Chương 93: Chapter 91

Camp was set up within line of sight of the main path, around the pond next to the trees. A few beginning trainers passed by and tried to challenge me and my team to a battle, but I politely turned them down due to the difference in experience. While my team members needed practice, I'd already learned from the two battles earlier in the day that my Pokémon far outclassed theirs. Ponyta and I took a few walks around the area to see if Ralts was still present, but nothing too overt.

It was mostly just a casual check to see if it was present while also scouting the local terrain. This section was rather peaceful, and its proximity to the road meant few wild Pokémon actually approached, despite the source of water nearby. However, even while taking a break here, all members of my team were on high alert. Now that we'd encountered Ralts at least once, Ponyta had its mental signature memorized and would be able to pick it out from crowds more easily.

As a low level Pokémon, it was unlikely its Teleport could bring it that far, so we'd at least get a warning before it showed up. At several points, Ponyta lifted up his head as if he was detecting something, but would quickly put it back down. Either he was getting false alarms, which I doubted based on his skill, or he was sensing Ralts move close by before it left once again.

One of the reasons I had battled with those two trainers earlier was to try to pretend to be a beginning trainer, although my Pokémon had won a little too easily. Ralts had challenged us when Ponyta and I had been walking along, so while it hadn't known how strong my Pokémon were, it most likely knew now. Just in case, whenever I left the camp, I made sure I was only accompanied by either Carbink or Dedenne if Ponyta wasn't with me, just to make sure my stronger team members wouldn't scare it away.

In all honesty, I regretted not bringing Whimsicott. Even though his presence might have discouraged Ralts from approaching, he would have been able to lay a number of tricks and traps to stop Ralts in its tracks to let us talk to it. Without him here, we'd have to resort to the classic strategy of beating Ralts in a fight and capturing it while it was fainted. I wasn't a fan of doing that, but I could at least try to convince it afterwards.

My walks around the place were relatively uneventful, but I did them frequently and had my team members practice their moves to pretend we were just training. Ponyta used Confusion to pick up stray stones and leaves, Carbink used Smack Down to "quick draw" and shoot singular rocks at targets I pointed out, and Dedenne, well, he scurried around trees to see if he could find any berries hidden within them. He had no reservations about stealing from a wild Pokémon's secret stash if he could find them.

Eventually, on my seventh walk, our target finally showed up. I had just finished telling Carbink about Wally's and my trip in the Hoenn desert when the diminutive Psychic Type suddenly appeared before us. All it took was for Ralts to lock eyes with Carbink for the battle to start. Just like before, Ralts began with a Growl that caused Carbink to shrink back at the threatening noise.

It then briefly moved faster than we could track, leaving illusionary duplicates in places where it paused, and formed a firing line of fake images of itself in a row before it. I called out for Carbink to use Smack Down. Just like during our practice, Carbink sent a single chunk of stone forward to hit one of the illusions. It passed through, but the lingering image faded away.

The attack wasn't that strong, but they were able to very quickly use it several times in a row, snagging Ralts right in the chest with one of their attacks. When the stone was flying, there was a brief glow of blue around it, but Ralts failed to stop it with its Psychic Type powers. The wild Pokémon stumbled back and I could see a faint discoloration on its chest as a bruise already began to form.

Since this was the first time it had paused its attacks in this quick battle, I got a solid look at it, and what I saw didn't make me happy. Ralts was still injured. Its green helmet was scuffed, and it had marks all over its body from injuries that had yet to be healed. It had only sustained one attack so far, yet it was already panting. However, its eyes were focused and staring at Carbink with what I could only describe as a determination to win.

I opened my mouth to call for the battle to stop, but I was interrupted by a blue glow surrounding Carbink as they were pushed back. The Confusion attack was weak, but it did cause Carbink to spin in the air chaotically as they were moved, unfortunately confusing them in the process. I frowned.

"Focus on defense. See if you can surround Ralts in screens." Carbink closed their eyes and tried to use Light Screen to create a box around Ralts, an idea I had shamelessly stolen from a certain trainer's Mr. Mime. Unfortunately, the box was uneven, and Carbink wasn't able to keep the walls solid for too long. Ralts still Teleported out instead of pushing through, then tried to use Confusion against Carbink again. The attack tried to spin them, but this time Carbink was prepared.

