu she’d caught there. And in return Hilbert told her about the things he’d seen, about Team Plasma, about Sena, and N, about how he still wasn’t sure about what he wanted to do. But he loved traveling, he’d told her; had come to love searching out hidden truths in the most unlikely of places, exploring all the nooks and crannies of the world that most people hadn’t even bothered to notice.
“Well, aren’t you a romanticist?” Hilda had laughed, her tone not at all mocking. “Even I haven’t felt the need to explore that deeply - just knowing that I’ve been somewhere is good enough for me! But that’s the fun part about traveling, isn’t it? Everyone gets to do it their own way!”
—---
The next day found Hilbert on a busy intersection, staring up at the Big Stadium. He’d definitely be putting aside his plans to challenge Elesa if he opted to visit these tryouts today, but he could challenge her any day. Watching Sena go through tryouts, while not strictly related to his Pokemon Journey, was something he’d only get to see once. Hilda was with him - when Hilbert had mentioned the enigmatic trainer, she’d insisted on seeing him.
“I met a guy on the subway a few days ago who said he was training for tryouts, actually!” Hilda grinned. “Said he wanted to make sure he and his partners were in sync, since he played together with them. Had some Pokemon I’d never seen before, either! Maybe he’ll be in today’s tryouts against this Sena guy, right?”
Hilbert couldn’t get much more out of her - she was terrible at remembering names, and only described the person’s Pokemon as “kinda like your Simisear, but taller! Anyways, he nicknamed it, so it’s not like I remembered the actual Pokemon species or anything!” By the time it occurred to her to check her Pokedex for an actual reference for the mysterious Pokemon, Bianca had shown up, dragging Cheren in tow. Hilbert was surprised to see him - but apparently he’d already been in Nimbasa for a few days.
“I’d been checking out the Small Court and Big Stadium,” Cheren admitted, looking embarrassed. Somehow, Hilbert wasn’t surprised - Cheren had always looked up to strong trainers, especially the current champion. After witnessing Sena’s match against N, he’d certainly be interested in observing him further. “But he wasn’t in the tennis tryouts, or soccer, or even baseball! It’s Wednesday, so the only options left…don’t make any sense!”
Hilbert blinked in confusion, and only watched Cheren’s face crumple further as he and Bianca both confirmed that Sena’s tryouts were indeed in the Big Stadium today.
“But,” spluttered Cheren, nonplussed. “That’s the time and location of the football tryouts!”
“What’s wrong with that?” Bianca asked, oblivious to Cheren’s dismay.
“Have you not seen that guy?!” Cheren demanded, glasses going askew. “He’s barely taller than us, and he looks too…scrawny to play football, don’t you think?!” Bianca put a finger to her mouth, letting out an “ohhhh” in realization. “Besides, the way he battles, it’s completely different to most football players. They usually specialize in Fighting types, and a heavy power style, don’t they?”
“Not always,” Hilda pointed out, making Cheren jump in alarm. “That’s usually the linebackers you’re talking about. The running backs and receivers like to use the sleeker fighting types, like Sawk and Mienshao, from what I remember…although you’re not wrong about the power style. Even though they’re faster than the linemen, they’re still really forceful in how they battle…”
“We haven’t seen Sena use a single Fighting type either…just Bug types,” Cheren mused, tapping his foot impatiently. Hilbert frowned. They’d only seen him battle once, could they really assume all of what he knew from just that? He blinked in surprise when Cheren looked straight at him. “You’ve seen him battle too, Hilbert. His battle style..it was all about evasion and speed! There wasn’t power behind those attacks at all! How is this guy planning on being a football player for Nimba-U with a style like that?”
Hilbert wasn’t sure if Cheren had really seen the truth of Sena’s battle. Yes, he focused on evading attacks, and there wasn’t a single overwhelmingly powerful attack in his arsenal - the strongest move was just a repetitive series of X-Scissors. But the feeling behind those moves, the impact they had despite their lack of strength…
It was like what Sena had said the other day, about Elesa controlling the flow of battle from the start. Sena didn’t need to be powerful to pull people into his pace. He just needed to charge forward relentlessly, in full confidence of himself and his partner’s abilities. In that sense, that would have made him a perfect football player in spirit alone.
