The fur was soft and cloud-like beneath her hand. Her fingers drifted through it effortlessly. There seemed to be no individual hairs; they formed together seamlessly, and caressed her with a soft warmth that could not be found anywhere else in the world but on the belly of a mew.
Ai was very bored sitting at her computer. She leaned against the back of her spinny chair with her eyes closed and swiveled slowly back and forth, holding Kumiko in her lap and absentmindedly petting his pure white stomach. The mew was asleep.
She was trying to think, and to plan. It was easy enough to say that her goal was to become a fashion idol. It was even easier to say that she would win using Kumiko's beauty. But it was quite another to go ahead and do it... She had already learned that contests didn't take place all that often; this life would not be the week-long journey she had imagined it to be. She had to work hard just to get accepted into the contest, and then she would be competing against an unknown amount of people just to try to get the prize. And a quick search had revealed that she needed to win first place at least three times before she would be considered an idol! Of course, it probably wasn't all that hard to win, especially for someone as talented and intelligent as herself... But this was something she had never done before, and Ai knew that there was a lot that she had to learn. She wasn't living with her parents any more; they couldn't bribe the judges; they couldn't buy her a trophy. She was going to do this completely alone, and prove her worth.
Her eyes snapped open with, and she leaned forward in her chair and pushed Kumiko unceremoniously out of her lap. He woke with a start and managed to levitate before he hit the floor. He floated behind Ai and peered over her shoulder while her manicured fingers flew across the keyboard.
The answer was so obvious! She just had to practice, and then she would be ready by the time she had her first pokemon contest. She'd watch a few examples, research what mews were supposedly capable of, and then she would whip Kumiko into shape! She would do whatever it took to be ready for the contest-- to win, and to be that much closer to going home.
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 7:28 pm
A quick search brought her up to a list of known moves that a mew could learn. The more she read, the more certain she became that she had found a completely inaccurate waste of time. What the heck was a Transform attack? Mews couldn't transform, could they? She had heard of one pokemon that could transform... some jello-type thing... a ditto? But Kumiko had always retained his shape. A couple of the attacks made somewhat more sense, while others were just more bizarre. How could mews know so many different types of attacks? Didn't pokemon generally use one kind of attack?
One of the options listed made Ai snort aloud. Roar. It was ridiculous; Kumiko was very quiet; he was only capable of meowing, and that had hardly any volume at all. She spun her chair around so that she was face-to-face with the mew. "Roar," she said.
"MEW!"
Ai spun her chair back around to look at her monitor, patting her hair back into place and checking that she hadn't just peed her pants. "... Okay," she squeaked. "I guess this site is real. Ow... What? Hello? Hello?" She plugged her ears and tested her voice, then unplugged them and tried it again. It sounded like she was trying to listen while under water, plus she could hear an odd ringing. "Dammit, Kumiko, if you just made me go deaf..."
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Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 11:45 am
Kumiko hovered around Ai in concern, his small face pouting and worried. After another minute or so, though, the ringing stopped and Ai could hear normally again. She returned her attention to the attacks on the screen, reading their descriptions and trying to imagine them. It would have been best to actually see how Kumiko executed them, but she didn't want her room to get destroyed. She started taking notes on some of the more interesting attacks.
"All right," she said at last, shutting off her computer and getting up from the rolling chair. "Let's get to the gym and practice," she said to Kumiko unenthusiastically.
Kumiko's expression brightened with excitement! Time to go outside! His ears wilted somewhat when he saw Ai pull out his master ball.
"Yeah, right, I'm not going to let you cause any trouble on the way," Ai said sternly. "Get in there."
The mew was obedient, and as soon as he was safely tucked away, Ai grabbed her bag and coat and was on her way. She locked the door to her apartment and was walking purposefully down the street before she realized that she didn't know where the stadium was.
Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:06 pm
"Well, whatever," Ai muttered. The stadium was meant for pokemon battles and not regular training anyway, wasn't it? She wasn't a barbarian; she wasn't interested in battles. She looked around a bit. "Here will be fine, anyway." She walked briskly down behind a store to an abandoned, overgrown parking lot. Weeds sprung from every crevice in the paved street and the signs were covered with so much graffiti that they were impossible to read. The only objects that appeared to still be in use were a lonely pair of dumpsters, presumably used to throw away the store's garbage.
She pressed the button on Kumiko's master ball twice, in quick succession. The mew re-formed outside of the ball in a beam of red light. He looked around eagerly. Was this a new spot to play? Ooh, what was that over there! There was something shiny!
"Hey, Kumiko!" Ai scolded as her mew started to drift away through the air. "We're not here to mess around; we're going to train! Now listen, I am going to give you commands to see what your attacks are like."
