Kai woke to sunlight on his face and the weight of the Poké Ball against his hip. The sun was higher than he'd intended; he must have passed out from exhaustion. His mouth tasted like dirt and old berries. His arm still throbbed where the Rattata had bitten him days ago.
He sat up slowly, every muscle protesting. The Poké Ball was still clipped to his belt, warm against his side. Inside was a Pidgey. His Pidgey. The thing he'd risked his life to catch.
The thing that now depended on him completely.
Kai pulled out his remaining berries. Two left. The reality of the situation hit him like cold water.
"Okay." He spoke to the empty air, to himself, working through the logic. "Pidgey needs food. Wild Pidgey forage constantly for seeds, insects, and berries. Captive Pidgey depend on their trainers. I am the trainer."
He stared at the two berries in his hand.
"I have no food to spare. I'm already in a food deficit. Adding Pidgey's needs means..."
Two berries for him to barely survive. Two for Pidgey to barely survive. That was four. Tomorrow he'd need four more. The day after, another four.
"I'd need to steal six berries per day instead of four just to be safe."
Six encounters with territorial Pokémon. Daily. The risk of him gaining another injury would spike. His success rate would plummet from all of the exhaustion. The math just didn't work. Even with perfect execution, which he'd never achieve, he'd eventually miss a dodge, miscalculate an aggro range, or run into something he couldn't evade.
His hand tightened on the Poké Ball.
"Or I need money. But I can't get money without taking a job. But I can't take a job until Pidgey is trained. But I can't train Pidgey without proper food. And I can't get said food without—"
The logic loop crashed into itself. Circular dependency. No solution that didn't require solving the other problems first.
Kai sat there, back against the wall, holding two berries and one Poké Ball. Inside that ball was a creature that trusted him enough to stay captured. That had no choice but to trust him because he'd taken away its freedom.
"We're screwed," Kai said to the empty alley.
The Poké Ball was warm against his palm. Silent. Kai ate one berry slowly, forcing himself to make it last. Saved the other. He'd need to release Pidgey eventually; it couldn't stay in the ball forever, and when he did, it would be hungry.
One Berry was left between the two of them.
Tomorrow they'd both be starving again.
*
Later that day, Kai found a clear patch of Route 1, far enough from the main path that passing trainers wouldn't see him, close enough to town that he could run if something dangerous showed up. He released Pidgey and took a breath.
The bird materialised, looked around, and immediately started pecking at the ground. Searching for food.
"Hey. We're going to train. You need to learn to follow commands."
The Pidgey ignored him completely.
"Pidgey."
Still ignored.
Kai stepped closer. "I need you to use Sand Attack when I tell you to. That's it. Simple. Sand Attack." He pointed at a rock five feet away.
The Pidgey looked at the rock. Looked at Kai. Went back to pecking the ground.
"Sand Attack. The rock."
The Pidgey hopped twice to the left and continued foraging. Kai's jaw clenched. Right. It didn't understand words. Or it understood but didn't care. Or it was too hungry to focus.
He tried demonstrating, kicking dirt at the rock himself. "Like this. Sand Attack."
The Pidgey watched his foot with mild interest, then flew, lopsidedly, to a completely different patch of ground.
Twenty minutes later, Kai tried physical guidance. He gently pushed the Pidgey toward the rock. "Sand Attack. Just kick dirt backward."
The Pidgey whirled and pecked him. Hard. Right on the hand.
"Ow! What—"
The Pidgey flapped its wings aggressively, screeching. It didn't want to be touched. Didn't want to be pushed. And it definitely didn't want to follow orders from this human who'd stolen it from its flock.
Kai pulled his hand back, a small bead of blood forming where the beak had broken skin. He knew he should probably let the bird go, but something told him he couldn't.
The Pidgey went back to foraging like nothing had happened.
Kai sat down in the dirt and stared at it. This was going to be worse than he'd thought.
*
Kai had stolen four berries yesterday through sheer desperate determination. He'd split them in half: two for him, two for Pidgey. Both of them were still hungry. Training resumed. This time, Kai tried positive reinforcement from a distance. He held up a piece of berry.
"Sand Attack at the rock. Do it, and you get food."
The Pidgey's eyes locked onto the berry. It hopped closer.
Kai pulled the food back. "No. Sand Attack first."
The Pidgey screeched at him. Angry. Demanding.
"Sand Attack".
The Pidgey used Tackle. A move that did nothing except rustle grass.
"That's not—that's a different move. Sand Attack."
Tackle again. Stronger this time, directly at Kai's face. Deliberate.
Kai coughed, eyes watering. "Stop that!"
The Pidgey did it again.
It took an hour of back-and-forth, with Kai refusing to give the Berry and Pidgey getting increasingly aggressive, before the bird accidentally kicked dirt backward while turning around in frustration. A tiny spray of dust, completely unintentional.
"Yes! Like that!" Kai gave it the berry piece immediately.
The Pidgey ate it, then glared at him like it was his fault there wasn't more.