They resisted the twist, and even better, the slight pain from the subtle twisting of space let them snap themselves out of their confusion. In response, Carbink sent another Smack Down forward, but Ralts Teleported away and didn't reappear anywhere close by. The next few moments were spent in tension, but it quickly became evident that once again, Ralts had fled the battle. I let out a sigh and Carbink made a few sad noises.

"Let's not worry about it, alright? It got away from Ponyta too. We'll get it next time." Carbink floated over to me, sniffling, and dejectedly tilted towards the ground. I placed my hand on their head and floated them back upwards to give them a smile. They sniffed to try to stop crying and put on a brave face. Together, we returned to the camp.

"Ralts Teleported away again," I said once we came back.

"It was still injured from the last battle, and it seems that it's not letting itself get fully healed before fights. I'm not sure if hurting it further is the right answer, even if it means making it faint. Any ideas?" I looked around at my team, but unfortunately, everyone seemed either lost in thought or were staring at me cluelessly. Ninetales's brow was furrowed and Mawile and Ponyta were both staring at the floor.

Carbink stared at me expectantly while Altaria just preened himself, when suddenly, Dedenne jumped forward. Leaping out of Altaria's fluff, Dedenne scurried forward to stand in the center of this little group meeting going on. Once he was sure he had everyone's attention after a few squeaks, he bashed his paws together and gained a glint in his eyes. I ran my hand down my face.

"You still want to fight it?" I asked. He excitedly nodded. His cheeks sparked in response.

"I don't want you hurting Ralts further than it is now, but maybe we can at least paralyze it. Once its under that status condition, catching it might be easier but it'll still put up a fight. I don't want to go out for another 'walk' since it doesn't look like it's spending enough time to rest, so let's take a bit to rest ourselves to give it time to recover. Hopefully this time will be more successful." Ralts reappeared within the hour.

I seemed to have completely misunderstood its feelings, as when it Teleported in, it was completely unafraid of the much stronger Ninetales, Mawile, and Altaria in the camp with it. It took one look at me and waited for me to send forward a Pokémon. I couldn't help but to admonish myself that it was seeking out trainers to battle, and I had been the source of two battles so far.

The fact that it was still decently injured had no weight in its mind at all, and it even looked ready to attack a random target if I didn't choose someone to send out soon. I was thankful Ponyta was here. Ninetales was a bit trigger happy when it came to surprises, and without his prior warning, I would have spent the next few moments desperately unfreezing a Ralts-icle instead of sending Dedenne forward. Dedenne already knew the plan, and he immediately used Electroweb to try to pin Ralts down.

The net of electricity was formed between his paws and tossed at Ralts, but just like the many times before, it Teleported away to dodge. I couldn't help but notice that this Teleport went off slower than before. The net had almost landed on Ralts before it appeared a few feet to the left, and it was already panting slightly due to that brief exertion. However, it still seemed intent on battling as it was currently staring Dedenne down with a challenging look.

"Charm," I ordered. Dedenne ran towards Ralts. As he did so, his eyes purposely widened to look a bit larger, and he gained the faintest bit of mischievous smiles. Overall, he gained the look of a lovable scamp as his eyes flashed pink to layer that misleading feeling over Ralts's emotions. I knew it wouldn't last long from what I had seen in Ponyta's battle earlier, but I hoped it would at least make this a bit easier. Ralts didn't take a step back, but rather delayed its next attack ever so slightly.

It built up for a Confusion, but winced and Growled instead, one of its injuries acting up and giving Dedenne plenty of time to react overall. This time, the net landed over Ralts as it went stock still from the electricity now flowing through it. Dedenne leaped forward into a lunging hug against Ralts, and the second he had him in his grasp, he rubbed his sparking cheek against it. Ralts stiffened as the paralysis condition from Nuzzle took over, and I smiled at the result.

"Good job, Dedenne! Ralts, stand down! Please! You're injured and we can help!" Ralts's eyes shifted away from Dedenne to glare at me instead. Its red horn glowed blue as any hesitancy left over from the Charm was shrugged off, and Dedenne's body began to glow as well. The Electric Type was lifted off of Ralts, who was still under the charged net, by the way, and Dedenne was flung straight at me.

Ninetales managed to run forward and catch Dedenne in a weak Extrasensory before he hit me, letting him down onto the floor below. Dedenne hurried back to his feet and stood up to try to go back to fighting Ralts, but the other Pokémon didn't seem intent on continuing the battle. Instead, Ralts just grinned and held out its arms, then bowed and used Teleport to once more disappear. The paralysis hadn't acted up in time to stop it.