So when Cheren looked to him for confirmation, Hilbert shook his head. He wasn’t going to write Sena’s chances off just yet.
—---
If the tryouts had just been watching people randomly pass balls to each other or just watching the potential players’ metrics get assessed, the tryouts would be exceedingly boring to watch, even for the most diehard of Nimba-U fans. No, those initial screenings were already done beforehand, and the players who had made it through were the ones present on the field now. What was instead happening was that the players who had passed initial screening would now play a mock game on randomly-drawn teams, playing their preferred position. This let the coaches evaluate how their skills translated to a real game, and how well they could perform under the pressure of a crowd. The spectators themselves even got to get in the action, being given randomly assigned pennants to cheer for their team. Hilbert and his friends had been given the bright orange pennants to represent the team wearing the inverted jersey colors. (He still wasn’t entirely sure what possessed the emblem designer to pick such clashing colors like orange and yellow. It made watching the team play a little nauseating when they were all bunched together.)
“Huh, they’re already all in uniform, huh?” Hilda noted as they made their way down to the front section. (The seats had also been assigned by lottery, printed on their flags. Somehow they’d gotten lucky.) “Isn’t that gonna make it hard to find him?”
“Maybe,” Cheren muttered, casting his eyes across the stands. As they approached their seats, he stiffened. “Urk.”
“Oh, there’s someone here with us!” Bianca cheered, oblivious to her friend’s dismay. Hilbert blinked in surprise, understanding why Cheren would have suddenly frozen up. Especially since the other occupant of this group of seats was equally frozen, staring up at them with blank eyes.
For the person sitting in front of them was N, looking hilariously out of place with his bushy hair and confused expression. He was tall enough that he seemed to be too big for the cramped seats, folded up against the orange-and-yellow cushioning and feet shoved under the seat in front of him. A zorua was in his arms with an orange pennant in its mouth. Based on the way it was holding itself, so sure and poised, Hilbert strongly suspected it was the Zoroark from before, illusioning itself into a smaller, more convenient form. He blinked owlishly at them, even as Cheren accusingly pointed at him, struggling not to yell.
“What are you doing here?!” he hissed, stomping closer to N as Hilbert explained to the confused Bianca and Hilda about N, speaking in hushed whispers so Cheren wouldn’t be interrupted. N only tilted his head, apparently bemused by the hostility.
“That trainer from before…invited me to spectate. I was…curious.” His eyes stared up at Cheren vacantly as he droned on, the impassive delivery making Cheren back off, unnerved. “A sport made for humans, yet this trainer claims to play together with his Pokemon. And that this is his true ambition, yet he still battles, and exhibits such strength…” He looked away, eyes casting over the field. “The formulas that make up this world, the ones that add together people and Pokemon…perhaps I will find a part of them here.”
Hilbert barely understood N on a good day, and now he was bringing formulas into the mix? He couldn’t keep up with all this. Instead, he huffed and sat down in the seat between Cheren and N, effectively cutting off any budding argument that might have started. He didn’t come here for any sort of confusing debate, today was just only going to be about football! He had his Dewott on his lap, and after a moment’s consideration he decided to send out his Simisear as well. Hilda did mention that one of the players had a similar Pokemon, right?
“I wonder where Sena is, anyway?” Bianca hummed, sitting to the other side of Cheren and pulling Hilda down with her. “He should have made it this far, right?”
“Obviously, or we would have come here for nothing,” Cheren groused, leaning back in his seat and pointedly avoiding N’s gaze. “It’d be disappointing to not see him here after all this trouble. You didn’t happen to see him earlier, did you?” The question was clearly directed at N, even if Cheren refused to look at him, so the older man had no trouble with responding immediately.
“I have not,” he stated quietly, eyes fixed on the football field. “With the way these uniforms are designed, everyone’s silhouette is so similar…I cannot make anyone out.”
N wasn’t wrong, but Hilbert felt like it shouldn’t have been too hard to find Sena regardless. There were quite a few players with shorter stature on both sides of the field, and eventually Hilbert pointed out at one with the number 21 emblazoned on their uniform in bright yellow. This player seemed particularly diminutive, and their helmet had a clear blue eyeshield that stood out against the sea of yellow and orange. It reminded Hilbert of the blue eyeshield Sena sometimes had attached to his visor, and as he pointed that player out to the rest of his friends, said player turned to face them.