Kumiko nodded and came back to listen. This sounded like a fun game! And Ai hardly ever wanted to play games with him.
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Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:10 pm
"Um... try..." Ai began, running her finger down the list of attacks that she had written down. She paused on a particularly interesting one, and was about to say it when she remembered Kumiko's Roar attack. It just wouldn't do to tell him to use the attack while he was still facing her; she might be killed if the attacks actually worked.
"Aim at that rock on the ground," Ai said, pointing. The blue mew obediently turned around. "Okay... Flamethrower!"
In a moment, Ai ducked and threw her arms over her head as an intense blast of heat issued from Kumiko's mouth, scorching the rock ten feet away. "How are you doing that?" Ai asked breathlessly, getting up slowly as she recovered from the shock. Were all pokemon so unpredictable, or was this the true meaning of a legendary pokemon?
Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:16 pm
"Aim for the rock again... Dragon Pulse," Ai read. This time she braced herself, but her eyes still widened in surprise as a pulse of energy rippled the air, shattering the blackened rock on impact. It seemed that she really would have to take these attacks seriously. Who knew that pokemon were so powerful...? Kumiko might be a better body guard than any human she'd ever had following her around.
Kumiko giggled and clapped his forepaws when the rock burst. It was the first time for him, using some of these attacks, but he knew how to do them instinctively and his aim was already very good.
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Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 3:05 pm
"That's... impressive," Ai told Kumiko. He zoomed over to her and landed on her shoulders, stuffing his head into her curly locks as was his habit. Now knowing what he was capable of, Ai felt a little nervous. She knew she'd have to be careful about what she said around him now, in case she said something that he recognized as a command to attack. Who knew that owning a pokemon would be so dangerous!
"Well, anyway, now we have to figure out how to combine your attacks into a good show for when the pokemon contests start up..." But weren't pokemon contests supposed to show off a specific trait of a pokemon? If she recalled correctly, those traits were supposed to be good things, like 'cute' and 'beautiful' and 'cool'. Scary pokemon of destruction probably wasn't a category, although Ai felt that Kumiko could win it with his Flamethrower, Roar, and Dragon Pulse...
Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 7:35 am
"Let's head back and watch some videos of pokemon contests," she said, and then realized that she was talking to a kitten again. Pokemon were stupid creatures, right? Just animals. It wasn't like he could understand her... so why was she taking the time to talk to him?
She turned and walked back, with Kumiko weightlessly clinging to her shoulders for a free ride. The short excursion would have felt pointless, if she did not recall the destruction of the rock. Imagine if he had tried that in her room! It would have resulted in complete destruction. Which made her worry... what if he did try to perform those attacks inside? Wild pokemon could attack without a command, right? So Kumiko probably could, too. She turned sharply, causing Kumiko to fall out of her hair and tumble through the air before he could right himself and float back.
"Listen carefully, Kumiko!" she said, putting on her iciest, sternest look. She was pleased by his reaction; he certainly registered her tone, if he couldn't understand the words. "You are not to use any attacks unless I tell you to, okay? And you can never use them while you're indoors! Okay?"
Kumiko nodded emphatically, until Ai was satisfied. She continued walking home, with Kumiko floating at her side, wondering what he had done wrong to make her mad.
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Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 8:02 am
Back at her apartment, Ai quickly booted up her computer and looked up previous contest victors. She found one about a squirtle, and watched its performance. It seemed to her that it had altogether too much spinning and sparkly attacks, but it looked like that that was what the judges wanted. The last attack made for the grand finale. If it worked for the squirtle and its trainer, then that tactic should work for herself and Kumiko.
She browsed around until she found the official guidelines for the pokemon contests. It turned out that there was a battle portion of the contests, too. She had never done a battle before, let alone a contest battle... She looked up a contest battle as well, and studied the tactics that were used. In the battles, it looked like the goal was to make your opponent look bad while making yourself look good, within the time limit. It also looked like fancy attack combinations were successful. Pretty lights and sparkly attacks... is that really what the judges would look for?
Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 6:44 am
"Okay then... This might work," Ai said, and then shut up when she realized she was talking to herself aloud again. She really had been alone a long time, hadn't she? The sooner she got this over with, the sooner she could get back home, to civilization.
She pulled out a pen and a pad of paper and flicked between screens showing a mew's movelist and other contest winners' performances. It looked like costumes with the trainer matching their pokemon were popular, though she doubted that they actually gained you any points. Still, it was something to keep in mind. Performances that flowed smoothly and used attack combinations, she noticed, always earned high praise. And sparkles and flashing lights were always approved of. Well, it was something to go off of, at least.
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