That action was completely unexpected, and there was something about the way it grinned that made me nervous. Dedenne, however, just squeaked indignantly at his opponent ditching him.

"Paralysis did nothing to stop it," I mumbled.

"Dedenne, are you alright? Ralts caught you in a decent Confusion at the end there." Dedenne finished chewing whatever he had stored in his mouth from before and spit out the stem of a berry. He held up his paws in closed fists and squeaked out what I could only assume was a series of curses based on Ninetales's reaction and how Mawile covered Ponyta's ears. Letting Dedenne continue as a way to wear down his anger, my mind wandered as I considered how to tackle dealing with Ralts if it kept escaping.

Unfortunately, I reached no conclusions.

"There's nothing we can do to find it if we've only encountered it approaching us so far. We can only hope that nothing goes wrong between now and the next battle." I looked between Ponyta, Carbink, and Dedenne in front of me. Ninetales and Mawile were off to the side, watching, and Altaria was... elsewhere. I didn't know what he was doing, but I trusted him to not wander off too far. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Don't let the disappointment of the battles earlier get you down. We have the afternoon to prepare, so I think it's best to resume training for our upcoming Gym while we're waiting. How are you all feeling?" Ponyta's eye glimmered happily, Carbink looked down dejectedly, and Dedenne scowled. I did a double take at Dedenne. He really didn't look happy.

"We'll get Ralts soon, I know it. For now, what I want to do is talk about the roles I want you all to fill on the team with the approaching first Gym. However, I want to make it clear that what I say now isn't an absolute demand for your future. If I want you to train or develop in a way you don't like, just tell me and we can work on something different. If we're battling, we're battling together, and I want to make sure you all will enjoy it just as much as I do."

They all nodded at that—well, Carbink tilted their body back and forth to mimic a nod—and I went down the line to quickly summarize how I wanted each of them to train.

"Ponyta, you'll be a physical attacker supported by your special attacks and utility moves. I think we should work on using two moves at once for you. Some members of the team have worked on it on their own, but I've never personally dedicated my time specifically for that goal. You'll be the first." His eyes literally sparkled in excitement at my words.

"Carbink, I want to get your attacks up to par, but more importantly, your defenses are where you'll excel. No one attack should take you out, and every foe should struggle to hurt you at all, especially with practice with both Light Screen and Reflect. For now, your strategy will mostly boil down to whittling your opponents down due to your weak attacks, but in the future we can work out better options like using Calm Mind and/or Trick Room to sweep. No matter what, you'll be a solid member of the team." I paused.

"That, uh, solid pun wasn't intentional." Carbink still laughed at it anyway.

"Finally, Dedenne. Your species isn't capable of using powerful Electric Type moves with the same frequency as others, so I was thinking that instead, we could focus on—" Dedenne interrupted me by squeaking and shaking his head angrily. He squeezed his limbs into his body and a few sparks flew off of him. I recognized that movement as the start of Discharge.

"... You want to be an attacker?" I asked. He nodded, and I scratched my head.

"I'll be honest, I'm not really sure how I can help you with that. If you want to learn Fairy Type attacks like Play Rough or Dazzling Gleam, I can help, and that extends to using status and utility moves in a tricky manner, too. Raw power Electric Type moves? I'm not really an expert and I'm not familiar with any strong Pokémon nearby for a Xerneas-like boost—" My mind briefly flashed to Ash Ketchum's Pikachu, but I pushed that thought out of my mind.

There was no way I was going to actively seek out that destruction magnet.

"—but I may have an idea of how to train anyway. I have an idea of how you can practice regardless. You can only hold so much electricity at a time, right? Well, we can do the dangerous method and rent a generator to overcharge you, or we can work on getting you to recover faster. If you want to learn how to use powerful attacks much quicker, we could increase your reserves to let you use them back to back, or work on your recharging so there's less of a delay between them.

That's the best I have, but once we're back in a city I can give a call to an Electric Type specialist I know to see if he has advice.

"Since I want you to learn Thunder, nothing will change in our methods for now, but keep what I said in mind." Dedenne didn't seem the happiest at the fact I couldn't help him as much as the others, but mentioning Thunder still cheered him up. I hoped Wattson would be willing to help if I called him, since I knew the Mauville Gym Leader in Hoenn was an expert when it came to Electric Types.