They repeated the process. Thirty times. Then forty. The Pidgey would occasionally kick dirt, seemingly at random, and Kai would reward it. But most of the time, Pidgey just screeched at him or used Gust or tried to fly away.
By the end of the session, Kai's hands were pecked in three places, he'd been Tackled in the face six times, and he was fairly certain the Pidgey hated him.
The progress was… slow.
*
Kai's arm was infected. He knew it was infected because the bite wound was hot and swollen and leaking something that definitely wasn't healthy. He'd tried cleaning it with stream water, but that only did so much.
He needed a Potion. Potions cost ₽200 minimum.
He had ₽0.
Training on the next morning was a disaster. The Pidgey's obedience hadn't improved, and any success in using Sand Attack seemed accidental. When Kai tried to correct its aim by pointing, it pecked his finger hard enough to draw blood.
"Stop attacking me!" Kai shouted.
The Pidgey screeched back, wings flared.
"I'm trying to keep us both alive!"
Another screech. The Pidgey didn't care about his problems. It cared that it was hungry, that it had been taken from its flock, and that this human kept making noises and pointing at rocks for no apparent reason.
Kai tried one more time. "Sand Attack."
The Pidgey used Tackle directly at him. On purpose. With what looked like satisfaction in its eyes.
Kai gave up. He recalled the Pidgey, which took three tries because it kept dodging the beam, and sat down in the clearing. His arm throbbed. His stomach was empty. His hands were covered in peck marks.
"This isn't working," Kai said to the Poké Ball in his hand. "You're not learning fast enough. I'm not feeding us enough. We're both dying. Slowly."
The ball was silent and warm.
"I need to take a job," Kai continued, more to himself than to the Pokémon that couldn't hear him. "But you're not ready. We're not ready. If we fail, we don't eat, and if we don't eat, we die."
He stared at the ball for a long moment.
"But staying here, stealing berries, training in circles, waiting for you to get better – that's death too. Just slower."
He clipped the ball to his belt and stood. His legs shook. His vision swam slightly. The infection in his arm throbbed. He needed money. He needed food. He needed a Potion to heal himself.
He needed a job with a Pokémon that barely obeyed and actively resented him.
*
Kai was behind the general store, gnawing on his last half-berry, when he heard voices around the corner.
"—can't be serious, Tomás. A Rattata infestation?"
"Dead serious. Moved into my greenhouse three nights ago. Six of them. Maybe more."
"So call a Trainer."
"Trainers want ₽2000 for the job. Something about needing Fire-types and property damage waivers." Tomás's voice was bitter. "I don't have 2000."
"Then you're screwed."
"Yeah. Probably."
Kai stood up before he'd consciously decided to move. His legs protested, but he walked around the corner anyway. Two men stood near the store's entrance. One was middle-aged, wearing farmer's clothes stained with dirt. Tomás. The other was the shopkeeper from next door.
"I'll do it," Kai said.
Both men turned. Tomás's eyes travelled over Kai's ragged clothes, pale skin, the bandage on his arm and his expression soured. "Do what?"
"Clear your Rattata problem."
"You?" Tomás asked, incredulous.
"Yes." Kai kept his voice level despite the light-headed feeling. "I did it for Hiroshi last week. Ekans infestation. No captures, no property damage."
"Do you know anything about that?" Tomás looked at the shopkeeper, who shrugged.
"He did. I didn't believe it either, but the kid's legit."
"You got a Pokémon?" Tomás asked, sceptical.
"Pidgey."
"Against Normal-types? That's..." Tomás paused, thinking. "Actually, that's a good matchup. Flying-type moves."
Kai nodded, not mentioning that his Pidgey didn't know Gust and that it couldn't even aim Sand Attack consistently.
"How much do you want?" Tomás asked.
Kai's mind raced. Too low and he'd be desperate. Too high and Tomás would walk away. "₽500. Plus any Berries you were going to throw out, if you don't mind."
"₽500 and some Berries for six Rattata?" Tomás laughed. "Every Trainer I talked to wanted ₽2000!!"
"₽500 and some berries," Kai repeated. "Or you can pay ₽2000 to someone else."
Tomás chewed his lip, looking between Kai and the shopkeeper. Finally: "Fine. But if you fail, you get nothing. And if you damage my greenhouse, I'm calling the Rangers."
"Deal," said Kai, shaking on it.
Tomás gave him an address on the south side of town and walked away, muttering about desperate times and desperate measures. Kai stood there, hand on the Poké Ball at his belt.
Six Rattata. Normal-types. Annoyingly fast. He'd read about that once, somewhere, maybe a Pokédex entry: "Rattata can gnaw through concrete to make nests." He'd laughed then. He wasn't laughing now. Not to mention they had the numbers when they worked as a pack.
"This could go very wrong."
But the alternative was starving. Slowly. While his arm infection spread and his Pidgey got weaker. Kai started walking toward the address. His hand never left the Poké Ball. He had no illusions. He wasn't ready. But hunger didn't wait for readiness.
"You're not ready," he said quietly to the ball. To the Pidgey inside. "I'm not ready. But we're out of time."