They had been sitting on the ground, stretching their legs, but as they stood up they seemed to become more energetic, waving at the stands. Before Hilbert and the others could question it, the player began jogging up to them, and as they came closer their features became clearer.
“Heeeeeeeey! So you guys really came?” That voice was unmistakable, so Hilbert grinned in excitement even before Sena removed his helmet to greet them. He laughed as the helmet came off, throwing his features into clear view. It made it easier to spot the joy on his face - he was clearly in his element here on the field. Somehow, despite his short stature, he truly did look like a football player.
Hilbert glanced amusedly at Cheren, who couldn’t keep his mouth from gaping open like a Magikarp. He looked like he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to be proven right about Sena being there, or proven wrong about Sena trying to play football. Bianca, on the other hand, had no reservations about showing her delight in seeing him again - she’d taken a shine to Sena after yesterday’s incident, and seemed to look up to him as a potential role model for what she could become like in the future.
“You made it!” she squealed, causing Sena to laugh in embarrassment. “You’re finally playing a game in the Big Stadium! Oooh, so does this mean you’re on the team now?”
“Ahaha, well…” Sena ignored Cheren’s hushed whisper of “it’s still the tryouts…” and waved the hand not holding his helmet. “This game is gonna determine whether I’m a main roster player or not. Even if my team doesn’t win, I can still be considered, but…” The grin on his face suddenly grew sharper, intimidating, even. Hilbert felt Cheren and N stiffen on either side of him, clearly remembering the last time he’d smiled like that. "I wouldn’t be an athlete if I didn’t play to win, yeah?”
“Heee! Well said!” Hilda laughed, before leaning over the seat in front of her. “Long time no see, you! I see you haven’t lost any of your fighting spirit from back then!”
Everyone blinked in confusion at Hilda’s easy recognition of the football player, even Sena himself. Slow realization dawned on his face as he appeared to recognize her, however. “In the Battle Subway, yeah?”
“Mmmhm! Battling with you was so interesting! Now that I see you’re a football player, a lot of the weird commands you did make so much more sense now! No wonder you’re so good at battling in a team!” That praise got another soft laugh out of Sena as he straightened himself.
“Well, when you play in a team, you have to play your part, right? One of the first things I learned about football is that it focuses on three things: power, tactics, and speed. And each person on the team has their own role to play…in my case, it’s speed.” He looked like he was about to say more, but the coach’s whistle blew, making him jump. “Ah! Gotta go! Wish me luck, guys!” He slipped his helmet back on, before turning away with a wave. Hilda turned to Hilbert and the others with an excited grin, all of them staring at her expectantly.
“That’s the guy from the Subway, Hilbert! The one I mentioned with that Pokemon! The one that’s kinda like a Simisear, remember?”
Well, obviously he remembered. His Simisear perked its ears up on hearing the comparison, before leaning over the seat in front. Cheren, on the other hand, leaned closer to the rest of the group.
“Like a Simisear? So it’s a fire type?”
“Mmhm! But I think it’s also a fighting type, ‘cause he said he was training with it for tryouts, and y’know it’s practically required to have a fighting type with you for football tryouts, yeah?” It was certainly an unspoken rule amongst the football players to have at least one fighting type on their team, and Sena certainly wouldn’t have any of the usual ones. A fire and a fighting type…the first one that came to mind was Bianca’s Pignite. But apparently Sena had one that was more monkey-like, and had trained together with it specifically for the game…
Curious. A curious thing, indeed.
—--
Admittedly, Hilbert didn’t really know much about football. He knew that the goal was to get the ball over the opponent’s goal line, but not much else. The different positions, their roles, the different tactics, Hilbert couldn’t make sense of any of that stuff.
But he knew how to read a crowd, and the way Sena riled them up was unmistakable. When he had the ball…it was like the way he moved completely changed, feinting and twisting around his opponents before they even registered he had moved. He’d scored two of the touchdowns that his team had made, which was apparently a significant contribution according to Cheren. And even when he wasn’t scoring, he was running interference, making sure receivers got their catches or blocking players that were at least twice his weight. Even if it was for the slightest of seconds, it seemed like that was enough of a difference to change the entire play. He wasn’t always successful, but he managed to come through when the play truly counted.
