[X] My Assistant

[Kamaitachi]

The air felt surprisingly crisp, and Francesco Rojas could watch his own breath rise into the air. His life had been an emotional rollercoaster, and he had nothing better to describe it with than a cheesy metaphor. He rarely had to deal with things that felt specifically like "feelings". Normally, he would down them away with some beer, or with something distracting. But out here in the crisp fall air around Mt. Carello, he had nothing to distract him.

Why had he walked down from his home in Arasam to get some fresh air? Why was a slow, pensive stroll the best idea for times like these? The thoughts were just confusing and mostly annoying.

He clasped his dark brown bomber jacket to himself to warm up a little. The tufts of what Cesc hoped was fake fur kept his neck warm. His scarf, made by his aunt, was green and gold, matching his gloves and woolly cap. His jeans, however, had probably been a poor choice; it was a bit cold for jeans without long johns.

"I have an idea." He said aloud to no one. "It's times like these that we can just buckle down and do some work."

He flipped out one of his pokeballs, summoning his Sneasel to the field.

"Let's work on an appeal for you." He smiled "The weather is in your favour, right?"

The Sneasel gave what appeared to be a salute, a trait he'd perhaps picked up from Cesc's more militant Zangoose.

"Let's get out there! Hmmm...Can you get a cloud of Icy Wind, then carve it into a shape with Fury Swipes...then Freeze it all with Ice Punch?"

The Wind blasted upwards, and as it fell towards the ground, Oberon the Sneasel set to work slashing away before punching the conflageration with a fist glowing with icy blue energy.

The result was a mess; an explosion of icy shards falling every which way. On top of that, the brief shape formed by the Icy Wind combo had no discernible shape whatsoever.

"Good start, buddy, but practice makes perfect." He pointed out a rock-face on the side of the mountain. "Let's use metal claw and work on carving shapes. Let's start with a triangle."

With a nod, the dark weasel Pokemon shot towards the rock. Cesc watched intently, his mind wonderfully devoid of all thoughts about girls.

[7eeveelutions]

Scott looked for a moment at the piece of paper with Cesc's contact information, then stuck it in a side pocket of his bag- and in the process found the envelope that the Staraptor had given him earlier. He had nothing else to do but wait, so he opened it to read it.

It was from the Loch family, his former neighbors and the owners of the best-known and largest day care in the Furoh region.

The content was short and to the point, which was rather odd for the Lochs but Scott didn't mind. Essentially, a request they had put in a few months ago to have a Ranger station built near their home had been granted by Ranger Command- and the location had been decided as well.

It would be located next to the ruins of Scott's burned-out house, in the center of the fruit and berry farm that had once belonged to his parents and was now technically owned by him.

The construction workers that had been contracted out to build the station wanted him to review the plans and see if there was anything he wanted to add. That, and they needed him to convince his parents' last remaining Pokemon, Braviary, to let them onto the land without getting torn limb from limb.

In other words, he was finally going to return home, for only the second time since he had started Ranger training nearly seven months ago.

"Well, this was unexpected......" Part of him wished Cesc had hung around to share some of the happiness about getting a home again, but the other part was worried he'd cry...... and he didn't want anyone to see that.

Scott smiled, and then suddenly passed out from his injuries.

~~~

When he came too, he was lying in a hospital bed, and there was a familiar and quite pretty girl sitting in a chair next to the bed.

"Oh, looks like you've woken up, Fox."

"...... Wolf. Where am I?" Scott slowly pushed himself up so that he was sitting.

Amber Harrison was one of his two classmates during Ranger school. Due to the oddness of their instructor, known only as "Boss" or "Master," each of the three cadets had been given nicknames related to some series of games he'd never even heard of. Due to his team of foxes, Scott became "Fox" while Amber became "Wolf due to her own team of a pair of wolves. Their third teammate had been given the nickname "Falco" for his use of birds, but he was transferred to a different region halfway through training.

Amber was about as tall and even thinner than Scott was, and also matched most of his style of dressing, although that was a pure coincidence. She had long, light brown hair, and most of the guys she had met would count her as a very attractive women. At least, when she wasn't biting you......

He wasn't sure how much he liked being called Fox, but only Amber and his instructor called him that so it was okay...... he didn't know what he would do if Cesc learned about it. Scott was already pretty sure he didn't have the best opinion of the Rangers, so what would he do if he knew they all had silly nicknames? Would he lose faith in them entirely?

"You're in the general hospital in Arasam. You've been here about...... four hours now. The doctor seemed busy, so he said that when you woke up you could leave," Amber told him.

Scott looked at his shoulder. "How many stitches?"

"65. Which, by the way, is about quadruple your score for teamwork for this event. You should have waited for me to arrive at the Ranger station before you set out on your own to take down all those poachers!"

Scott cringed, expecting that he might need more stitches by the time the day had ended, due to himself being bitten. "Wait, I didn't go off on my own! There was another guy, Cesc, who went with me! He actually did most of the battling!"

Amber didn't seem to believe him, probably due to the fact that Cesc had left on foot before the helicopter arrived. "I swear! See, I have his contact information right here...... please don't bite me, I have enough injuries as is!" Scott nearly cried.

"Sure. Whatever. You still failed, and those cute little foxes of yours got all beat up in the process. You know that makes me a little mad...... but at least you're still in one piece. Now come on, let's get out of this hospital."

She may seem mean, but Amber was luckily a person with a good heart, so she helped Scott stand up and leave the hospital. The pair made a stop by Arasam's main Ranger Station so Scott could file the official report, which took about another hour.

After that was finally done, Amber asked one simple question. "So where are you headed next?"

Scott paused for a moment and looked up towards the sky. The sun had just dropped below the horizon, and the stars were beginning to become visible.

After a moment of staring at the stars, he answered.
"Home."