Chaser and the Greatest Smith's Ball

Chaser and Past Pains

The heavy wooden doors that lead into Kurt's property were strangely heavy to Goh as he and Ash shoved them apart to approach the smith's home. He thought that perhaps all the errands and work that he was putting Maizie through might have been just as likely to build her strength and endurance as they were necessary tasks, like in a television show that he had watched as a child.

As the four teens entered, he saw a quiet puff of smoke exiting the chimney of the smaller side building, as well the distinctive sound of hammering coming from the building.

"You think he's workin' on something right now?" Ash asked, turning back towards the group.

"I guess it might be easier to work on things without Maizie around underfoot," Chloe said.

"Eeivui," she said as she stepped around Chloe's feet, towards the side building.

Argent stepped in front of her, as though to stop her from wandering off, but Grookey leapt from Goh's shoulder and babbled while waving his stick into the air, and the chimp and Chloe's Pokémon both darted off in the yard towards the corner of the compound.

Goh laughed nervously. "Well, I guess it's okay if Grookey and the others stay out here while we talk to Kurt, right?"

"Eiebui..." he sighed, rolling his gray eyes.

With that, he tucked his legs underneath himself again and sat in the grass, just watching Eevee and Grookey play.

Pikachu jumped off of Ash's shoulder and waved at Argent, inviting him to join in the play, but the silver Eevee merely turned his head, snorting defiantly.

"Pikachu..." he said, scratching his red cheek with his paw.

"Bui."

"You tried, buddy," said Ash. "You can head off and play with the others."

Pikachu nodded and darted into the grass to chase Eevee and Grookey around. Argent remained unmoved and unmoving, just watching the others run around.

"Argent doesn't seem very social," Horace noted. "Has he always been this way?"

"Ever since I met him," Goh said. "He gets along with a few Pokémon back in Cerise Park but he doesn't seem to really have the same sorts of friendships that lots of my other Pokémon do. I think he's just prideful."

"Prideful?" Ash asked. "Like he's got a lot to prove?"

"Something like that," he said. "Argent came from a big Pokémon Breeding company, remember? He must still have a high opinion of the place he came from, and that pride is keeping him from really connecting with the others."

"I dunno if I agree with that," Chloe said, crossing her arms. Looking at her, he saw a conflicted look in her emerald eyes, as though she was still puzzling out the solution herself.

"What do you think then?" he asked earnestly.

"He certainly acts prideful," Chloe said, "but I feel like this isn't Argent's real thoughts. It feels like he's holding back from making connections with others."

Chloe's analysis put Argent's behavior in a different light for Goh. What he originally wrote off as a quirk to the Pokémon's behavior instead was painted as a deliberate decision by the Normal-type. He felt his breath catch as he connected it to his own behavior.

In the past, he had closed himself off from connecting with others, pushing Chloe and her friends Mika and Deliah all away as he continued to skip school and search for Mew on his own. That was how he had acted for years following his encounter with Horace seven years ago.