These were all new players without any reputation to speak of, save for the ones that had been famous in the high school football scene. There were no names on their uniforms, so spectators began calling out numbers of players that had really caught their attention. Increasingly, the cry of “Twenty-one!” could be heard throughout the stands.
“What the hell,” Cheren mumbled, slumping in his seat. “He’s actually good.”
“Of course he is! He’d have to be good if he was auditioning here, right?” Bianca crowed, having apparently forgotten her previous doubt.
“It’s strange,” N stated, making everyone jump in their seats. He’d been quiet the whole game, opting to instead stare intensely at the field, so hearing him speak all of a sudden was startling. “He moves…kind of like a Pokemon. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Like a Pokemon?” Cheren demanded. “How?!”
“It’s his judgment,” N continued, apparently not bothered by Cheren’s interruption. “It’s practically instinctual. Like he’s lived his life like a wild Pokemon, running from predators. That snap decision, the way he’s able to pick out the most efficient way around in less than a second, and then act on it…he hasn’t lived in the wilderness or anything, right? What reason would he have to run like that?”
“People can train themselves to run like that, you know?” Cheren was skeptical, but still hanging onto N’s every word. Hilbert simply remembered Sena’s own words, what he had said about his days before choosing to get into sports.
“It still wouldn’t look like that,” N insisted, his words starting to come out at his usual unnaturally rapid pace. “There’s a difference. Besides, there’s more to it…it’s hard to explain to a human.” To a human? The way N phrased it…did he not see himself as one? “You remember how he battled against me. He was able to move in time with his Pokemon…no. He was able to direct his Pokemon and show them how to move…to the untrained eye it would look like he was in sync with them. He wouldn’t know how to move like that unless he ran side-by-side with them…”
“So you’re saying he trains together with his Pokemon?” Bianca asked, curiously. “Like, literally on the field with them?”
“I imagine so,” N murmured.
“But that’s crazy!” Cheren snapped. “Humans can’t keep up with Pokemon, he’d hurt himself trying!”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Hilda interrupted. “I battled with Sena on the Subway, and we finished a whole twenty-one car streak together. I dunno what this guy’s match with him was like, but you’d believe him if you saw how Sena and his Pokemon acted. They were practically moving at the same time, and sometimes he didn’t even need to give commands! He’d just, like, jerk his arm or something and the Pokemon would do the exact same thing. They obviously knew each other really well.”
“But isn’t that different from actually running with them?”
“Who knows?” Hilda shrugged at Cheren’s question. “Wait ‘till the end of the game, you’ll see whether I’m really right or not!”
Cheren had always respected Hilda and her capabilities as a trainer, so he reluctantly assented to her words. He’d been proven wrong enough times already today to know when he was missing something. He didn’t appear discouraged, however, instead curious at what sort of strength the athlete would show them.
—--
The game had ended, with a hard-earned victory for Sena’s team. He’d managed to score a final touchdown in the last few seconds of the fourth quarter, and it had taken him several minutes to pull himself away from the team’s celebrations to approach center field. Many of the official team members had lined up there, waiting for the new recruits to come over.
“It’s kind of like an unofficial final step of the scouting process,” Hilda explained to the others. She’d seen other tryouts during her journey, so she could explain this well enough. “Honestly, it’s kinda more like hazing than anything else. While the coaches are evaluating the results of the game, the seniors in the team will challenge the new competitors in a Pokemon Battle.”
“What’s the point of that?” N moaned, sounding upset at the prospect. “The Pokemon don’t play in matches themselves, do they?”
“It’s kinda just another way they jockey for position, or something?” Hilda guessed. “I mean, the Pokemon do help them out when they train sometimes, and it’s also a really good way of testing a player’s temperament and judgment. If they’re good at working together with their Pokemon, then they should be good at working together with their teammates on the field, or something like that. Plus, I guess it just lets the seniors show the new freshmen who’s boss.” Then, Hilda abruptly grinned, her expression growing cheeky. “I said all that, but the real reason is probably just ‘cause it’s fun, right? Who doesn’t like a good battle?”