With the three Pokémon I wanted to talk to talked to, I clapped my hands to gather everyone's attention once more and start our training proper.

"Now that our goals discussed, let's return to training and start with—" Ponyta's head snapped up as he looked to the sky, and a blue spec grew in size as it approached us. Seeing Ninetales not immediately jump into action calmed me a bit, but it was still nerve-wracking to be right next to Altaria when he stopped his hurtling towards the ground inches away from impact. Landing softly, he tucked his wings in and relaxed himself with Roost.

I thought he was just being a bit extra today, but then I realized he was using Roost, the healing move, and the edges of his feathers were slightly singed. Altaria was maintaining eye contact with Ponyta, who then turned to me with his eyes wide, and galloped off in the direction Altaria just came. Based on his wounds, Altaria hadn't been attacking, but he had definitely flown nearby some kind of battle in progress. Judging by Ponyta's behavior, I knew nothing good was going on.

"We're following. Now." I picked up Carbink in my arms since they were the slowest here, Dedenne climbed into my backpack, and Mawile gave chase after me. Despite her own slow speed, she moved about as fast as I could so our group wasn't that slowed down. Ninetales easily caught up with Ponyta with a single use of Agility as the pair ran far ahead of us over the hilly terrain past the trees. Altaria stayed behind to watch the camp, and soon, the pair ahead of us disappeared over a hillside.

Mawile and I didn't give up and kept running. Carbink stayed in my arms. As we approached, I started to hear the familiar sounds of Electric Type moves up ahead, and for the briefest moment I thought Ash was here for some unknown reason, as he usually was around trouble. However, after running for several minutes, we crested over a hill reveal a section of blackened terrain Between two hills, the grass had been seared and a few stray bushes had been charred.

The dirt was black and crispy, and I saw a few stray sparks crackling off of it. A familiar Ralts stood in the center of the area, hunched ever so slightly in pain as it faced off what looked to be a miniature blue lion with a mane of black fur. Its tail lashed back and forth as a yellow flare on its end flicked around chaotically as the two wild Pokémon stood off. Ninetales and Ponyta were standing off to the side, not interfering at all. Ralts looked seriously injured at this point, but was still pushing through.

"What are you doing? Help it!" I yelled. Ninetales leaned her head over her shoulder to glance at me behind her, then shook her head no. Ponyta had no reaction whatsoever, choosing to stand stock still and watch the battle from a distance. I saw Ralts twitch where it was standing, which let me quickly realize it was paralyzed. However, Luxio had no such limiting factor and started to stalk around the uncomfortable immobile Psychic Type as it was staring at an interesting meal.

"If you won't help him, I will," I stated. I stomped forward, releasing Carbink into the air, and tried to push past Ninetales and Ponyta. However, Ninetales just fanned out her tails to block my path and purposely gestured her head to the battle to encourage me to just watch. I grimaced at Ralts's current state. If I had the choice, I would have had it retreat a long time ago. Then again, I wouldn't have encouraged it to battle in the first place with how little time it had been giving its wounds to recover, too.

Almost mockingly, the Luxio's red eyes flashed as it completed a lap around Ralts, and the Psychic Type flinched from the Scary Face sent directly at it. Ralts's horn glowed for a Confusion, but the electricity coursing through it interrupted the attack, causing it to hang its head instead. Luxio scoffed and began to walk off, leaving Ralts right behind it. On the side of the blackened area the pair were fighting on was a pride of Shinx waiting for Luxio to finish the fight.

They lazily laid on the ground, watching impassively, and stood up to follow as their leader returned. Ralts dragged its head back up. It screamed its name in an attempt at Growl that had no effect. Luxio simply turned around and stalked off. Once it was gone, Ninetales pulled her tails away and I ran forward to reach Ralts's side. The ground was electrically charged and zapped me when I walked over it, but it was no Electric Terrain, so it was manageable.

In all other situations I would have questioned why or how this place was possible, but right now my thoughts were consumed by the Ralts dumb enough to let itself get so injured, splayed out on the floor in front of me. I kneeled down next to it. Ralts's eyes were half open, and it gave me one last glare before it fell into unconsciousness. I immediately started to snap out orders.