Hilbert didn’t need to turn around to know that N was glaring murderously at her over his head. He wondered how his sister could miss such open hostility. Or maybe she did notice and just didn’t care. Both possibilities were equally likely when it came to her.
“Oooh!” Bianca cheered, cutting through the tension. “They’re starting, they’re starting!” Indeed, the freshmen and the current team had lined up facing each other, a line of recruits forming in front of each team member. Sena was up front, facing what looked like the current team captain at one end of the line.
“Of course he’d go for the strongest one,” Cheren groused, although he did not appear to be as mad as he sounded. “Or did the team captain go for him…?”
“It could be either way,” Hilda noted, settling back into her seat. “He was getting a lot of attention earlier….maybe they feel a little threatened. Although,” she grinned, watching Sena pump his fist and point at the team captain, apparently reacting to some sort of gesture said captain had made, “he certainly doesn’t shy away from picking fights, it seems.”
There were excited squeals as Sena and the team captain squared up against each other, both taking a stance in the center of the field. The popularity of the team captain was fairly evident, so comparing him to the newcomer who had distinguished himself, Sena really did look like a small upstart next to him. Even the bulky contours of the football uniform couldn’t hide how short he was compared to most of the football players on the team, making the matchup look even more lopsided. There was no doubt in Hilbert’s mind that Sena would put up an excellent fight regardless, but he couldn’t help but wonder about the impression that the rest of the crowd had. The team captain was clearly a favorite of the local population, so Sena was already at a disadvantage in their eyes.
He couldn’t wait to see how the football player surprised everyone.
—---
Down on the field, Sena was grinning wildly as he palmed a Pokeball. His opponent had waited until the cameras for broadcasting the student matches had turned on before starting to grandstand, but Sena didn’t appear to be offended by the clear change in demeanor, taking the bravado in stride and matching it with his own.
“My team and I only strive for victory!” he declared, thumping the hand holding the Pokeball against his chest. “Whatever you throw at us, we’ll surpass it and win!”
“Bold words coming from a newbie!” The team captain slammed his fists together in an attempt to intimidate his opponent, who remained undaunted. “I don’t know what you think football is like back where you come from, but you’re in Unova now, boy! We’ll show you some real Unovan football-style battlin’!”
“Bring it on! We’ll show you our amefuto!” Sena blinked, before putting his free hand to his chin, confused. “Amefuto? This is Unova though, so…unofu…nofu…Novafuto?” He shrugged, before brandishing his Pokeball again. “Whatever it is, we’ll win!”
“Heh! Don’t know what kinda nonsense you’re talking about, but you’d better get your head in the game! See if you can get past this!” The captain tossed out their Pokeball with a powerful throw, releasing a menacingly large Conkeldurr. It roared fiercely, knocking the two concrete pillars that it held together before thrusting them into the ground with a loud crash. As it flexed its muscles and posed for the crowd, the captain taunted Sena, going through what was clearly a practiced routine at this point.
“My partner’s no ordinary Conkeldurr, you know!” he crowed, flexing in time with his Pokemon. “We’ve trained together for this since this guy was a little Timburr, gotten up again and again from all the hard knocks life has thrown our way, until both our muscles have grown stronger than steel!” A final triumphant flex roused up the crowd, and they began chanting their names in a loud, oppressive song. Hilbert almost felt tempted to cover his ears, and would have if he wasn’t so intent on catching everything Sena did on the field. He couldn’t imagine what the pressure would have been like on the field itself.
“That athlete isn’t lying,” N murmured, his voice barely being heard over the clamor despite the rapid lilt of his words. “That Conkeldurr isn’t just a prime specimen, it’s clearly been exercising frequently. Conkeldurr in the wild don’t usually have the luxury to be able to flex in such a grandstanding manner…honestly, Conkeldurr as a species aren’t often found in the wild to begin with.” Hilbert glanced over at him curiously, wordlessly prompting N to speak further. “The trials of living in the wild mean that many Gurrdurr don’t have the necessary consistent nutrient intake to support higher evolution. Conkeldurr are Pokemon more likely seen in human civilization due to that. It’s not completely unheard of to see them in the wild, but it really only occurs in ecosystems where they have little to no competition.” N leaned forward in his seat. “This Conkeldurr…it hasn’t just been enjoying the increased resources in the city environment. It’s been regularly improving itself…with purpose. It’s…trained well.” N’s face screwed into a disdainful expression, like having to acknowledge that “good training,” or the team captain being a “good trainer” could be a possible thing. “It won’t be an easy opponent.”
“You say that, but…” Cheren put a hand to his chin, leaning forward in his seat. “You think Sena won’t make it easy for him, either.”
N hesitated, before giving him a slow nod.
Sena’s reaction to the Conkeldurr only seemed to confirm their conjectures: he let out a nervous-sounding wheeze, but still held himself tall. His eyes, while shaking in clear nervousness, didn’t waver and continued to stare down his opponent. His lips stretched out into an excited grin, even as his teeth chattered.
“I can tell! You’ve worked really hard, haven’t you?” He slammed his fists together, bringing attention back to the Pokeball clenched in one hand. “But so have we!” Sena twisted his body, winding up a throw. “We won’t lose!”
And he threw the Pokeball upward, letting the Pokemon loose several feet above the field. It was a blur of browns, oranges, and whites, spinning in place as fire coursed around its body and obscured its form. As its momentum came to a halt, it dropped down to the field, spreading its arms wide in triumph, landing in a crouch before standing up straight, letting out a triumphant cry as it beat its white-furred chest. Without thinking, Hilbert had pointed his Pokedex at the mysterious Pokemon, even though in the back of his mind he was already aware that it wasn’t in his database.
Hilda, on the other hand, already had the National Pokedex in her possession, so she had no problem with shoving her own into everyone’s faces.
“That’s it, that’s the one!” she enthused, showing the display on her Pokedex. “That’s Sena’s partner!”
Infernape, the display read, the Flame Pokemon. It uses unique fighting moves with fire on its hands and feet. It will take on any opponent.
What a fitting description, Hilbert couldn’t help but think amusedly. Somehow, that really did seem like a Pokemon that Sena would have - one willing to take on all challengers, fighting in their own way. He glanced down at the field again, taking in the Infernape’s - Monta’s- appearance.
A crown of fire danced on its head, and its joints were emblazoned with golden emblems. Brown limbs ended in white - furred arms and legs, long and lithe and always moving - the Pokemon seemed to constantly be bouncing on the balls of its feet, not unlike Sena himself. It gestured, an expressive fistpump showing its enthusiasm as it roared, and behind it Sena did the same, almost as if they were feeling the same exact exhilaration, the same glee in facing down a challenge.
“Monta’s the number one receiver on my team! Together with him, we’ll catch anything you dish out!”
—-------
[a/n]: hilda! there's big sis, because of course i'd end up expanding the world of hilbert and co more despite initially only writing them as windows to observe sena with. oops
[cheren voice @ sena] you expect me to believe that this fucking TWINK could play FOOTBALL
[hilbert] cheren you ARE a fucking twink
poor sena. the woes of being five foot three.
tryout time! finally sena gets to nyoom properly! he is in his element! there are people cheering! there are footballs being thrown! n is there!
wait
(yes sena did invite n to watch football)
(no n is not entirely sure why he decided to go watch football)
(big lanky goblin forest man is too toll for scrunched up seats. he is awkward)
i feel like cheren is having a bigger conflict with n than our resident truth hero himself (spoilers, hilbert is the truth hero). which is funny. i appreciate that
n speaking slowly for once because he is very much out of his element and does not know much about what is happening...
tfw you accidentally shipbait yourself. i say that, but i can definitely only see sena and bianca as friends. b2w2 azume version where sena's a helpful npc along with bianca and cheren, lmao...
n under the painfully wrong deduction that sena has lived with and trained with pokemon all his life...no babe that's just pure Learned Instinct
hilda being the experienced trainer that can see through sena's ability instantly...she's basically at his level sans the experience, the only reason she's not champion is just because she hasn't challenged the elite four yet.
oops. you're not in america anymore sena, you can't call it amefuto anymore!!!! oops
i just made Monta like 300% cooler than he actually is. absolutely incredible.
anyways will i actually write the battle this time? i don't fucking know! lmao. i have some ideas for it but this fic was getting long enough as is.