"Ponyta, stabilize it with Heal Pulse. Dedenne, get me a Hyper Potion, the pink one. Everyone else, keep guard." Checking over Ralts, I identified which of its injuries were the most serious as Ponyta used his not-quite-a-Heal-Pulse to minimize its pain. Dedenne hopped out of my pack to hand me a spray bottle that I immediately squirted onto the places that seemed to be causing Ralts the most pain. The wounds reddened as they began to heal, but I could tell it needed immediate medical attention.

"Shit! Why didn't I bring Florges?! I should have never left our healer behind." My mind raced in ways I could potentially help it, when a single idea came to mind. It needed help that a Pokémon Center could provide, but there wasn't one I could reach quickly, even with Altaria bringing me along. However, there was one thing I could do. Silently, I reached into my backpack to pull out a green and yellow Pokéball.

It was a Nest Ball, a Pokéball designed to catch weak Pokémon due the way it felt similar to a warm nest when a Pokémon was inside. I softly tapped the button to Ralts's head, and it was sent inside. I hoped this would be more comfortable for it than my other options. As I did that, my team was silent. There was an unspoken rule that trainers weren't meant to catch Pokémon unless the Pokémon gave explicit permission, or if the Pokémon was beaten in a one-on-one battle.

Catching a Pokémon fainted in the wild like this? It was uncomfortably similar to poaching. Ralts would hate me for this, but it needed to be healed. I stood up and started to climb up the hill, back to our camp.

"We need to meet back up with Altaria. We're going back to Jubilife."

"When I said stop that Ralts, I didn't mean like this! He's dangerously wounded!" the nurse shouted at me. I was silent and staring at the nurse. She was yelling at me, yes, but at the same time, Ralts was being treated in the back by a group of Chansey and a more experienced healer. This nurse was the same one who had told me to deal with the Ralts on the route, and it was quite obvious to everyone in the room that she was very much not happy.

"The basic summary revealed injuries far past what's safe for a Pokémon to battle with. And that was only the basic summary! What were you thinking, keeping him in the fight like that?!" she accused. I frowned but didn't raise my voice.

"I caught him like that," I stated simply.

"Oh, so because you caught him, it makes it okay that you let him get that injured?! I should have your license revoked!" Some of the obvious eavesdroppers in the room gasped, but the majority of the trainers present were kind enough to pretend to not be listening. I knew if I turned around I would see a sea of pale faces watching this in fear. The trainers here had less than a month of experience training and were probably unfamiliar with situations like this.

"I didn't inflict those injuries on Ralts, and neither did any of my Pokémon. When I battled him, I purposely tried to resort to status inflicting moves when I saw him fighting without giving his injuries time to heal. He became this wounded over at least a week, by my estimate, of overtraining and overbattling, and the final straw was his challenge to a wild Luxio that he lost badly. I was there to help him, not harm him. Never insinuate I would purposely hurt a Pokémon like that."

I spoke with a calm and level voice, not betraying the chaotic mixture of emotions I was feeling right now. The nurse still looked unhappy, but her expression had at least softened a bit. She slowly placed herself back in her chair and briefly rubbed her forehead before continuing to speak.

"I'm sorry. We'll tell you when your Pokémon is healthy. It might be a while." Hearing the word 'your' made my mouth twitch into a frown. Forcing that guilt back down, I nodded to her respectfully and turned to leave the room. I didn't want to say anything I might regret, especially since this situation was about making sure Ralts would be okay over anything else.

As I left, I saw that one of the less subtle trainers had pulled out an Xtransceiver, a device from Unova, and had been recording the entire conversation I just had with the nurse. I grimaced at that sight. Out of all the ways to make the news, I hope it's not through that. I walked outside to get away from the crowd, and moved around the side of the Pokémon Center to sit on a bench just barely out of sight of the front windows and back training fields.

There was bit of a grassy area around the Pokémon Center, giving me a view of a few other trainers practicing with their Pokémon in the distance, but no one was close by. I reached down to grab the Dream Ball and Premier Ball on my belt. Ponyta and Ninetales appeared before me. We sat in silence for a while. It took me a bit to properly gain the confidence to speak.

"If you're willing, I'd like to know. Why didn't you step in to stop the battle with Luxio before Ralts got this hurt?" The pair stared at me guilty. The silence lasted a bit longer, before Ninetales puffed up her chest in a mimicry of Azumarill. It was thanks to my year traveling with her that I was able to grasp what she meant.

"Pride, huh?" I mumbled, unhappy with the answer.

"Pride pushed it to train so hard it ignored its wounds, and pride pushed it to battle the Luxio like that? I guess this must be a Pokémon thing, because I have no clue why someone would do that." Can I really say that? Wouldn't I be willing to get hurt and more to make sure my team would be all right? What pushed Ralts to hurt himself so much for the sake of his pride? Why were Ninetales and Ponyta willing to let it happen? I bent forward and rested my head in my hands.

I had questions I wanted to be answered, but it didn't seem like they'd be answered any time soon. So, we waited. It took two and a half hours for the Pokémon Center to call me in. I didn't doubt they were checking in with Ralts after it was healed to make sure I hadn't caused its injuries. In a situation like this, I would have tried to do the same, so I couldn't blame them. When I walked in, the nurse at the counter refused to make eye contact with me. She spoke in a terse voice.

"Ralts is in a treatment room. Chansey will lead the way." I quietly thanked her, and a pink egg-shaped Pokémon walked up to me and motioned for me to follow. We entered a door behind the counter to walk through a sterile hallway, past windows and doorways that led into rooms that contained Pokémon recovering from their injuries. Chansey led me several doors down, and stopped at one without a window. I wasn't sure what that implied. The door slowly creaked open, and I got my first glance at Ralts after his battle.

He was laying on his back, breathing slowly while staring at the ceiling with no life in his eyes. Despite the lack of any signs of emotions, he was clearly still there, and the sheer number of bandages and healing ointment on his body let me know he would be okay. I entered the room. Ralts didn't look at me when I entered, nor did he do anything at all. There was a stool set up in the corner, so I picked it up to place next to the bed to be closer to Ralts while he rested.

I stared at the Psychic and Fairy Type as he laid there motionless.

"I'm sorry for catching you," I eventually said. Ralts didn't react.

"It was the only way I could think of to make sure you could get properly treated." He didn't respond to that, either. I ran my hand through my hair and paused to collect my thoughts.

"Why the Luxio? Why specifically did you want to fight that Pokémon in particular? Is that why you looked so satisfied after fighting off Dedenne? Because they were both Electric Types and you thought you could win after your victory?" Ralts just grunted out an "rrr" sound. He didn't do anything else outside of that. I sighed. Ninetales and Ponyta had implied Ralts had wanted to prove something, but I wasn't sure what. As it stood, Ralts was acting like there was nothing left for him.

I couldn't help but to feel like it was my fault. So, I let the silence hang for a while as I built up my courage to ask him a question that I knew we might both regret in the future.

"Ralts, I'll be honest with you. I specifically sought you out to capture you. Gardevoir is a powerful Pokémon that fills a niche on my team that we don't have filled, and I have to admit that Teleportation is a utility I desperately want to have.

"However, I don't think you want to be just a basic Pokémon on a basic team. So let's make a deal." His eyes turned to face me ever so slightly. I grit my teeth and breathed out before I continued to speak.

"I'm a Fairy Type specialist. I know ways for Fairy Types to train themselves up far better than other trainers might. I have nine Pokémon on my team so far, six of whom competed at a regional level, and I'm extremely proud of all of their progress.

"I'll make you strong. Give me a week, and I'll make sure you can beat that Luxio. However, at the end of the week, I want you to make a decision. Either persist as you were before, wasting your time fighting beginner trainers, or join my team. I'm not happy just being any random specialist, I want to be the best, and I have the knowledge to support that.

I know things that other trainers don't, and while this sounds like bragging, I genuinely have more things memorized about Fairy Types than other trainers will learn about Pokémon in general.

"If you don't want this, tell me and I'll release you right back where I caught you. However, this is an opportunity you'll only have once. What do you say?" I held out my hand, but there was no smile on my face. I stared directly in Ralts's eyes, and he stared right back. Slowly, Ralts pushed up into a seated position, and he turned to stare at me instead of the ceiling. His horn glowed slightly, and I knew he was attempting to get a read on my emotions, as his species does.

While my mind was protected, surface level aspects such as emotions weren't, which meant he now truly understood I meant everything I said. Slowly, hesitantly, Ralts leaned forward and placed his hand in mine. As we shook to confirm the deal, I couldn't help but to feel like Ralts was on the wrong side of a deal with the devil.